Restaurant schedules begin changing almost from the moment they’re create – something Wes Aiken, founder of Schedulefly, learned when he worked at Bridge Tender as a University of North Carolina Wilmington student in the late 90s.
“I eventually made the schedule, which of course back then was on paper and a pain to create and manage. As soon as it was posted it evolved all week long. The memory of that was what led me to create Schedulefly,” Aiken said in an email.
Schedulefly is a web application that allows restaurant owners and managers to post schedules online. They’re sent to staff via email and text as well. All changes (shift trades, for example) and time off requests occur online – usually from a mobile device.
After creating the company around 2006, Aiken used a few restaurants as beta testers until the summer of 2007. Then, in preparation to incorporate Schedulefly in 2007, he teamed up with Tyler Rullman, the company’s COO. (Aiken is the CTO.) In 2008 Wil Brawley joined as third co-owner and CMO.
The company only has two other employees – Charles Short and Hank McCauley. All five originally met in 2005 at First Research in Raleigh. After the company was acquired by Dun and Bradstreet in 2007 the group broke up, but Aiken says, “over the next few years we all found our way back to the same company again. It’s a dream team and a dream job and company.”
One of the ways they maintain their dynamic is by keeping the team small. Aiken says Schedulefly is run differently than any company he’s worked for.
“We don’t have offices. We don’t have meetings. We don’t have sales people, and we don’t advertise. We don’t have outside investors, so there is no pressure to meet anyone else’s expectations. We have no plans to open offices and hire people – unless the business absolutely requires more people. For these reasons our business is very simple and easy to manage, and our customers say they love doing business with us. Anyone who answers the phone or email makes it pleasant for the customer and can help them immediately.”
Started in Wilmington, Schedulefly now has hubs in Charlotte (run by Brawley) and Raleigh (run by Rullman). The other three members of the team are in the Wilmington branch.
They now have over 5,100 customers in all 50 states and net about a 1,000 more per year, according to Aiken, who attributes the success to word of mouth and their focus on independent restaurants.
“It seems simple, but most companies don’t choose to focus. So we don’t market to ‘anyone’ who needs online scheduling, and we don’t even market to all restaurants. We stayed focused and word of mouth is how we grow every month. We’ve said no to large corporate-run chains over the years in order to keep our team small and keep our focus and keep things enjoyable.”
