PIXY ShiftPixy Inc

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

OR

SEC File No. 024-10557

Registrant’s telephone number: (888) 798-9100

Securities to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐   No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐   No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒   No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒   No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. §7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act.) Yes ☐   No ☒

As of February 28, 2023, the aggregate market value, based on the Nasdaq quoted closing price of $122.64 of the common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $7.0 million.

The number of outstanding shares of Registrant’s Common Stock, $0.0001 par value, was 5,397,698 shares as of December 11, 2023.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND INFORMATION

This Annual Report on Form 10-K ("Form 10-K"), the other reports, statements, and information that we have previously filed or that we may subsequently file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and public announcements that we have previously made or may subsequently make, contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Unless the context is otherwise, the forward-looking statements included or incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K and those reports, statements, information and announcements address activities, events or developments that ShiftPixy, Inc. (referred to throughout this Form 10-K as “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Company” or “ShiftPixy”), expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements contained in this Form 10-K include, but are not limited to, statements about:

We caution you that the forward-looking statements highlighted above do not encompass all of the forward-looking statements made in this Form 10-K.

We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this Form 10-K primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors described in the section of this Form 10-K entitled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and challenging environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this Form 10-K. We cannot assure you that the results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this Form 10-K relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this Form 10-K to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Form 10-K or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures, other strategic transactions or investments we may make or enter into.

The risks and uncertainties we currently face are not the only ones we face. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict which will arise. There may be additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial to our business. In addition, we cannot assess the impact of each factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

The industry and market data contained in this Form 10-K are based either on our management’s own estimates or, where indicated, independent industry publications, reports by governmental agencies or market research firms or other published independent sources and, in each case, are believed by our management to be reasonable estimates. However, industry and market data are subject to change and cannot always be verified with complete certainty due to limits on the availability and reliability of raw data, the voluntary nature of the data gathering process and other limitations and uncertainties inherent in any statistical survey of market shares. We have not independently verified market and industry data from third-party sources. In addition, consumption patterns and customer preferences can and do change. As a result, you should be aware that market share, ranking and other similar data set forth herein, and estimates and beliefs based on such data, may not be verifiable or reliable.

PART I

Item 1. Business

Company Information

We were incorporated under the laws of the State of Wyoming on June 3, 2015. Our principal executive office is located at 4101 NW 25^th Street, Miami, FL 33142, and our telephone number is (888) 798-9100. Our website address is www.shiftpixy.com. Our website does not form a part of this Form 10-K and listing of our website address is for informational purposes only.

Business Overview

We are a human capital management ("HCM") platform. We provide payroll and related employment tax processing, human resources and employment compliance, employment related insurance, and employment administrative services solutions for our business clients (“clients” or “operators”) and shift work or “gig” opportunities for worksite employees (“WSEs” or “shifters”). As consideration for providing these services, we receive administrative or processing fees as a percentage of a client’s gross payroll. The level of our administrative fees is dependent on the services provided to our clients, which ranges from basic payroll processing to a full suite of human resources information systems ("HRIS") technology. Our primary operating business metric is gross billings, consisting of our clients’ fully burdened payroll costs, which includes, in addition to payroll, workers’ compensation insurance premiums, employer taxes, and benefits costs.

Our goal is to be the best online fully-integrated workforce solution and employer services support platform for lower-wage workers and employment opportunities. We have built an application and desktop capable marketplace solution that allows for workers to access and apply for job opportunities created by our clients and to provide traditional back-office services to our clients as well as real-time business information for our clients’ human capital needs and requirements.

We have designed our business platform to evolve to meet the needs of a changing workforce and a changing work environment. We believe our approach and robust technology will benefit from the observed demographic workplace shift away from traditional employee/employer relationships towards the increasingly flexible work environment that is characteristic of the gig economy. We believe this change in approach began after the 2008 financial crisis and is currently being driven by the labor shortage created out of the COVID-19 economic crisis. We also believe that a significant problem underpinning the lower wage labor crisis is the sourcing of workers and matching temporary or gig workers to short-term job opportunities.

Figure 1

We have built our business on a recurring revenue model since our inception in 2015. Our focus has been to monetize a traditional staffing services business model, coupled with developed technology, to address underserved markets containing predominately lower wage employees with high turnover, including the light industrial, food service, restaurant, and hospitality markets.

Our primary focus was on clients in the restaurant and hospitality industries, market segments traditionally characterized by high employee turnover and low pay rates. We believe that these industries will be better served by our human resource information system (“HRIS”) technology platform and related mobile smartphone application that provides payroll and human resources tracking for our clients. The use of our HRIS platform should provide our clients with real-time human capital business intelligence and we believe will result in lower operating costs, improved customer experience, and revenue growth. All of our clients enter into service agreements with us or one of our wholly-owned subsidiaries to provide these services.

We believe that our value proposition is to provide a combination of overall net cost savings to our clients, for which they are willing to pay increased administrative fees that offset the costs of the services we provide, as follows:

Our management believes that providing this baseline business, coupled with our technology solution, provides a unique, value-added solution to the HR compliance, staffing, and scheduling problems that businesses face. Over the past thirty-six months, in the face of the COVID-19 and post COVID-19 pandemic, we have instituted various growth initiatives described below that are designed to accelerate our revenue growth. These initiatives include the matching of temporary job opportunities between workers and employers under a fully compliant staffing solution through our HRIS platform. For this solution to be effective, we need to obtain a significant number of WSEs in concentrated geographic areas to fulfill our clients unique staffing needs and facilitate the client-WSE relationship. 

