Launch an App, Make a Forbes List. Why This Ambitious Alum Is Only Getting Started

The wheels of innovation spun in Mike Shebat’s head as he watched his mother write a check to his piano teacher following a lesson.

While this was a typical form of payment for the early 2000s, it seemed archaic to a 10-year-old Shebat. He thought, “What if this transfer could be completed electronically?” Shebat scribbled his imaginary device on a piece of paper. Though he didn’t give it a name, the drawing resembled today’s Square Point of Sale application, where a credit card can be swiped on the spot.

“This was before iPhones were even a thing,” Shebat said. “It was very old school, but I thought it had potential.”

It’s that kind of forward thinking that landed Shebat, now a University of Virginia alumnus, on Forbes’ prestigious “30 Under 30” list in December. The renowned business publication recognized Shebat, 29, as a rising star in consumer technology following his founding of Traba, a mobile app that links willing workers with short-staffed businesses.

“As long as they have a hard work ethic and a desire to show up and get the job done,” Shebat said, “we allow workers to get connected to warehouses, event venues and distribution centers.”

Workers can build their own schedule. Employers can fill their shifts. Traba, which launched in July, is billed as a win-win and a way to combat the nationwide labor shortage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Shebat, who leads Traba with cofounder Akshay Buddiga, said the Miami-based startup company has more than 3,000 workers on its platform and is connected to 25 businesses in the South Florida area.

“There’s a lot of different avenues we plan on going,” said Shebat, who has visions of global expansion, “but we plan on becoming as big, if not bigger, than Amazon. We are thinking through all the different ways we can empower workers and businesses to reach their full productivity and potential. That’s why we’re hiring the best engineers in the world, the best operators in the world to join the team.”

Shebat has never shied away from lofty ambitions. Appearing in the spring 2020 edition of UVA’s Arts & Sciences Magazine, Shebat, who received his economics degree in 2014, said he hoped to launch his own company within 10 years.

It took less than two.

“Mike definitely has a gift for motivating people,” said Traba software engineer Nazer Hasanian, a fellow UVA alumnus. “You can tell he’s really excited about each day and, with that, brings everyone around him to get really excited about the same ideas. He’s very optimistic. That’s very important because you’re going to face hard times starting a new company and you have to stay optimistic.

“I think Mike really values making sure we’re all enjoying our work, in terms of having a healthy team culture and being a strong team. No one feels left out or unhappy. He’s always giving us really aggressive goals, which motivates you to actually reach them. And we have been reaching some crazy goals. So that continues to build on itself and it makes you more excited to keep reaching the next one.”

While at UVA, Shebat spent summers interning for the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Blackstone Group and Goldman Sachs. He was convinced a finance career would follow graduation – until he took an entrepreneurship course as a fourth-your student that altered his path.

The course, called “Strategies of Entrepreneurship,” challenged students to develop a startup idea and then pitch it to venture capitalists at the end of the semester. Shebat’s group thought of a virtual reality mobile app that could stand in lieu of tour guides at historic places.

“People could point their phone at, for example, the Thomas Jefferson statue at UVA and it would come to life with a lot more details,” Shebat said. “I worked with three other students and mapped out what it would look like and how big the market size was. ... We didn’t get (venture capital) funding, but the whole concept of learning how everything works was really cool.”

After a supervisor stint at the Los Angeles-based industrial supply company McMaster-Carr, Shebat joined Uber in 2016, playing a crucial role in growth of the Uber Eats program. His plan to branch off on his own took shape five years later following completion of an “On Deck” program designed to help people start companies. It’s here where he met Buddiga, his future chief technology officer and the “perfect co-founder,” Shebat said.

Traba now has 15 employees, including Hasanian, who graduated from UVA with a computer science degree in 2020.

While they debate best Bodo’s Bagels orders – “Mike’s go-to is really basic with cream cheese,” Hasanian said. “I always go with pastrami” – the lone Wahoos in the office share a passion for the future of Traba.

“We’re aiming for the stars,” Shebat said.