You’ve heard about the City of Detroit; a boom-bust town, and maybe more recently the comeback city? But, like many post-industrial cities, Detroit is very economically segregated, and a booming economy really hasn’t changed that. This divide between the rich and the poor isn’t unique to Detroit; its nationwide – and it’s getting worse. Despite record unemployment, the inequality gap between the rich and the poor continues to rise. Since 1980, the bottom 50% of earners share of total US household income has dropped from >20% to less than 15%, while the top 1% has increased from around 11% to >20%. Tens of millions of workers don’t earn a living wage, yet there are millions of open, high paying skilled trade positions unfilled, and millions more skilled office jobs unfilled. There is a supply-demand problem in skills, and our goal is to fix that.
Platform Pillars
Solving this problem won’t be easy, but we are up for the task, and we believe we can make it happen by focusing on three key pillars:
1. Understanding current and future demand for skills
2. Connecting workers with training of skills
3. Deploying workers just-in-time to projects or jobs
Inspired by Unions
We’re inspired by America’s trade unions. Many of them are modeled as >100-year-old Uber for skilled workers with membership in the millions. Our three pillars are right out of their playbook, enhanced by modern tech and AI.
Our brand
It’s a unique opportunity to create a brand from scratch. We wanted ours to create a relatable, emotional connection with us and our customers. Enter RIVET – the ever-strong connector relied upon to build planes and bridges which both elevate and connect people (literally and figuratively). RIVETs are simple, dependable, permanent and field ready. They have been in use for thousands of years, relied upon as a valuable solution to join two materials together. It is through the use of the rivet, that engineering marvels like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Eifel Tower and countless more structures and vehicles have been built.
As a brand, we have big shoes to fill. We believe the future of work is human. We assemble work with modern skill. At RIVET, we’ll make modern and meaningful connections between people, work and skills.