Managing, recruiting, and scheduling a high volume of low-wage employees can be both difficult and expensive. Historically, the acquisition and recruiting of such an employee population has been a labor intensive and expensive process in part due to high onboarding costs and complex issues surrounding such matters as tax information capture or I-9 verification. Early in our history, we evaluated these costs and found that proper process flows that are automated with blockchain and cloud technology, coupled with access to lower cost workers’ compensation policies resulting from economies of scale, could result in a profitable and low-cost scalable business model.

Over the past five years, we have invested heavily in a robust, cloud-based HRIS platform to:

We began to develop our HRIS platform in 2017, including our front-end desktop and mobile smartphone application to facilitate easier WSE and client onboarding processes, deliver additional client functionality, and provide enhanced opportunities for WSEs to find shift work. Beginning in March 2019, we transitioned the development of our mobile smartphone application from a third-party vendor to an in-house development team and launched an early version of the application several months later. As of August 31, 2019, we had completed the initial launch of our mobile application and we started to provide some of the HRIS and application services to select legacy customers on a pilot project basis. During our fiscal year ended August 31, 2021 ("Fiscal 2021"), our in-house engineers continued to implement additional HRIS functionality in employee fulfillment, delivery and scheduling services, and “gig” intermediation services through our mobile smartphone application. During Fiscal year ended August 31, 2022 ("Fiscal 2022"), our technology development efforts focused on supporting our growth initiatives with features such as bulk on-boarding, job matching intermediation, and qualified candidate pool vertical market integrations. We see these technology-based services as having potential to generate multiple streams of revenue from a variety of different markets.

Our cloud-based HRIS platform captures, holds, and processes HR and payroll information for our clients and WSEs through an easy-to-use customized front-end interface coupled with a secure, remotely hosted database. The HRIS system can be accessed by either a desktop computer or an easy-to-use mobile smartphone application designed with HR workflows in mind. Once fully implemented, we expect to reduce the time, expense, and error rate for onboarding our clients’ employees into our HRIS ecosystem. Upon being onboarded, these WSEs are listed as available for shift work within our business ecosystem. This allows our HRIS platform to serve as both a gig marketplace for WSEs for our opportunities and also allows for clients to better manage their staffing needs.

We see our technology platform and our ability to process gig workers as fully compliant W-2 employees as a key competitive advantage and differentiator to our market competitors that will facilitate expansion of our HCM services beyond our current concentration in low-wage restaurant employees and healthcare workers. We further believe that our accumulation of a significant number of WSEs on our platform, whether currently billed or not, will facilitate additional growth initiatives with the potential to generate significant value for our shareholders, as described below.

Beginning in January 2020, we operated under a traditional staffing services business model, coupled with developed technology, to address underserved markets in the restaurant and hospitality industries, predominately consisting of lower wage employees with high turnover. At the same time, we continued our prior efforts to expand our services into other industries that utilize higher paid employees on a temporary or part-time basis, including the healthcare staffing industry. Our go-to-market approach was to use an inside sales force to market our services directly to clients to manage their human capital requirements and to form strategic relationships with business associations to gather WSEs. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, this approach was effective and resulted in substantial growth. However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape in HCM due to reduced employment in our core restaurant and hospitality markets.

We evaluated our prior growth initiatives and decided to change our focus considering the new market conditions. As part of our plan, we identified several growth initiatives designed to fully leverage our HRIS platform during the second half of Fiscal 2022 and year ended August 31, 2023 “Fiscal 2023”. These growth initiatives are focused on: seeking acquisition targets for growth, a recurring revenue base, significant gross profit conversion, margin expansion opportunities, a light industrial sector focus, a blue-chip client base, cyclical tailwinds, and a tenured management team willing and able to execute a comprehensive integration plan.  The Company can give no assurance that it will be successful in implementing its business.

Figure 2

We have built our business on a recurring revenue model since our inception in 2015.

Staffing Solutions

The Company records gross billings as revenues for its staffing solutions clients. The Company is primarily responsible for fulfilling the staffing solutions services and has discretion in establishing price. The Company includes the payroll costs in revenues with a corresponding increase to cost of revenues for payroll costs associated with these services. As a result, we are the principal in this arrangement for revenue recognition purposes.

EAS Solutions / HCM

EAS solutions and Human Capital Management “HCM” revenues are primarily derived from the Company’s gross billings, which are based on (i) the payroll cost of the Company’s worksite employees (“WSEs”) and (ii) an administrative fee and (iii)  if eligible, WSE can elect certain pass through benefits. 

Gross billings are invoiced to each EAS and HCM client, concurrently with each periodic payroll.  Revenues are  offset by payroll cost component and pass through cost which are presented on a net basis for revenue recognition.  WSEs perform their services at the client’s worksite. The Company assumes responsibility for processing and remitting payroll to the WSE and payroll related obligations, it does not assume employment-related responsibilities such as determining the amount of the payroll and related payroll obligations. Revenues that have been recognized but not invoiced are included in unbilled accounts receivable on the Company’s consolidated balance sheets were $1.8 million and $2.1 million, as of August 31, 2023 and August 31, 2022, respectively. Client who pay in advance of their invoice, the amount is recognized as a liability.

