Check Partner Spotlight: EATS2SEATS

It’s Saturday night in Death Valley. LSU is closing in on a 4th quarter comeback against Auburn, but like most fans, it’s time for another hot dog to give you fuel to make it through the rest of the game. Luckily, LSU calls a timeout so you run to the concession stand. You’re greeted by a friendly student, who’s happy to help satiate your craving. But, ever wonder how that student found that job, or better yet, got paid for this essential service? Enter EATS2SEATS.

EATS2SEATS is a staffing platform specifically built to service live events – concerts, football games and more. In just 30 days, they were able to leverage the Check platform to build an embedded, streamlined payroll experience. An embedded payroll solution has not only unlocked differentiated features like faster payments, but also sets the platform up to scale quickly over the next few years.

The founding story

EATS2SEATS was founded by Mary Laci Motley (Founder & CEO) during her sophomore year at University of North Carolina. Originally, they started out as a platform to provide food delivery to individual seats at stadiums, but then the COVID-19 pandemic struck. All of sudden, it became substantially harder for stadiums to hire people to work at games. EATS2SEATS was scrappy and pivoted to fill this need, and this is how their student-led staffing platform was born.

After 3 years of rapid growth, EATS2SEATS is now a staffing platform for stadiums and live music venues across the US. They connect students, and other young adults, with flexible work opportunities. Led by Co-Founders Deven Jahnke (CTO) and Maxwell Hurst (COO), EATS2SEATS is a tech-savvy disruptor to the staffing space, offering digital-first experiences that match the needs of their young working population.

The operational challenges of rapid growth

In 2022, EATS2SEATS had already blown away their growth projections for the year. Like other staffing platforms, record low unemployment rates and a growing demand for flexible work has driven substantial business growth. However, with this growth comes new challenges of scale. Specifically, challenges related to paying their workers.

Before Check, EATS2SEATS was using a traditional 3rd party payroll application. The legacy experience offered by their provider led to a number of headaches. First, paying workers required a manual process, so it was impossible for their team to automate the process as they scaled to thousands of workers on their platform. Additionally, limitations from the provider made it impossible to pay workers immediately after a shift was completed — a feature they saw as critical to the worker experience. Finally, a lack of responsiveness and support from their legacy vendor drove them to see if there was a way payroll could be done differently.

EATS2SEATS ships payroll in under 30 days

EATS2SEATS ultimately decided embedded payroll could help them pursue payroll as true technologists, and allow them to build their ideal worker experience. With access to the Check platform and APIs, they could build automation into their workflows to increase efficiency, and create an experience entirely within the EATS2SEATS app.

EATS2SEATS kicked off with Check in summer of 2022, with the goal of going live before football season began. Throughout their build, EATS2SEATS learned from and leaned on the teams at Check for payroll advice and support, quickly getting up to speed on W-2 requirements for their unique worker types. Combining their savvy development team with payroll implementation services and technical support, they were able to build a fully embedded solution in less than 30 days. Just in time for the start of football season on September 1st.

Moving forward

Now that EATS2SEATS is live, their next challenge will be to scale the business. Luckily, Check is ready to help them scale seamlessly across the US. EATS2SEATS is excited to continue partnering with Check, leveraging the Check API to embed additional features like next day payment processing, automated handling of payments failures, and more. 

The next time you go to a concert or game, make sure to tip the staff giving you that cocktail. They might just be staffed by EATS2SEATS, with their pay moving through the Check payroll infrastructure. If you’d like more information on embedded payroll or what it’s like to work with Check, just reach out.