An Indy guy created the brilliant app we all wish we had thought of

Bartender Sarah Spencer was hanging out Downtown one Friday in September when she got an alert on her phone.

Because of massive crowds for the Ed Sheeran concert at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Rebar Indy needed help. They notified Spencer through a new, locally created app called SnapShyft.

The Franklin resident accepted the shift — even though she'd never worked at Rebar Indy before — and immediately went to work for the night at the crazy busy bar.

"I think it's going to take service industry to the next level," Spencer said. "I wasn't working at the time, so that was kind of the way to supplement my income. If you are working, it's a way to make some extra cash."

Before SnapShyft launched earlier this month, it was just an idea that came to Thor Wood while he was kinda hungover one morning two years ago.

The 34-year-old said he was chugging coffee, battling a headache, "getting my wits about me" and preparing for work at a recruiting company when the thought kept recurring: What if he could make it easier for servers, bartenders and others in the service industry to pick up shifts for extra money and, in turn, help restaurants and bars with qualified staffing.

Essentially, he wondered how to create the Uber of the contract "gig economy." Wood, who spent 16 years in the service industry, called it SnapShyft, and launched it earlier this month with his "better half" and co-founder Stephanie Corliss.

SnapShyft connects two users in immediate need: A restaurant or bar owner who might have had one too many servers call off right before the rush and a server (or bouncer, cook, host, etc.) who might already have a steady job but hopes to pick up last-minute shifts for more money.

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Wood doesn't have developer experience, but he joined the service industry at 14, working in "every position at some point or another" in swanky lounges and catering companies. As part of his research for the app, he talked with catering companies, bars, restaurants and other companies who need service industry employees.

"I've seen both sides," he said. "Staffing is their No. 1 headache."

A staffing issue amounts to more than just an irresponsible no-call, no-show from a server here and there, Wood said.

"The thing is, life happens. Car accidents, your kid's sick," he said. "But that doesn't mean the restaurant should shut down. When you find yourself stuck like that, you do without, and the end result is the consumer, you and I, have a bad experience."

Wood's idea won the first Indy's Startup Challenge, beating out 15 other ideas for a $5,000 prize in November. A month later, Carmel software company Swan Software Solutions began developing the app.

Here's how it works: After downloading the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, users identify as a venue/business or a service professional. The professionals select their specialty, from mixologist to server, bouncer to host, cook to dishwasher. They'll fill out a profile, including their knowledge of a business's point of sale system, and SnapShyft matches the professional to the available shift.

"They need to know their way around that electronic device," Wood said. "We'll match on a set list of criteria."

Proximity to a venue is one of those criteria, Wood said.

"It's on-demand," he said. "It's 'I need you asap' or 'I need you in two hours' sort of thing."

When a shift is matched to a professional, that person has 30 seconds to accept before the shift goes to the next qualified match. Once the person accepts, they'll clock in and get paid the business's rate — plus any applicable tips — through the app. After the shift, the hiring manager and the employee will rate each other, again not unlike Uber. The employees all are independent contract workers, and current work status doesn't matter, Wood said. They can pick up as many or as few shifts as they're able.

Wood said bout 160 business have created profiles on the site, and 650 service professionals have downloaded the app. Of those, 100 have already been approved by the same background check process Uber uses for its drivers. Wood expects that number to grow, but scaled it for launch.

"Our goal is to be such a great resource that over half of the venues in the city are using us," he said. "It is a new concept that they can solve their problem with a push of a button instead of doing it the old way, which hasn't changed in decades."

Venues pay a $50 monthly fee, but it's free for the professionals.

"Here in Indy alone, you've got 50,000 service industry professionals who are already working but always looking for more shifts," Wood said. "This allows them now to maintain their employment, but to get more hours.

"Truly, we are built around that gig-economy, on-demand ecosystem."

A server or bartender at a restaurant for the first time won't have the institutional knowledge or know their way around a new kitchen or menu, of course, but Wood said that's a trade-off many restaurant managers would take.

"Menu knowledge is important, it's important for a brand, but what is more important? Being fully staffed, or having nobody?" He said. "If we walked into any establishment and our server was new to that establishment, we forgive them. As long as they're attentive to us, we don't care that they don't know the menu. The same mentality has to go to a SnapShyfter."

Wood obsessed over his idea from the hungover moment he thought it up.

. person that I am, I couldn't get my focus turned off it," Wood said. "I sketched it out on some loose-leaf paper."

Corliss also thought it was a great idea.

"So I spent the next few days coming up with a business plan," he said. "I don't have a technical background, so it's like, where do I begin? We spent three months fleshing it out, and it started to get real."

Wood and Corliss plan to launch SnapShyft in other cities.

Rooster's Kitchen owner Ross Katz met Wood when he came in for dinner one day before SnapShyft's app launched, and the two began talking about the problems in the industry. By the time Wood finished eating at the Mass Ave. restaurant, Katz said he'd use the app for his year-old restaurant.

"Staffing is the hardest part of opening a new restaurant," he said. "To have a resource like SnapShyft to get me off the ground and to have it to fall back on it would be key."

Because Rooster's a smaller restaurant, Katz said, when someone calls off, his need becomes great.

"I only have a small pool," he said. "This grows the pool exponentially."

Katz said he would've used the app during Devour Indy, when traffic is high, and plans to use it during the holidays for the same reason.

"This app kinda helps me twofold. If it's a short-term solution for Devour or peak business, it would be great for that," he said. "In the other essence, it kind of helps me test-drive. It gives you the opportunity to safely assess your scheduling needs and be able to act on them from there."

Wood hopes SnapShyft will have a larger impact on the service industry as a whole and revolutionize how hiring happens.

"We want to clean up the industry and make it so it's not so much about the resume, it's more about what you can do," he said. "Let's throw out the old paradigm of you tell us how good you are.

"Just show us."

Call IndyStar reporter Amy Bartner at (317) 444-6752. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.