Our Services

Figure 3

Our core business is to provide regular payroll processing services to clients under an employment administrative services (“EAS”) model in addition to individual services, such as payroll tax compliance, workers’ compensation insurance coverage related services, and employee HR compliance management. In addition, in November 2019, we launched our employee onboarding and employee scheduling functionalities to our customers through our mobile smartphone application. In Fiscal 2021, we began to operate under a direct staffing business model. 

Our core EAS are typically provided to our clients for one-year renewable terms. We expect that our future service offerings, including technology-based services provided through our HRIS platform, will provide for additional revenue streams and support cost reductions for existing and future clients. We expect that our future services will be offered through “a la carte” pricing via customizable online contracts under our HCM services model as well as through our direct staffing business model.  Our staffing services are typically provided to our clients under recurring revenue contracts with one of our subsidiaries.

We intend to use our growth initiatives to leverage our expansion by entering into client services agreements (“CSAs”) with national accounts at regional levels and the various restaurant brands that we are working to launch through ShiftPixy Labs. As such, these growth initiatives are expected to increase our core staffing services billings, revenues, gross profit, and operating leverage organically. We may also support our growth by performing new business acquisitions. Further, the new Gig Economy has given rise to controversy regarding the classification of many workers as “independent contractors”, rather than traditional employees, while the rising trend of predictive scheduling creates logistical issues for our clients’ management of their workers’ schedules. We provide solutions to businesses struggling with these compliance issues primarily by absorbing our clients’ workers, whom we refer to as WSEs (as well as “shift workers,” “shifters,” “gig workers,” or “assigned employees”). WSEs are included under our corporate employee umbrella as traditional employees who receive W-2s and are entitled to participate in a full array of benefits that we provide as part of our services for our clients. This arrangement benefits WSEs by providing additional work opportunities through access to our clients. WSEs further benefit from employee status and access to benefits through our plan offerings, including minimum essential health insurance coverage and 401(k) plans, as well as workers’ compensation coverage.

Technological Solution

Our HRIS platform consists of a closed proprietary operating and processing information system that provides a tool for businesses needing staffing flexibility to schedule existing employees and to post open schedule slots to be filled by an available pool of shift workers (the “ShiftPixy Ecosystem”). The ShiftPixy Ecosystem provides the following benefits for our clients:

During Fiscal 2019, we added a scheduling component to our application that enables our clients to schedule workers and to identify shift gaps that need to be filled. We use artificial intelligence (“AI”) to maintain schedules and fulfillment, using an active methodology to engage and move people to action. Included in this scheduling component is our “shift intermediation” functionality, which is designed to enable our WSEs to receive information and accept available shift work opportunities at multiple worksite locations. Our embedded AI is designed to monitor and accelerate the matching of WSEs with gig work opportunities. Our system monitors the capabilities of each WSE based on their work experience, needs, and training and provides messaging to clients and WSEs. The system matches worker requirements such as hours, position, and pay rate with client requirements such as experience, pay offered, hours offered and both employee and employer ratings. Similar to the way gig drivers are matched with gig riders through a smartphone app, our gig client opportunities are matched with WSEs for improved open job fulfillment. We believe this job fulfillment automation, using our HRIS platform, provides real-time human capital information to our clients and is a significant product differentiation feature.

Our goal is to have a mature and robust hosted cloud-based HRIS platform coupled with a seamless and technically sophisticated mobile smartphone application that will act as both a revenue generation system as well as a “viral” client acquisition engine through the combination of the scheduling, delivery, and intermediation features and interactions. We believe that once a critical mass of clients and WSEs is achieved, more shift opportunities will be created in the industries we serve. Our approach to achieving this critical mass is currently focused to build a national staffing footprint.

We expect our current business plan that focusses on acquisitions that is expected to be funded with either debt or stock, to be key drivers in supplying a significant number of WSEs across a national footprint and achieving the critical mass necessary for our technology to flourish. The development and integration of these vertical markets for our current business plan for bulk onboarding of WSEs is the focus of our growth. .  

Opportunity

Shortly after the beginning of the pandemic, once it became clear that the business interruption would be prolonged and more extensive than originally contemplated, our management team began to make adaptations to our business strategy to capitalize on the pandemic related disruptions and what we believed to be the opportunities that would arise during a recovery. We realized that the COVID-19 pandemic created an employment shock that required a revised strategy and opened up opportunities to capitalize on a disrupted market. Our growth initiatives were created out of the changes underway in the early part of the pandemic and included new go-to-market strategies, and new service lines.

We see our opportunities to be multi-faceted. Our business strategy is to monetize our HRIS platform within observed and expected disruptions to the human capital market. We have designed our customer engagement to be agile in meeting the needs of a disrupted workforce and a rapidly changing work environment. The Company was founded, in part, with the goal to be properly positioned with a valuable service offering for the human capital marketplace and thereby ready to capitalize on the next wave of disruption.

According to an article from Forbes dated July 21, 2022 (“3 Reasons Businesses Are Tapping Into The Gig Economy”), The gig economy is booming, and business leaders are taking note. From the C-suite on down, Mercer’s 2022 Global Talent Trends report shows that gig is becoming a favored strategy, with six in 10 executives embracing this work model. The increase in preference for gig workers is not surprising considering the exponential growth the gig economy has seen in recent months. Ballooning by 30% during the pandemic, the gig workforce is now on track to surpass the full-time workforce in size by 2027. This phenomenon has prompted changes in business strategies that will assist organizations as they battle labor shortages, inflation, and prepare for the future of work.

