Ultratemping

I had an interesting idea for a modern-style disintermediation business today: Ultratemping. Basically, an instant marketplace for short-term casual workers. The hypothetical scenario is this: you're running a restaurant and you've got a surprise rush because someone important on twitter said nice things about you. You're running a retail store and two of the floor staff call in sick an hour before their shift. You're setting up an event and it's running behind schedule because you don't have enough crew. You need people and you need them right now.

So Ultratemping lets you find people quickly. You put up the job you need done and it gets broadcast to everyone in the area with the requisite kind of experience. All the workers have ratings and recommendations from previous jobs so you can pick whoever seems best. They show up and get to work. Obviously you'd be paying a premium, but in certain situations it'd be worth it, especially if they were people who were well-known for their ability to show up quickly and get stuff done with minimal setup time.

Maybe it would even lead to a place where people are using the app as their main source of income, swooping in to help out a different business each night like some kind of cross between Yojimbo and Gordon Ramsay.