Exclusive: ShareWillow raises $8.5M for trades incentive pay
Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
ShareWillow, which helps design and manage incentive pay for home-service technicians, has raised $8.5 million in seed funding, founder Ryan Shank tells Axios Pro exclusively.
Why it matters: Contractors need to pay technicians enough to keep them without letting labor costs eat into their margins.
Zoom in: The funding includes a $2 million round led by Circadian Ventures, with participation from existing investors including Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Twelve Below.
- Other backers include Notation Capital, Charge Ventures, Expa and Scott Belsky.
How it works: ShareWillow connects to field-service software like ServiceTitan and helps business owners build incentive plans tied to completed jobs, sales and other performance measures.
- Technicians can see what they've earned on each job and how bonuses affect their hourly compensation, rather than waiting for their paycheck to see the total.
- Its AI agents use job data to calculate payouts and flag missing information before payroll runs.
The big picture: Shank says better phone systems and lead-generation tools can bring contractors more business, but technician availability limits how much work they can take on.
- "You're getting all these calls in, but then you don't have anyone to do the job," he says.
- He says one HVAC contractor using ShareWillow cut installation times from eight hours to five by introducing efficiency incentives and avoiding return visits, sometimes allowing for two installations in a day.
Between the lines: Plans also reward membership sales and larger invoices, but Shank says incentives need to account for work quality rather than simply encouraging technicians to sell more.
- For example, Shank says a technician might recommend replacing an aging HVAC system when a costly repair would only postpone the need for a new one.
Flashback: Shank previously founded PhoneWagon, a call-tracking business acquired by CallRail in 2021, and was COO of field-service software company Mhelpdesk, acquired by HomeAdvisor in 2014.
What's next: ShareWillow plans to expand into payments and payroll, including a wallet that would let technicians access their earnings sooner.