According to an article from Zippia dated September 22, 2022 ("23 essential gig economy statistics 2022")

  We have observed the following pattern in the development of the gig economy over the past fifteen years:

Figure 5

Each economic crisis creates chaos and disruption along with significant opportunities once recovery ensues. Our veteran management team has observed and learned from the technological and economic trends of the past 25 years, along with the resultant changes to the human capital markets, including the dot.com bubble, post 9/11 economic shocks, and the two more recent financial crises: the 2008 “Great Recession” and the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. We observed the creation of an entirely new approach to part time “gig” work after the 2008 economic crisis with the rise of companies that eschewed the traditional employer-employee relationship in favor of an “independent contractor” model, and which primarily focused on driver and delivery services. The resultant employment opportunities typically produced lower paying jobs that required a lower level of skill and expertise, and often deprived workers of health and welfare benefits that are typical, and often required, in the traditional employer-employee relationship. We call these early gig worker companies, like Uber and Postmates, “Legacy Gig” companies, which emerged in large numbers after the Great Recession. These companies experienced significant growth within five years of the 2008 crisis by capitalizing on a combination of factors, including the economic recovery itself, the companies’ ability to find a technological solution for the desire of the workforce to find more flexible work options, and the growing proliferation and sophistication of mobile smartphones. While these Legacy Gig providers have enjoyed great success, they are now facing significant pushback from regulatory authorities from their decision to embrace the independent contractor business model, which is under attack as a means of depriving employees of significant benefits and protections while evading traditional employer tax obligations.  

The lessons learned from the Legacy Gig providers and the demographic shifts underpinning their success gave rise to the founding of ShiftPixy.  In 2015, our founders Pixy evaluated the Legacy Gig businesses and believed that there was a need in the marketplace for a lower wage “gig” service provider to treat its workers as employees, with all of the traditional benefits and protections that employees have historically enjoyed, while also providing the flexibility that is the hallmark of the gig economy. The ShiftPixy Ecosystem and our HRIS platform were designed and continue to be enhanced with this goal in mind. The launch of ShiftPixy in 2015 coincided with the widespread adoption of smartphones throughout the population, making the marriage of WSEs and business on a distributed network on a grand scale possible.   

Our business plan at inception was premised upon our belief that gig workers would eventually migrate away from an independent contractor to a more traditional employee/employer relationship that nonetheless provides the range of flexibility and choice commonly desired by workers in the gig economy. We also recognized a gap in the marketplace where traditional HR service providers were not providing a comprehensive services suite for gig workers on a level comparable to that typically provided to higher wage or salaried employees. We also came to recognize the likelihood that governmental regulators and tax authorities would ultimately object to the prevalent use of independent contractors by private businesses as a means to avoid paying certain taxes and avoid providing traditional employment benefits to their workers, and we believe that recent actions by federal, state and local governments have proved our predictions to be accurate. Therefore, as our business plan has evolved, we have avoided an independent contractor model, which we do not believe to be sustainable, in favor of a staffing model through which we employ our clients’ WSEs and provide them with a full range of traditional benefits. 

Figure 6

More recently, there have been significant workplace shocks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasingly and as is well documented in news media, those companies employing lower wage employees are experiencing significantly increased employee turnover and higher recruiting costs. We believe that the broader employment marketplace is undergoing a fundamental shift towards a new “Future Gig” workplace and further believe that ShiftPixy is well positioned to capitalize on the combination of a near term economic recovery and the longer-term demographic shift of younger and lower paid workers to a temporary and flexible work environment, as was seen with the early gig service provider business models. The financial markets have already recognized this opportunity in the growth and high value of companies focusing on the higher end salary or contract employment for professionals or creative personnel (as contractors and employees) and lower pay scale workers (as contractors) as well as significant investment in third party delivery.  We believe that our commitment to a full employment staffing model, through which our WSEs are provided with a range of traditional employment benefits, uniquely positions us to attract Future Gig workers to our HRIS platform and the ShiftPixy Ecosystem. 

Third party delivery constitutes an important part of our overall strategy to supply our clients with highly qualified WSEs at an affordable price while allowing them to regain control over their brands. Throughout the pandemic, many of our clients were forced to cede control over their brands to large third-party delivery services such as Postmates and UberEats to ensure their survival. The result was not only a dissipation of profits, but also a loss of control over the delivery experience and, in many cases, a decline in customer loyalty and goodwill. We believe that QSRs require more control over the delivery experience to ensure their future success which, in turn, requires more flexibility that can only be achieved through digital engagement. Our technology platform is designed with this goal in mind, focusing on real-time business intelligence for human capital while also providing additional key data capture that is critical to QSR success.

We had had made substantial investment that has been made in “ghost” kitchens, which we had believe to make significant changes in restaurant industry. We believe that our existing relationships with QSRs provide us with unique insight into the vulnerabilities and opportunities created by this third-party consumer disruption, and the primary work of ShiftPixy Labs is devoted to maximizing the monetization of this disruption through the creation and optimization of new vertical markets and opportunities, with the goal of creating additional shareholder value. However, we decided to delay the launch of the Ghost kitchen or Labs and the Company did not have enough capital to execute its business plans.

