When You Know There's a Better Way: Challenging the Status Quo to Launch Your Product or Service
Welcome, friends! 👋👋🏿👋🏽 Got a great idea? What do you do next with it? Do you actually take action? Juan Jurado-Blanco did. And, now, his business isn’t just a dream. It’s reality.
In this issue of Generation Si!, you’ll learn the following:
🌴How Jurado-Blanco went from idea to launch
🌴The importance of market research
🌴Why finding a good lawyer to set up your business correctly is critical
🌴This is Juan Jurado-Blanco, CEO and co-founder of Clockout…
WHERE THERE’S A PROBLEM, FIND THE SOLUTION
Juan Jurado-Blanco knows what it’s like to struggle. When he was working full-time on his first entrepreneurial venture, he was also working as a restaurant server to cover his bills. There was just one huge problem.
“I couldn’t have access to my daily tips and hourly wage earnings.”
He thought to himself, “Why do I have to wait up to two weeks to receive a tip compensation for a service that I did in the present? I find that ridiculous, given that there is money and there’s technology out there to track this data. Because it’s completely trackable.”
YOU NEED TO DO MARKET RESEARCH
He asked a co-worker, a single mom, “How much are you willing to pay if you can cash out those $50 that you just got in tips – from the card tip?”
Her answer?
She needed the money immediately. She would be willing to pay 20%.
And that’s when the light bulb went off for Jurado-Blanco.
It was the beginning of Clockout, a platform that allows restaurant workers to get paid for the work they do daily – not bi-weekly.
Jurado-Blanco and Anthony Tardugno, one of the company’s co-founders, who is also COO, did market research to get the ball rolling. They surveyed 320 restaurant workers in South Florida.
“77% said that they would use a platform like Clockout. They would cash out 52% of their check.”
And those surveyed said they’d be willing to pay up to 5% for a service like the one he and Tardugno had in mind.
THE TIP JAR (Tips provided courtesy of Juan Jurado-Blanco)
STARTING OUT: “Market research. You have to either do surveys or do thorough research on the internet on what solutions… are out there that are similar and how people are using it.”
Jurado-Blanco says you need to focus on market validation to make sure “that you’re not making that idea because you like it. You’re making the idea because people want it or need it.”
STEEPED IN SKILLS (mid-career): “Never stop. Try to be ambitious and try to fulfill your dream, whatever it is. I think that if you do have responsibilities, and you have a… 9 to 5 job, whatever you try to do, do it on the side first.”
STARTING OVER: “Either look for startup accelerator programs or local tech resources,” if you have a tech-related idea.
Tech or non-tech related, Jurado-Blanco suggests you “look into resources in your local area that support that kind of industry or business and start getting your hands involved in that on a part-time basis…”
He adds that if you don’t actually do it, you won’t know if you really enjoy it or believe in the mission enough “to let go of your whole career” to continue with the venture.
I’LL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN: “Make sure you research a good lawyer, whatever you’re doing.”
Jurado-Blanco says the law firm they first hired did not set up their firm properly.
“We’re a C-corp, but the whole company structure, the bylaws, the shareholder agreements, all these documents… and the rules, they were all done wrong. The framework was, basically, done as if we were a foreign company. Not even like a startup.”
He says they’re grateful Techstars, the accelerator program they joined, referred them to an attorney who helped them straighten it all out.
Otherwise, he says, they wouldn’t have qualified for an investment from the accelerator.
BEST ADVICE FROM “LA CASA”/BEST “HOUSE” ADVICE: Jurado-Blanco says the advice that stays with him most comes from his mom.
“Siempre ser humilde. Siempre, por más grande que seas y por más grande que sea esa meta, siempre ten esa humildad…”
TRANSLATION: “Always be humble. Always, no matter how big you are, no matter how big the goal, always have humility…”
THERE HAS TO BE A PROCESS IN PLACE
Jurado-Blanco and Tardugno initially raised $270,000 from friends and family. They hired Jeremy Pagley as full-time CTO. Pagley also became a co-founder of the company and started developing the platform.
Then, they created a sales process.
They got data on restaurants in the U.S. but decided to focus on restaurants in Florida as a starting point.
“We have a sales map where we create different target lists based on their POS (point of sale) system that they have… We plan sales routes where we go business to business. We try to speak to management or ownership.”
Then, within two weeks, they book a demo of Clockout to share how the platform works.
DETAILS MATTER; PROTECT YOURSELF LEGALLY
I asked Jurado-Blanco, who is fronting the daily earnings payouts? After all, some restaurants and other businesses count on using the delay from when employees work to when they’ll actually pay them to be able to run their own daily operations and pay their other expenses.
“We actually have a credit facility right now that we raised through a private investor that we’re able to use our own funds. And it’s just a singular, operative credit line… So we are giving out all the funds for the advances. And then we’re getting directly repaid by the employer on payday by the same bank account that they run payroll with.”
He says there are prevention triggers in place that alert Clockout should the employer not have the money to repay the advances. Once triggered, it would halt the service for the restaurant.
Jurado-Blanco says there are also legal protections in place, if any of the participating restaurants go bankrupt and assets get liquidated.
KEEP LOOKING FOR FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Jurado-Blanco says that what really helped them was getting approved for the Techstars Farm to Fork accelerator program. They received $120,000 in funding from Techstars, which led to angel investments.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO CHANGE THE FORMAT
In the end, the founders decided to go with a fee-based system instead of a percentage of income drawn.
