What began as a conversation around a table among hospitality industry veterans has become a startup with back-to-back Alabama Launchpad wins that is seeing rapid growth.
The Birmingham company — Croux — claimed $50,000 in the Alabama Launchpad Cycle 2 2023 finale in August and previously won $25,000 in the concept stage division for the first cycle of the competition in 2022.
The Alabama Restaurant and Hospitality Association also recently designated the startup supplier of the year.
Now, Croux is expanding into new markets, forging partnerships and gearing up to raise funding next year.
Croux is a platform that connects vetted talent to flexible work opportunities in the hospitality space. Businesses pay a monthly subscription fee to post shifts on the app along with required skills and qualifications.
“The future of our local economies depends on getting the future of work right,” said Jennifer Ryan, CEO and co-founder of the startup, adding that part of her mission is creating equal and easy access to work opportunities.
Looking back on the past year, Ryan said several things come to mind in terms of accomplishments for the startup. The first: all of the company’s co-founders have joined full time or committed to joining full time.
Additional founders include Lindsey Noto, executive chef for Sysco of Alabama; Kenny Kung, former CTO of Telegraph; Stewart Price, Croux chief operating officer, and Brett Ables, founder of Feast Bham.
The idea behind Croux is to provide a service to the humans behind hospitality, which Ryan calls the heartbeat of the industry, providing them access to greater earning power, as well as serving small local businesses that are holding up local economies. The businesses that Croux is partnering with are posting roles that average more than two and a half times the federal minimum wage per hour, Ryan said. Another goal is to remove barriers to entry by providing work opportunities that require no experience.
Growth and future plans
Nearly two years out, Croux has seen significant growth. It has a strong presence across Alabama, and since launching in Birmingham around a year ago, it has expanded into Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Huntsville, the Gulf Coast and Montgomery. The founders also project that Croux will have fulfilled10,000 shifts by the end of the year in Alabama — and it is already at more than 9,000.
And one key piece of the puzzle when it comes to growth is being able to be transparent with and lean on investors.
“They’ve proven to be extremely supportive and we come to them with challenges, problems, mistakes, whatever it is,” she said. “We ask for their advice and guidance, because we know we don’t know it all.”
The company’s current focus is supporting its existing markets, particularly the Gulf Coast market ahead of busy season.
Croux is also broadening its horizons beyond Alabama, looking to expand into the Midwest. Green Bay, Wisconsin, is set to be the startup’s first market out-of-state market, which appealed to the team due to parallels with Alabama markets.