Markets and Marketing

Overview

Our products and services are designed primarily to help from the small to large sized businesses thrive in the gig economy by providing a cost-effective, legally compliant means to fulfill their staffing needs.  As noted above, the worldwide trend toward a gig economy has been fueled largely by the widespread adoption of smartphones, which provide the technological means for remote office workers to move away from the traditional centralized workplace.

Most 18-to 30-year-old workers use a smartphone.  This, in turn, has led to a significant disruption of the traditional employer-employee relationship, with supply management firm Ardent Partners reporting as far back as 2016 that nearly 42% of the world’s total workforce was considered “non-employee”, which includes temporary staff, gig workers, freelancers, and independent contractors. 

We have designed our mobile application to take full advantage of this fundamental shift to the gig economy, which has been fueled by the near universal adoption of smartphones. Our initial marketing efforts focused on small and medium sized businesses struggling to find and maintain workers in the gig economy. In particular, we have targeted the restaurant and hospitality industries, which are characterized by high turnover and often use independent contractors to perform less than full-time gig engagements, primarily in the form of shift work. A significant problem for these businesses, along with many others in a wide variety of industries, involves compliance with employment related regulations imposed by federal, state and local governments. Requirements associated with workers’ compensation insurance, and other traditional employment compliance issues, including the employer mandate provisions of the ACA, create compliance challenges and increased costs. The compliance challenges are often complicated by “workaround” solutions to which many employers resort to avoid characterizing employees as “full-time” in an often futile attempt to avoid fines and penalties.

We believe that our services and HRIS platform provide a cost-effective, fully compliant solution for small businesses facing increasingly complex regulations and related litigation governing the classification and use of independent contractors. Recently in California, where most of our WSEs currently reside, legislation was passed that defines gig workers employed by Legacy Gig companies such as Lyft and Uber as employees rather than independent contractors, which we believe was a direct governmental response to a considerable loss of tax revenue derived from categorizing these WSEs as independent contractors. In November 2020, California voters passed Proposition 22, which nominally had the effect of repealing this legislation and restoring independent contractor status with respect to “app-based drivers.” Nevertheless, Proposition 22 also instituted various labor and wage policies that are specific to app-based drivers and their employers that do not apply to other independent contractors, including: (i) minimum wage requirements; (ii) working hours limitations; (iii) requiring companies to pay healthcare subsidies under certain circumstances; and (iv) requiring companies to provide or make available occupational accident insurance and accidental death insurance to their app-based drivers. We believe that there is an increasing likelihood that other states and municipalities will impose similar mandates in the near future, which will likely include, at a minimum, wage and benefit provisions similar to those guaranteed by Proposition 22.

Figure 7

Source: 11^th Annual State of Independence in America, Data Highlights & Preview | August 2021 MBO Partners

Prior Focus and Marketing Efforts

Our business model provides a solution to this likely regulatory change by absorbing workers for these types of gig economy companies as our employees, significantly limiting the risk of litigation, fines and other related issues.  Our early market focus was on the food service and hospitality industries, based primarily upon our understanding of the issues and challenges facing QSRs. Some of the key features incorporated in our mobile smartphone application to address these challenges include: (i) scheduling and intermediation functionality, which is designed to enhance the client’s experience through easy WSE scheduling and reducing turnover impact, and (ii) delivery functionality, which is designed to increase revenues through “in house” delivery fulfillment, thereby reducing delivery costs while creating a better customer experience and elevated engagement.

One of the most recent significant developments in the food and hospitality industry has been the rapid rise of third-party restaurant delivery Legacy Gig providers such as Uber Eats^TM, GrubHub^TM, and DoorDash^TM.  These providers have facilitated an increase in quick service restaurant or QSR sales in many local markets by providing food delivery to a wide-scale audience using independent contractor delivery drivers. Nevertheless, we have observed two significant issues negatively impacting on our clients as a result of their increased reliance upon third party delivery providers that have been widely reported. The first issue is the large revenue share typically being paid to third-party delivery providers as delivery fees. These additional costs erode QSR profits that would otherwise be generated by additional sales made through the delivery channel.  The second issue is that our QSR clients have encountered logistical problems with food deliveries, including late deliveries, cold food, missing accessories, and unfriendly delivery people.  This has caused significant “brand erosion”, causing these clients to reconsider third-party delivery.

While some larger chain restaurants have mitigated these additional costs and risks by moving to either a centralized food fulfillment center (commissary) or a “ghost” kitchen solution for their third-party delivery system, our clients typically lack the resources to follow this example. Our ShiftPixy Labs growth initiative, (described in more detail, below), focuses on addressing this issue for these smaller QSR operators through the use of our technology.  Our HRIS platform allows our QSR clients to manage food deliveries in a cost-effective manner by using their own WSEs, (for whom we serve as the legal employer), through a customized “white label” mobile application. Our delivery feature links this “white label” delivery ordering system to our delivery solution, thereby freeing our clients to showcase their brands throughout the mobile ordering process while retaining back-office delivery functionality on a par with that offered by the Legacy Gig providers, including scheduling, ordering, and delivery status pushed to a customer’s smart phone. The first development phase of this aspect of our platform focused on driver onboarding functionality, which we completed during our fiscal year ended August 31, 2019 ("Fiscal 2019"). Additional features currently under development or already implemented allow us to “micro meter” the essential commercial insurance coverages required by our operator clients on a delivery-by-delivery basis (workers’ compensation and auto coverages), thereby overcoming a significant obstacle encountered by QSRs seeking to provide their own delivery services without relying on a Legacy Gig provider.

