Matt Pierce

Matt Pierce has his fingerprint on changes to the foundation of the staffing industry. A few months ago, while living in San Francisco, he launched Trusted, an on-demand job platform for healthcare workers. This comes after various entrepreneurial ventures beginning with selling cars in high school and building a company in college. Recognizing his strongest skillsets involved building relationships with people, he saw the staffing industry as the “ultimate people business.” It’s no surprise that he majored in professional sales at Illinois State University, and became the first person in his family to graduate from college.

After college, Pierce joined IT staffing provider TEKsystems and became one of the youngest people ever to enter its executive leadership program. Pierce then launched his own contingent staffing consultancy before joining online staffing firm Hired three years ago. In 2015, he led the launch of Hired Flex, which now operates in 14 cities and five countries, accounting for 20% of total company revenue.

And his reasons to launch Trusted? He is drawn to the travel nurse segment because of the quality and integrity of the workers, whose important jobs are often thankless. “The millennials who are making waves in the staffing industry understand that if they align their business objectives and interests with what their customers want — both on the job seeker side and the hiring side — there is a real opportunity to change the game,” he says.