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Great companies often begin with a problem that refuses to go away. For Starr Douglas, founder and CEO of FrontHouz, that problem was staffing.
Before she launched her company, Douglas worked as a bartender, bar manager, and beverage director. Through those roles, she saw how difficult it was to keep reliable front-of-house staff and how quickly staffing gaps affected both operations and the customer experience.
“If you’re a guest in a restaurant and service is slow, or it takes 45 minutes to get your cocktail, you feel it,” Douglas said on an episode of the ATDC Executive Bytes podcast. “The guests feel it just as much as the staff.”
The challenge intensified after Covid-19, when many workers shifted toward gig-based work. Platforms like Uber and DoorDash reshaped worker expectations around flexibility, scheduling, and faster access to pay. Douglas saw a clear opportunity. The hospitality industry needed something new: a flexible workforce model designed specifically for restaurants, venues, and guest-facing service roles. That insight led to FrontHouz.
FrontHouz functions as a marketplace that connects trained hospitality workers with restaurants, venues, and event operators that need staff on demand. Through the platform, hospitality managers can request qualified staff with just a few clicks. Workers arrive already trained and prepared for the venue.
“They’ll know your menus, your table numbers, how to make your drinks,” Douglas explained. “It’s all customized to each specific venue.”
The platform focuses on quality and preparation. Instead of simply filling shifts, FrontHouz prepares workers before they arrive at a venue. Restaurants upload menus, cocktail build sheets, service expectations, and other training materials into the system. AI-powered tools then create assessments and checkpoints that workers complete before they work their first shift. The result is a workforce that can integrate quickly into a restaurant’s operations.
Douglas knows trust is vital to hospitality staffing. Restaurant owners do not just hire extra help. They strive to offer impeccable service that protects their reputation, culture, and guest experience.
Some hospitality managers worry that servers will be assigned who don’t meet expectations, she noted. FrontHouz addresses that concern with a rigorous vetting process. It verifies work history, checks references, confirms identities, and evaluates skills before workers join the platform. It also verifies certifications such as ServSafe, a widely recognized credential that confirms food safety and sanitation expertise, or pouring licenses when applicable.
The platform adds accountability through a two-sided rating system. After each shift, workers rate the venue, and the venue rates the worker. When both sides see a strong fit, they add each other to their favorites list for future shifts.
The system works. According to Douglas, the FrontHouz workforce holds an average rating of 4.95 out of 5.
The company has also gained meaningful traction. FrontHouz has been fully operating for nearly two years and is live in Atlanta, with soft launches in Buffalo and Orlando, and pilots underway in additional markets across the country. The platform has supported staffing for restaurants, catering companies, and major organizations such as the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United.
For Douglas, the mission goes beyond solving a business problem. The company reflects her connection to the hospitality workforce.
“I was and still am one of those knucklehead bartenders at heart,” she said. “Those are my people.”
That perspective shapes how she leads the company. Douglas understands both sides of the equation. Restaurant operators need reliable staff who protect the guest experience. Hospitality workers want flexibility and autonomy.
Like many founders, Douglas faced difficult lessons along the way. She learned that product development takes longer than expected and that early hiring decisions can shape a company’s direction. Yet every challenge strengthened her resolve.
“There’s always a way,” she said. “Every single thing can be solved.”
Douglas draws that mindset from her upbringing. She grew up in a family of entrepreneurs who modeled discipline and persistence. Her parents built their businesses through long hours and constant effort, and her grandfather worked until he was 98.
Douglas brings a rare blend of operational and technical expertise. Douglas studied business and computer science at Georgia Tech, which gave her the tools to build both the strategy and the technology behind FrontHouz. She also continues to give back to Georgia Tech as a guest lecturer for the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, where she shares her experience with aspiring entrepreneurs.
FrontHouz does more than fill staffing gaps. It helps restaurants maintain service quality and gives hospitality professionals the flexibility they seek. In an industry built on service and people, it shows how the right technology can strengthen both.