Our technology platform and approach to human capital management also provides a unique window into the daily demands of quick server restaurants (“QSR) operators, giving us the ability to extend our technology and engagement to optimize this self-delivery proposition. We expect our most recent enhancements to our driver management layer for operators in the ShiftPixy Ecosystem to allow our clients to use their own team members to control the delivery process from start to finish, yielding a more positive customer experience. We believe that our mobile application already provides the HR compliance, management and insurance solutions necessary to support a delivery option and create a turnkey self-delivery opportunity for the individual QSR operator.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our marketing efforts, along with its broader impact on the gig economy, appears to be mixed. According to a recent report issued by AppJobs through its Future Work Institute, the pandemic has fueled an increase in global demand for remote services such as delivery, online surveys and market research, while the demand for positions requiring entry into the home, such as house-sitting, babysitting and cleaning, has declined by 36%. Our experience with the bulk of our clients during the height of the pandemic largely confirms this research. Specifically, we observed a significant decline in our food and hospitality billed WSEs located in our Southern California markets during mid-March 2020, which coincided with the shutdown of many of our quick QSR clients’ dining locations. We began to experience some recovery in early May 2020, as various lockdown measures were relaxed and many restaurant operators created “work-around” solutions to new health and safety regulations, including improved takeout and delivery, as well as limited in-person dining. The reimplementation of lockdowns from November 2020 through February 2021 negatively impacted our WSE billings, although this was tempered somewhat by the receipt of COVID-19 related government payments such as the PPP Loan program.  As of August 31, 2023, we have seen a recovery, and it is clear to us that the commercial landscape in the restaurant industry has moved towards a mix between restaurant delivered meals compared to in-person dining. Our ShiftPixy Labs initiative is largely designed to address this shift in demand. However, the commercial launch of Labs has been delayed to a future date until there is enough capital and proper staffing.  

Figure 8

Market expansion

We view our ability to capture and utilize information pertaining to our target demographic to be integral to our future expansion and revenue growth. Although our clients were principally concentrated in Southern California, we believe that our expanded go-to-market strategy focused on building a national account portfolio managed by a newly-formed regional team of senior sales executives and ShiftPixy Labs initiatives have the potential, if successful, to result in the addition of a significant number of WSEs to the ShiftPixy ecosystem, covering a truly national footprint. Our current technology efforts are devoted to ensuring that our HRIS platform has the capacity to take full advantage of this projected future growth, which we believe is likely to result from the following factors:

Figure 9

Growth Initiatives

Our recent growth initiatives incorporate lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and are designed to utilize our technology in a manner that maximizes growth and profitability. The ultimate success of our business model depends upon the entry of significant numbers of WSEs into the ShiftPixy Ecosystem through placement on our HRIS platform. The effectiveness of this platform, however, depends upon substantial cash flows to support our existing operating structure and ensure that our technology is sufficiently advanced to support our business model.

As our client acquisitions slowed during the height of the pandemic in Calendar 2020, we began to re-evaluate our customer acquisition and revenue growth strategies and to identify opportunities arising from the pandemic disruption, which we view as similar in scale and scope to the disruption observed after the 2008 financial crisis that gave rise to the first gig economy businesses. Our response has been to pursue two complementary alternatives to organic growth that we believe will create additional shareholder value without significant shareholder equity dilution: (i) sponsorship of SPACs, including IHC; and (ii) development of ShiftPixy Labs.

Transformative Sales Growth Strategy

ShiftPixy has put into motion an agile business development plan for rapid organic growth to focus on building scalable long-term revenue creation to become the market leader in U.S. contingent labor through increasingly diverse service offerings.  By helping Fortune 1000 companies rethink human capital, ShiftPixy’s novel technology and proprietary sourcing tools will disrupt not only traditional thinking about staffing, but also provide a cure to toxic employee turnover and thus provide labor cost certainty.

This new and compelling go-to-market strategy will leverage the recently expanded staffing platform on the ShiftPixy Human Resources Information System (“HRIS”) that offers clients an industry-leading digital and mobile technology to handle the duties and demands of human capital management at enormous scale.  An enhanced value proposition will offer clients automation, acceleration, liberation, and indemnification, thus driving growth and delivering value to stakeholders while also increasing our market share.  Successful execution of this sales growth plan will leave ShiftPixy strategically positioned for secular growth in the $123 billion temporary and contract employment staffing market in the U.S.

The Company’s transformative sales growth strategy will capitalize on several economic developments in attractive vertical markets including retail, skilled trades, logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality.  A sustained surge in e-commerce is driving the need for supply chain expansions that require additional warehouses and the labor necessary to expedite delivery and returns.  Likewise, a re-focus on domestic manufacturing capacity expansion for critical technology and an acute labor supply gap is leading to a surge in demand for ShiftPixy’s contingent and flexible skilled labor pool.  Additional tailwinds supporting our growth strategy include positive demographic trends as the labor market reprioritizes flexibility, control, and access to job opportunities anywhere and anytime.

