Dayjob

Alumni Q&A

How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)

The two founders met at Oxford 13 years ago and have been longtime friends. In 2022 they began building software for the waste industry after observing depot operations, where transport planners manually assembled routes that took over an hour to build and quickly became outdated, and where planner turnover was high. In January 2025 they pivoted to Dayjob, an AI system that plans and executes operational decisions in real time.

What's the history of your company from getting started until the present day? What were the big inflection points?

The company started in October 2022 building ERP and inventory software for the waste industry, reaching $150K in revenue, but found large operators would not switch ERPs and that better UI did not address manual decision-making. In January 2025 it pivoted to Dayjob, integrating with existing ERPs rather than replacing them, and began selling in August 2025. ARR reached $653K over seven months, with top customers reporting 8%+ efficiency gains.

What is the core problem you are solving? Why is this a big problem? What made you decide to work on it?

The founders are addressing route planning in short-haul trucking, where humans must continuously optimize constraints such as vehicle capacity, weight limits, site access windows, driver hours, and regulations while handling frequent live job changes. A daily route plan can take 8 hours to build and often becomes obsolete within an hour, and companies struggle to train and retain planners, who frequently leave within 18 months. They note the problem is worsening as experienced drivers are replaced by office hires with less operational knowledge, and that ERP systems were not designed to make autonomous decisions.

What is your long-term vision? If you truly succeed, what will be different about the world?

The founders aim for Dayjob to become essential for short-haul trucking companies to operate profitably, providing models for pricing, booking, and scheduling that competitors would need in order to remain viable.