Matt Alvarez didn’t set out to be in staffing—but in a way, he always was.
“My mom started a healthcare staffing company when I was in middle school,” he recalls. “That was my first real job out of college.”
After trying his hand as a recruiter, Matt realized the traditional approach wasn’t for him. He moved to Montana, embracing a patchwork life of seasonal work—valeting, running snowcats, fixing hot tubs. Eventually, the desire to build something bigger called him.
“I wanted to take my understanding of staffing and find a way to benefit people like me who were skilled and adaptable,” says Matt.
GigWorx was born in 2018 with that mission: to match underemployed and capable workers with local businesses struggling to staff up, especially in seasonal or high-growth industries.
Hustle, growth, and early pain points
In the beginning, GigWorx was all about hustle and relationships. “A lot of our first clients were folks who knew me from the construction and the commercial development world,” Matt explains. “They trusted my work ethic and were willing to give this new model a shot.”
Recruiting back then was grassroots in every sense.
“We’d find folks during shoulder seasons who were looking for extra income between gigs,” Matt recalls. “I remember pulling into a bar where four guys were playing croquet on a weekday and asking if they wanted to work.”
And the backend was anything but smooth. “We were using paper for onboarding. Getting our first payroll set up was a real struggle and a challenge. It felt so counter to the brand we were building.”
That’s when Matt started looking for better systems. “We stuck with QuickBooks longer than we should’ve because nothing else felt like a clear win.”
He demoed all the usual suspects—Paycom, Paychex, Paylocity.
“We did the song and dance so many times, and once you get to implementation, it’s ‘this is hard coded, we can’t change that.,’” says Matt. “We were unable to find something that had a simple, modern and efficient onboarding platform that would also deliver W2 payments with the kind of ease of use and transparency that we needed.”
The Everee shift: A modern approach to payroll
The turning point came when he almost committed to another payroll provider—only for Matt to pull the plug last-minute.
“It was wrong for us. The onboarding experience didn’t fit our gig workers. These folks won’t fill out 10 pages just to work a four-hour shift,” he explains. “That’s when I turned to Everee. The support team jumped in and helped us go live right away.”
Matt describes Everee as “a modern approach to payroll. It’s payroll and W-2 payments—but with the speed, ease and efficiency you usually only get with 1099s.”
Key value Everee brings to GigWorx:
- Simple, fast onboarding: “It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. And I think Everee is maybe six minutes of that.”
- Customer support that actually supports: “Shoot an email, and on the same day you’re hearing back. That’s just not what you get with legacy payroll.”
- Same-day pay, with W-2 compliance: “We have staff asking all the time, ‘When’s same-day pay coming?’ And now, we’re almost there.”
Scaling smart: local ownership, national growth
GigWorx now operates in Bozeman, Salt Lake City, South Bend, and Omaha—thanks to a franchise model designed for scale without sacrificing local insight.
“Franchising made sense because we knew local ownership mattered,” says Matt. “We wouldn’t have succeeded if I hadn’t been there, pouring my heart into it. Our franchisees do the same. They understand the market and the people.”
GigWorx focuses on secondary and tertiary markets, where the need is high and the staffing giants don’t dominate. “We want to bring the efficiency of these big app platforms to small and medium sized businesses,” says Matt.
Payroll as a growth driver
Though payroll isn’t a flashy part of the business, Matt calls it “our product.” Every client relationship, every worker shift and payment, every invoice—those are the variables that make the business.
“We’re still not using Everee to the fullest,” he says. “Once we finish integration with our app, it’s going to save a ton of time. But even now, running payroll for 100+ people weekly is manageable.”
What changed most since adopting Everee? “We’re looking forward now. We’re not in survival mode with payroll. We’re thinking: what’s next?
What’s next: human touch meets automation
Looking ahead, Matt’s team is building more automation—like AI chatbots to handle common support questions—and rolling out voice-controlled tech to streamline operations.
But he’s adamant: people will always be at the center.
“At the end of the day, staffing is a people business. Tech drives efficiency, but our field staff still know the name of someone in the office,” says Matt. “That connection matters. Just like when I email Everee support, I get a person I recognize.
Advice for other staffing leaders
When asked how he’d describe Everee to another staffing leader, he doesn’t hesitate: “It’s payroll that actually understands the gig model. Fast, flexible, and built for W-2.”
If Everee disappeared? “Honestly, I don’t know what we’d do. We’d be back to demos and headaches. No one else fits the way they do.”
Ready to streamline staffing payroll like GigWorx? Book time with Everee to learn more about its modern payroll solutions →
