Judges chose Wolf Inc., Wolf, which makes software that allows clients to launch their own branded staffing platforms, as the winner in a competition styled after the television show “Shark Tank.” The event took place Sept. 20 at Staffing Industry Analysts’ Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference in Dallas.

Wolf also received the audience choice award as voted on by attendees.

The competition included five finalist companies chosen from a field of 27 firms nominated. Each firm had five minutes to present their product or service and five minutes to answer questions a four-judge panel.

Wolf founder and CEO Ash Barot handled the presentation for his company; he noted the firm has 25 customers so far and focuses on healthcare.

“This is one of the most exciting times to be in temporary staffing,” Barot said. “Companies like Upwork, Intelycare, Instawork and ShiftKey have been reshaping the landscape of temporary staffing for the past decade. …. There’s one thing that made these companies the successes that they are, and the common thing is that all these companies are talent platforms or staffing platforms.”

And if talent marketplaces are the future, it would be good to make it easy for anyone to launch one, he continued.

“That’s why we built Wolf,” Barot said. “With Wolf, you can within a day launch your own branded talent marketplace for your industry.”

The presentation impressed the judges.

“When you think about the opportunity to enable every supplier to be a digital supplier, that’s where the world is going,” judge Colleen Tiner, senior VP product, Beeline said. "That’s what’s going to enable other things. That’s a category maker to me. That’s not just a product, that’s a category.”

Judges also cited Wolf’s clear market and that the firm provides an alternative as staffing firms adopt tech.

“You’ve got a clear market that you’re going after, and I appreciate that,” said judge Marcus Sawyerr, founder and CEO of EQ Community.

“I think a lot of times, you know, organizations need to think through, ‘Am I building, am I partnering, am I, you know, buying?’” said judge JoAnne Estrada, senior VP, digital innovation, Randstad Sourceright. “And I think you're giving them an option to think about [being] able to level up to the digital staffing platforms.”

“I think your presentation was amazing,” said Judge Tom Ellis, founder of ShiftKey.

Other finalists presenting to the judges were:

ConverzAI — a voice AI engagement platform

Findem — a provider of sourcing automation/analytics

Guhuza.com — a provider of an interviewing platform, sourcing automation and background checks

TaTiO — a virtual job simulator and engagement platform

Moderating the Shark Tank competition was Brian Wallins, research director, Staffing Industry Analysts.

The Collaboration in the Gig Economy Conference concludes today.