ShiftPixy’s business development plan offers immediate solutions to critical workflow challenges for human capital acquisition, talent management, labor force retention, worker supply chain disruptions, and runaway hiring costs. ShiftPixy’s continuous improvement of its client and candidate experience elevates engagement and satisfaction for neglected contingent and temporary workers. The Company’s current sales plan strategy is expected to create one of the largest employers in the U.S. and build the fastest growing flexible labor force to meet the demands of a fast-changing human capital market while ushering significant enterprise value creation and recurring revenue growth for our shareholders.

ShiftPixy Labs

On July 29, 2020, we announced the launch of ShiftPixy Labs, which includes the development of ghost kitchens in conjunction with our wholly owned subsidiary, ShiftPixy Ghost Kitchens, Inc. Through this initiative, we intend to bring various food delivery concepts to market that will combine with our HRIS platform to create an easily replicated, comprehensive food preparation and delivery solution. The initial phase of this initiative was planned to have a  dedicated showcase kitchen facility located in close proximity to our Miami headquarters.

The migration towards a ghost kitchen delivery solution appears to have followed a two-step process. Initially, the increased demand for third party delivery allowed restaurants to utilize existing physical locations that would otherwise have been closed due to COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. This evolved into the deployment of centralized ghost kitchen facilities by certain “early adopter” companies once they observed a critical mass of order flow. This more centralized fulfillment option results in more economical bulk purchasing, reduced food spoilage, lower overhead, and better and more automated order completion flow.  These improved economies of scale typically translate to significant cost reductions to operators compared to the traditional “in-person” restaurant locations, typically located in more expensive real estate locations.

We believed that the restaurant industry was in the midst of a food fulfillment paradigm shift that will ultimately result in the widespread use of “ghost kitchens” in a shared environment.  Similar to shared office work locations, a shared kitchen can provide significant cost efficiencies and savings compared to the cost of operating multiple retail restaurant locations. Coupled with ShiftPixy’s technology stack, which includes order delivery and dispatch, we believe that the ghost kitchen solutions that emerge from ShiftPixy Labs will provide a robust and effective delivery order fulfillment option for our clients.  However, the Company has delayed the commercial launch until there is enough capital to execute its business plans.  

Many restaurant entrepreneurs have also become successful during the pandemic by moving outside through the use of mobile food trucks, which can be used as a launching point for restaurants and ultimately expanded to traditional indoor dining locations. We have researched this phenomenon and, coupled with our experience in the restaurant industry, believe a significant business opportunity exists to assist with the fulfillment of new restaurant ideas and rapidly expand those ideas across a broad geographic footprint utilizing centralized ghost kitchen fulfillment centers. Again, we believe that ShiftPixy Labs will provide solutions that will facilitate the rapid growth of these new businesses, through a combination of centralized ghost kitchens and an available pool of human capital resources provided through our HRIS platform, as well as through other business assistance provided by our management team. 

We established an industrial facility in Miami that we expect to be fully completed and operational shortly We are equipping this facility with ten standardized kitchen stations in both single and double kitchen configurations built within standard cargo container shells. We expect this facility, upon completion, to function as a state-of-the-art ghost kitchen space that will be used to incubate restaurant ideas through collaboration and partnerships with local innovative chefs, resulting in sound businesses that provide recurring revenue to ShiftPixy in a variety of ways, both through direct sales and utilization of the ShiftPixy Ecosystem, HRIS platform, and other human capital services. To the extent that this business model is successful and can be replicated in other locations, it has the potential to contribute significant revenue to ShiftPixy in the future.

Competition

We have two primary sources of competition. Competitors to our gig business model include businesses such as Upworks, ShiftGig, Instawork, Snag, Jobletics and other comparable businesses that seek to arrange short-term work assignments for both employees and independent contractors. Competitors to our HRIS platform include businesses such as True Blue, Inc., Kelly Services, ManpowerGroup, and Barrett Business Services, which provide human resource software solutions.

We believe our service offerings compete effectively based on our strategy of combining an ecosystem of employment services with the individualized ability to link trained workers to specific shift-work opportunities and by providing additional work opportunities, as well as facilitating procurement of low-cost workers’ compensation insurance for our clients.

Governmental Regulation

Our business operates in an environment that is affected by numerous complex federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to labor and employment matters, benefit plans and income and employment taxes. Further, many jurisdictions have adopted laws or regulations regarding the licensure, registration or certifications of organizations that engage in co-employer relationships. While we do not believe that our business model generally falls within the co-employer framework, it is possible that we could become subject to such laws and regulations if we are deemed to have entered into such relationships with regard to employees providing services in the jurisdictions where such laws and regulations apply.

The following summarizes what we believe are currently the most important legal and regulatory aspects of our business:

Federal Regulations

Employer Status

We sponsor certain employee benefit plan offerings as the “employer” of our shift workers under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). The multiple definitions of “employer” under both the Code and ERISA are not clear and are defined in part by complex multi-factor tests under common law. We believe that we qualify as an “employer” of our shift workers under both the Code and ERISA, as well as various state regulations, but this status could be subject to challenge by various regulators. For additional information on employer status and its impact on our business and results of operations, refer to the section entitled “Risk Factors,” under the heading “If we are not recognized as an employer of WSEs under federal and state regulations, or we are deemed to be an insurance agent or third-party administrator, we and our clients could be adversely impacted.”