The fee is 99 cents for the employee, if the advance they want to collect is up to $65 of their earnings. It’s $1.99, if they want to cash between $65 and $120. It’s a flat fee of $2.99, if the amount is greater than $120.
Jurado-Blanco, Tardugno and Pagley just launched the Clockout pilot in Parkland with Carmela Coffee, which has a total of eight locations.
NEW CHALLENGES ALWAYS POP UP; BE READY TO TACKLE THEM
As for challenges, Jurado says one of them is “the expansion of a credit line in the back end to give these advances to workers, or just to fund any kind of transaction they want to use their unpaid earnings for.”
He says the second is calculating daily earnings, post-tax, for any kind of job. They’re currently testing that with people who work for companies in the fast-food, grocery, retail and distribution industries.
A LAUNCH CAN ACTUALLY HAVE MULTIPLE PHASES
For now, 18 restaurant brands have signed on for the Clockout platform. That’s a grand total of 38 restaurant locations. He says onboarding for all of the participating restaurants will be happening in January of 2023.
Jurado-Blanco says employers see the benefits. “They really do understand the benefit of having a tool to retain and be a better option to work for, especially nowadays when hourly rate and speed of pay are kind of the top deciding factors when taking a job for hourly workers.”
CREATE THE SOLUTION YOU WISHED YOU HAD
For Jurado-Blanco, the 23-year-old who once worked as a dishwasher, cook, cashier and server, Clockout is the kind of platform that he knew restaurant workers needed. Because he needed it.
It’s also a full-circle moment because one of the restaurants that is participating in the pilot, Francisca Charcoal Chicken & Meats, is a place where he also once worked. The restaurant’s general manager told him, “You were not only working and you got the idea, but you were able to… work a ton to make it happen.”
INDUSTRY: Financial software
Restaurant & food service
STARTED BUSINESS:
Idea: August 3, 2021
Incorporation: March 23, 2022
LATINO CONNECTION:
Parents are Venezuelan
EDUCATION:
Attended Univ. of Florida for Business Administration
Santa Fe College - Associate’s degree in Industrial Engineering
DREAM JOB AS A KID: “Entrepreneur – like owning my own business. Any type… I’ve always wanted to have enough money to let my parents not have to work again.”
“Settle my family for life, basically, and also do philanthropy for the people who need it the most. Giving back to the community is super important.”
BIGGEST GOAL YET: “Creating Clockout as the success it wants to be and… either exit it or IPO the company.”
NO NEED TO GO IT ALONE
HELP ON THE OUTSIDE...because we can all use a helping hand:
Money, Money, Money!
Got a great business idea, but you need $10,000 to make it happen? If you’re a woman-led business, check out the DOVE InstaGrants competition from DOVE Chocolate. This link from the SBA (Small Business Administration) shares what you need to do to enter your 30-second video pitch for this particular competition, plus it has advice on what the judges are looking for to make sure your video stand out in the crowd. The competition ends Dec. 19th:
https://www.sba.gov/event/7147
WORKING ON THE INSIDE...because we know our culture has a hard time asking for help:
It’s About Personality
Something as basic as your personality can result in more sales. So how do you use it to connect and communicate effectively with decision-makers? This SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) online workshop, led by Cynthia Blackwell, will help you bring out your natural charisma to increase sales and measure success. This is Part 1 of a 3-part series:
NEC (National Entrepreneur Center) & SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives)
“How to Leverage Your Personality to Sell More”
Part 1: Qualify, Connect, Drive Results
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
5:30 p.m. EST - 7:30 p.m. EST
Online Webinar
FREE
https://nationalec.org/event/score-how-to-leverage-your-personality-to-sell-more-part-1-of-3/
INSPIRATION FOR THIS ISSUE:
Stick-to-itiveness.
I read it once in an article. But I didn’t think it was a real word. Apparently, it is.
Besides stick-to-itiveness being a fun word, it’s a quality many entrepreneurs seem to have. They are unwilling to give up on their idea – to the point of obsession.
We don’t usually think of obsession as anything positive. But for entrepreneurs, it’s what keeps them in the fight, long after others would have given up. They have a tendency towards stick-to-itiveness.
I’m sure Juan Jurado-Blanco would tell you he has stick-to-itiveness. No matter the challenges, he’s unwilling to give up on his idea of helping workers in the restaurant industry get quicker access to the money they’ve earned.
And why not? His idea, when I first talked to him about it, sounded like a no-brainer. It was one of those ideas that has you asking, “Why hasn’t anyone gotten around to making this happen already?”
Of course, the idea of letting restaurant and other hourly-wage workers get advances is one thing. Actually working through all the logistical and financial hurdles to make it a reality is another.
But he didn’t give up.
Perhaps it’s because Juan lived through hyperinflation (at least a 50% rise in prices per month) in Venezuela. He has a special understanding of how people, especially in hourly-wage jobs, need speedy access to their money.
Here in the U.S., many restaurants, grocery stores and retail stores continue having a hard time filling shifts. New solutions will have to be offered to close the gap.
Juan hopes his idea and Clockout platform to help restaurant workers and, later, other hourly-wage employees cash their day’s pay empowers them.
As he and his co-founders go through a pre-seed round to raise more money, they are tackling the challenges head-on.
And they’re doing it with stick-to-itiveness. #theskyisNOTthelimit 😺