Margot Moellenberg has been a staple in Colorado’s technology and telecom industry.
The fourth-generation Coloradan has held leadership positions at Western Union, TTEC, CenturyLink and Intelisys, among others. The common factor between each of those companies is a local presence in Colorado, a place Moellenberg said she’d never leave.
“I never had the opportunity to work with companies outside of Colorado because I haven’t wanted to leave here,” she said.
For the past five years, Moellenberg has worked at privately held software company Four Winds Interactive, first as chief financial officer and then as president and chief operating officer.
During the pandemic, she was scrolling through LinkedIn, when an opportunity at a remote-first company caught her eye. The company, temporary staffing startup Wonolo, was looking for a CFO to help guide it through its next phase of growth and was willing to hire anywhere.
Wonolo is experiencing record demand during the pandemic due to labor shortages in industries across the country. The company’s platform connects workers with companies seeking talent to fill immediate temporary and temporary-to-permanent positions within roles including warehouse operations, manufacturing, merchandising, delivery drivers, food production and more.
After doing more research and meeting with Wonolo’s leadership, Moellenberg said she was blown away by the opportunity. She favored the stage the company was in, with about 300 employees total, and believed in its mission to match workers with companies.
But for Moellenberg, this was the first company she’s worked for that wasn’t based in Colorado.
“This is the first time in my career where I joined a company where I didn’t know anyone,” she said.
Despite the lack of an established in-house network, Moellenberg is excited to hit the ground running after being named its first CFO.
"We are thrilled to have Margot joining Wonolo during this critical and exciting chapter in our company history. We are seeing explosive growth as businesses seek flexible workforce solutions in the midst of ongoing labor shortages," Yong Kim, co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. "Margot will be a critical leader to help us as we continue to scale our rapidly growing business."
Wonolo, which was founded in 2014 and stands for "work now locally," has more than 500,000 workers on its platform. To date, the company has raised over $50 million in venture funding, according to Crunchbase.
Looking at her past work, Moellenberg said her variety of experience prepares her for the stage of growth Wonolo is about to enter.
“I’ve been in private companies, like Four Winds, as well as publicly traded companies, and can bring some unique experience to help us scale,” she said.
Moellenberg, who is one of “a few” Colorado-based Wonolo employees, said the local adoption of the company’s services has increased during the pandemic.
“The number of people that are seeking job opportunities on the app is going up in Denver,” Moellenberg said. “The strong thing about Denver is that the companies that are posting jobs here, the average wage is a living wage. It’s a strong hourly wage for Colorado, so we’re seeing some good progress here.”
