RISING ICON #75: Ryan Tlustosch
What name do you prefer to be called?
Ryan
What are your pronouns?
He/Him
Where did you grow up?
Small Town Montana
What city are you currently based in?
Edina, Minnesota
How do you typically introduce yourself to new people?
I typically introduce myself as a startup founder in the future of work space.
What’s one thing you wish more people knew about you?
I care more about doing right by my customers than I do about making money.
Who do you help?
I help small and midsized business unlock the power of temporary work.
What are you building now?
I am building www.ourly.io, which is a platform that connects employers to consultants and temporary employees.
What were you building ten years ago today?
Ten years ago I was building an award winning sales and recruiting team for a Fortune 500 staffing firm.
What do you predict of yourself 10 years from now?
I believe that Ourly.io will be a mainstream source of flexible work opportunities. My hope is that I will have been able to hire a great executive team so I can spend more time with family along with engaging in more volunteer and philanthropic efforts.
What’s a fact or statistic you wish everyone knew about your industry?
There are more staffing firm branch locations in the US then there are coffee shops. They all use the same outdated and predatory business model. I wish people would look for companies in this space that take a different approach.
Why do you believe the work you do matters?
I believe the work we are doing will allow our flexible workers to earn more money, be more empowered, and live more fulfilling lives. At the same time, I believe we can help our clients run more successful businesses by providing access to resources that were previously unavailable to them.
Who is your mentor and what is the best advice they’ve given you?
We have been blessed with so many great mentors. It takes a village to raise a startup. Chad Halverson was a great early advisor who helped us navigate the challenges of building our platform. Chris Heim has also been a great advisor in helping us solve our go to market challenges. Great advice that has been generally shared by all our mentors has been “if startups were easy everyone would do it”, and “trust your instincts”.
What piece of content about you or your company are you most proud of?
We haven’t had any published articles or interviews yet, but I am most proud of our focus on transparency. We believe we can build much needed trust in an industry that has typically been shrouded in opacity. Our temporary employees deserve to see our data on market-based pay rates so they can make informed decisions. All to often we see new temporary employees or employees in underrepresented groups working for below market compensation because they didn’t have access to compensation data or were told they were worth less by unethical staffing firms looking to pad their margins.
What publication do you hope to appear in next?
We hope our next publication will be in a trusted source like Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal or an industry publication from the Society of Human Resources Management.
Who would you love to be interviewed by?
I would love to be interviewed by Stephen J Dubner from the Freakonomics podcast or Noel King from Marketplace Morning, Up First, and Planet Money. A Today Show visit would also be amazing to speak about the power of AI in Human Resources.
If you had to give a TEDTalk tomorrow, what would the title be?
How the ethical use of AI can transform the talent acquisition industry.
What award would mean the most to win?
The Fast Company “Most Innovative Companies” award
What makes zero sense to you?
So many clients are stuck in that past when it comes to temporary labor. They believe that it is too expensive but then they also choose the most expensive way to engage that labor by calling a traditional temporary staffing company and playing email tag with resumes. The status quo is always your biggest competitor.
What’s a word in your industry you hope gets re-evaluated?
“Temporary Employee”. It has taken on a negative connotation partly because of the word “temporary”, but mostly because staffing firms have devalued the process and experience. We much prefer the term “flexible labor” or “consultant” as it most closely describes the work and value these employees provide.
What game are you changing?
I actually hate the word game when it comes to talent acquisition. When someone says “staffing or talent acquisition game” I have internal rage because finding someone meaningful work is anything but a game and has real life implications and consequences. We are proud however, to be changing an industry that has been stuck in the dark ages for far too long.
What’s the next thing you’re a part of that you want to invite more people to participate in?
I would invite innovative leaders and hiring managers to give our platform a try. We have some amazing uses of AI that I think would blow their minds.
Where can we follow you online?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryantlustosch/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/ourlyio
What’s one thing that makes every leader better?
Empathy. We need to pause and see the world through our customers/clients/employees eyes.
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We’re grateful to each Rising ICON for their transformative work. Thank you, Ryan, for sharing your story!
LAUREL is a media relations partner for bold leadership. For nearly a decade, we’ve helped leaders build effective strategies for scale and growth specializing in key opinion leadership and go-to-market strategy for emerging brands. To follow along with the RISING ICONS series, nominate a leader or subscribe to our weekly email newsletter. To accelerate your own rise, get our free guide to elevating your leadership profile, FIT(lite). RISING ICONS is made possible by grant funding from Knight Foundation.
“The status quo is always your biggest competitor.”
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