Vivian Wang, CEO of Landed: $8 Million Raised to Solve the Restaurant Labor Shortage

Vivian Wang

CEO

Bio

Vivian Wang is the Founder and CEO of Landed, a platform designed to streamline the recruitment process for the restaurant and hospitality industries. She holds degrees from Princeton University and Oxford, with a focus on economics and public affairs. Before starting Landed, Vivian worked at Gap, Inc., advising on corporate strategy and hourly workforce management. Her personal experience and professional background inspired her to create a solution to address high turnover in the service industry

Vivian Wang is the Founder and CEO of Landed, a platform designed to streamline the…

Company:

Landed

Location:

New York, United States

Description:

Landed, founded in 2020, is an end-to-end recruiting platform that helps restaurants and hospitality employers hire top-notch candidates quickly. The platform automates sourcing, engagement, and interview scheduling, leveraging AI to match the best-fit talent with job openings. Landed has over 700,000 hourly workers and 500+ top employers on its platform, including major brands like McDonald’s, Panera, and Blaze Pizza. The company aims to improve staffing efficiency and reduce turnover costs in the restaurant industry.

Landed, founded in 2020, is an end-to-end recruiting platform that helps restaurants and hospitality employers…

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Conversation
Highlights

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech’s most innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Vivian Wang, Founder & CEO of Landed, an end-to-end recruiting platform that has raised over $8 Million in funding.

Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:

Landed’s Mission: Landed aims to empower blue-collar workers by providing them with better job opportunities, financial tools, and educational resources.
Customer Experience Focus: The platform addresses the inefficiencies in the current recruitment process for hourly workers, offering tailored job matches and reducing manual tasks for employers.
Impact on Employers: Landed saves employers over 15 hours of manual processes by automating candidate sourcing, vetting, and interview scheduling.
Category Creation: Vivian emphasizes the creation of a new category, the “livelihood economy,” focusing on jobs, finances, and education for blue-collar workers.
Adaptation During COVID-19: Despite launching just before the pandemic, Landed quickly adapted by targeting sectors like grocery stores and quick-service restaurants, demonstrating resilience and customer focus.
Growth and Traction: Landed works with nearly 400 companies, including major brands like Panera and Chick-fil-A, and has seen rapid revenue growth since its launch.

Actionable
Takeaways

Customer Obsession Drives Success:

Spend a significant portion of your time engaging with both your paying customers and end-users to deeply understand their pain points and needs. This focus can accelerate learning and product-market fit.

Automate Manual Processes:

Identify and automate repetitive tasks to save time and resources. This increases efficiency and allows your team to focus on higher-value activities.

Micro Pessimism, Macro Optimism:

Maintain a detailed and cautious approach to immediate challenges while keeping a long-term positive vision. This balance helps in navigating crises and staying focused on the ultimate goal.

Create New Categories with Clear Vision:

When creating a new market category, clearly articulate how your solution fundamentally changes the landscape and benefits all stakeholders. Ensure potential investors and team members understand and buy into this vision.

Rapid Adaptation to Market Changes:

Be ready to pivot or adapt your business model in response to unexpected challenges, like a global pandemic. Quickly finding new opportunities within shifting markets can be key to survival and growth.