As the gig economy has grown, so too have a host of ancillary businesses to support it. Minneapolis-based Yardstik, an employment screening tech firm, is among the many businesses capitalizing on the gigification of many lines of work.

Launched in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020, Yardstik has found a niche providing employment screening services for a range of “high volume, high turnover industries,” says Andrew Johnson, who officially took over as CEO on Nov. 1. The company, which moved its headquarters to downtown Minneapolis earlier this year, uses technology to help streamline the process. Since it launched, Yardstik’s revenue has grown by 100% or more each year, Johnson says.

Yardstik’s current customer base includes Bloomington-based delivery startup Dispatch, catering firm Hungry, and moving company Bellhop.

For these kinds of businesses, “speeding up the time to hire is critical,” Johnson says.

First hired as chief operating officer in September 2022, Johnson says Yardstik is primed for big growth in the years ahead. In an interview with TCB, Johnson explains how he found his way to Yardstik, why he’s bullish about the company’s future, and what might come next.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You studied financial economics at Gustavus Adolphus College. How’d you end up in the tech industry?

I originally wanted to be a financial adviser and graduated in the downturn in 2008. I had a job lined up, but it was pulled from me two months before graduating. It sent me scrambling, but I lined up another job at Compellent [an Eden Prairie tech company that went on to get acquired by Dell for almost $1 billion]. I feel lucky to have worked there just as the company was getting started.

Compellent is seen as a big Minnesota tech success story. What’d you learn working there?

Go-to-market strategy matters. A product can be great, but if you don’t know how to go to market, the company isn’t going to go anywhere. Seeing that early helped me when I went on to other companies. Also, when acquisitions happen, it’s a good idea to take advantage of your new owner’s resources. In Compellent’s case, we now had a big global name behind us. You almost get these super powers that you might not have had before. There’s definitely opportunity in the chaos.

You joined Yardstik just about two years ago. What’s changed since then?

When I started, we were just kind of getting going. Since then, we’ve now validated our product market fit and our value proposition to the customer. Today, we’re at an inflection point, ready to go full steam ahead and capture the market.

You’ve said that Yardstik is going to grow in a big way in the years ahead. What’s got you feeling so confident?

We’re getting lifted up market now, and the size of the deals we’re chasing are getting bigger – just throw another zero behind them. We can’t share new customers’ names quite yet, but you can think of the larger gig platforms. Those are ones we’re talking to now. That alone is going to explode our growth rate over the next year or two once these things start to come on board. Our team is also becoming more well-rounded and differentiated. We feel strongly about our growth in the coming years.

It seems we can’t go a day without seeing another headline about the rise of artificial intelligence. What’s your take on new large language models, and how might they fit in at Yardstik?

We’re leveraging AI a lot internally, in terms of writing code and creating content. Our sales team uses what we call “Sticky” – sort of like our own internal ChatGPT. We’re automating a lot of processes, but I want to be clear that we’re not using artificial intelligence to determine whether someone can work or not work. You’ve got to be very, very careful there, and we don’t want to have any bias seep into that. We’re intentionally not using AI to drive someone’s hiring decisions.