Challenger to Watch: Hireup
The disability sector in Australia is broken. For decades now, third party agencies are responsible for connecting people with disabilities to support workers in an expensive and inefficient system.
The founder of Hireup, Jordan O'Reilly, experienced the failing system first hand. Support workers were an ever-revolving door for his younger brother Shane with Cerebral Palsy. His family - and importantly Shane - had no control over who would arrive at their home on any given day.
It was a system equally disempowering for support workers who were often unsure of the needs of the people they would be supporting that day, and how they would be able to help - not to mention inflexible working arrangements and low wages.
Jordan, seeing the rising capability of matchmaking technology to connect people based on shared interests – asked himself why couldn't the same tech be applied to disability support?
The result in 2015 was Hireup – a for-purpose business centred on a digital platform which allows people with disabilities to find, hire and manage their own support workers. They can match with people who fit their needs and share their interests, creating stronger relationships. And for support workers, they can manage their own schedule, earn industry-leading wages and have much more flexibility and control over their time. All this results in creating more meaningful matches and rewarding work.
The focus of Hireup is on building real relationships with connection first, care later. And with this philosophy, Hireup has created 35,000 support connections, facilitated 3.6m hours of support and saved its users $27.4m.
This success has seen Hireup recognised with several awards over the last four years, including a $1m grant from Google.org, recognition from Her Majesty the Queen for its impact on the Australian disability sector, and being placed at number one on Deloitte's 2017 Tech Fast 50 list. Hireup credited as the fastest-growing tech start-up in Australia.
Hireup's success offers proof that building community value can ultimately lead to meaningful commercial value.
2020 is the year that will see Hireup move from start-up to scale - with a slew of new senior leadership appointments from leading domestic and international tech and corporate brands.
With the rising interest in for-purpose businesses across the globe, Hireup is perfectly poised to lead the charge in Australia and beyond.
