How GigSmart Scaled to Thousands of Background Checks a Month Without Adding Overhead

When Mitch Catino, Co-Founder and COO of GigSmart, was standing up the company, he knew exactly what kind of background check partner he didn’t want.

“When we were talking to other providers, they were selling teams and 24/7 support and direct lines to call,” Mitch recalls, “And I said, I don’t want to have to call anyone. I just want it to work.”

Other vendors in the market were pitching human-heavy support models as a feature. For GigSmart, it was a red flag. In the early days, they were running just a handful of checks per month, but the ambition was always to run tens of thousands. What GigSmart needed was a partner with the technology foundation to grow alongside them seamlessly, without becoming a source of friction as volume scaled.

“I wanted something that could grow with us, scale with us, and just run in the background,” said Mitch.

What set Checkr apart was the strength of its technology and the confidence it inspired from the very first conversation.

"The technology, the API, the scalability really came through," says Mitch. "Checkr had the support teams and the account management you'd want in a partner, but what really made it for us was knowing the technology was strong enough that we'd rarely need to use them. It just needed to work."

GigSmart chose Checkr as their first and only background check provider at launch. That was seven years ago.

Perhaps the most telling measure of Checkr’s impact is what hasn’t happened: the integration has barely changed.

"I don't think I've changed the integration or the technology connecting GigSmart and Checkr since day one," Mitch says. "It just worked."

GigSmart went from a handful of background checks per month to thousands, all without a meaningful overhaul of the Checkr integration. With just two team members handling adjudication and roughly 10 reviewing report statuses, GigSmart’s lean operation is made possible by Checkr’s automation doing the heavy lifting.

Checkr delivers.

For GigSmart, fast hiring isn't a differentiator —it's a core requirement. Workers on GigSmart can accept a shift posted for an immediate start, which means the window for onboarding, screening, and placement can be measured in hours, not days.

As GigSmart moved upmarket, client needs grew more complex, including drug testing for safety-sensitive roles, MVR checks for drivers, and continuous monitoring for ongoing confidence. Checkr made adding new packages fast and painless, and opened doors to new business in the process.

"If a client's needs require a new package, we're able to work with Checkr to add it and start running checks within a week or less. We were able to add drug testing quickly, which allowed us to say ‘yes’ to new clients who require them — and that's a high hurdle for new entrants."

A single background check at onboarding isn’t enough for GigSmart’s enterprise clients either. Continuous criminal monitoring means a worker’s status remains current, with no expiration dates or gaps. "By offering background and continuous checks, we provide customers with peace of mind that a clear status remains true and up-to-date."

Building a two-sided marketplace means earning trust from both directions. From the businesses posting shifts and from the workers filling them. That’s the problem Checkr Profiles solves for GigSmart.

Every worker on GigSmart’s G-Flex platform can now verify their identity and photo through Checkr Profiles before they can create a profile on the platform. The impact is immediate on the business side: the person who signed up is the person who shows up. That means less friction at check-in, fewer no-shows, and faster placements. Workers can also add licenses, certifications, and work history to their Checkr Profile, giving businesses with specialized needs a faster path to the right match.

But the bigger story is what happens at the platform level. Verified workers build business confidence. More confident businesses post better shifts. Better shifts attract higher-quality workers, who verify themselves to compete for them. GigSmart sits at the center of that loop, and Checkr Profiles is what powers it.

Seven years and thousands of checks later, Checkr is woven into GigSmart’s entire hiring process. From the moment a worker onboards to the ongoing monitoring that keeps clients confident, Checkr runs quietly in the background, exactly the way Mitch wanted it to.

With Checkr Profiles and identity verification, the partnership continues to deepen. GigSmart sees a future where workers carry portable, self-verified profiles across platforms, reducing fraud, building trust, and giving businesses the confidence to hire at the speed the flexible labor economy demands.

"If you're building a platform where trust and safety and speed and price are really core to you, I think you need a background check partner that can scale with you. Checkr absolutely does that."