SC Accelerates: Belay

Santa Cruz Works is excited to share some of the applicants who have applied to our Santa Cruz Accelerates Program. We will be featuring a handful of startups each week!

Name of your startup: Belay.com

Founder: Kai Golden

The problem your startup will solve to make the world a better place:

Millions of gig workers face uncertain income without the guarantees associated with employment, and this figure will comprise 60% of our workforce by 2040.

Kai Golden (top left), founder of Belay and members of the Belay team on a conference call. Top right: Nahom Yimam, bottom left: Zi Gao, bottom right: Daniel Chang and Andrew Acomb.

As a consequence, rideshare drivers lose control of their time, face high levels of stress, and live at the mercy of market forces. Belay eliminates this issue by using state-of-the-art in-house forecasting tech to cover drivers on their bad days in exchange for a share of their good days.

While Belay eliminates income volatility today, it plans to reproduce the economies of scale and benefits associated with employment while preserving the flexibility gig workers love.

“Speaking as a Santa Cruz native, I see no reason why I should go over the hill to be in the thick of innovation and entrepreneurship when there's so much talent right here. I'm thrilled to be working with Santa Cruz Accelerates. I get the sense I'm not only building up my venture, but contributing to a community of entrepreneurs, as well.” -Kai Golden