Affordable Care Act and Health Care Reform

The ACA was signed into law in March 2010. The ACA implemented substantial health care reforms with staggered effective dates continuing through Calendar 2020, and many of its provisions require the issuance of additional guidance from applicable federal government agencies and the states. There could be significant changes to the ACA and health care in general, including the potential modification, amendment or repeal of the ACA. For additional information on the ACA and its impact on our business and results of operations, refer to the section entitled “Risk Factors,” under the heading, “Failure to comply with, or changes in, laws and regulations applicable to our business, particularly potential changes to the ACA, could have a materially adverse effect on our marketing plan as well as our reputation, results of operations or financial condition, or have other adverse consequences.” The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 effectively eliminated the individual mandate provisions of the ACA, beginning in 2019.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

Maintaining the security of information regarding our employees is important to us as we sponsor employee benefit plans and may have access to the personal health information of our employees. The manner in which we manage protected health information (PHI) is subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the “HITECH Act”). HIPAA contains substantial restrictions and health data privacy, security and breach notification requirements with respect to the use and disclosure of PHI. Further, under the HITECH Act there are steep penalties and fines for HIPAA violations. Our health plans are covered entities under HIPAA, and we are therefore required to comply with HIPAA’s portability, privacy, and security requirements. For additional information regarding the information we collect, how we maintain the confidentiality of our clients’ and employees’ confidential information and the potential impact to our business if we fail to protect the confidentiality of such data, refer to the section entitled “Risk Factors,” under the heading, “We collect, use, transmit and store personal and business information with the use of data service vendors, and a security or privacy breach may damage or disrupt our businesses, result in the disclosure of confidential information, damage our reputation, increase our costs or cause losses.”

State Regulations

Many states have adopted provisions for licensure, registration, certification or other formal recognition of co-employers. Such laws vary from state to state but generally provide for monitoring or ensuring the fiscal responsibility of a co-employer, and in some cases codify and clarify the co-employment relationship for unemployment, workers’ compensation and other purposes under state laws. While we believe that our current business primarily falls outside the scope of these laws and regulations, it is possible that regulatory authorities could determine that our activities come under this regulatory framework to some extent. In addition, many state laws require guarantees by us of the activities of our wholly owned subsidiary, ReThink Human Capital Management, Inc. (“HCM”), and in some states we may seek licensure, registration or certification, as applicable, together with our subsidiary, HCM, because the financials for both organizations are consolidated. We believe that we are in compliance in all material respects with the requirements in the states where we are conducting business.

We must also comply with state unemployment tax requirements where our clients are located. State unemployment taxes are based on taxable wages and tax rates assigned by each state. The tax rates vary by state and are determined, in part, based on our prior years’ compensation and unemployment claims experience in each state. Certain rates are also determined, in part, by each client’s own compensation and unemployment claims experience. In addition, states have the ability under law to increase unemployment tax rates, including retroactively, to cover deficiencies in the unemployment tax funds.

We are also subject to Federal and state laws and regulations regarding privacy and information security. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, (the “CCPA” which went into effect on January 1, 2020), affords consumers expanded privacy protections, including individual rights to access, to require deletion of personal information, to opt out of certain personal information sharing, and to receive detailed information about how personal information is used. The CCPA also provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that may increase data breach litigation. There are also a number of other pending state privacy laws that contain similar provisions to the CCPA with which we must comply and which, in some cases, may prescribe stricter and potentially conflicting requirements.

Intellectual Property

We have registered seven trademarks, consisting of three names (ShiftPixy, ZiPixy, and ShiftPixy Labs) and four logos (the Pixy image, the Pixy wings image and wings/name logo, and the ShiftPixy Labs logo). In addition, we have patents pending for certain features of our mobile application in the United States, Australia, Brazil, European Union, India, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. We have other intellectual property and related rights as well, particularly in connection with our software. We believe that our intellectual property is of considerable importance to our business.

Human Capital

As of August 31, 2023, we employed 31 people on a full-time basis in our corporate offices.

Diversity and Inclusion

We maintain a diverse and inclusive workforce in our corporate offices, and we encourage our clients to embrace similar practices. Approximately 35% of our corporate employees are women, including, effective January 1, 2022, our recently named Chief Operating Officer, Amanda Murphy, (who is a member of our board of directors), and our Chief Marketing Officer, Amy Wang, and approximately 29% of our corporate employees are non-white (6% Asian, 71% and Hispanic). We encourage our clients to employ the same practices that we use to ensure diversity in the workplace, which has resulted in an extremely diverse WSE population.  Our efforts include the preparation and distribution of employee manuals internally and to our clients that fully incorporate diversity and inclusion best practices, as well as implementation of robust training programs that we believe to be most effective in eliminating and preventing harassment, bullying and bias in the workplace.

Workforce Compensation and Pay Equity

We provide robust compensation and benefits programs to help meet the needs of our corporate employees, and we also provide the means for our clients to provide similar benefits to their WSEs, many of which have traditionally been unavailable to gig workers and others filling lower wage positions. We provide our corporate employees with highly competitive salaries, as well as a 401(k) Plan, healthcare and insurance benefits, paid time off, and family leave. We also provide all of our corporate employees with targeted equity-based grants with vesting conditions designed to facilitate the retention of personnel and the opportunity to benefit financially from the Company’s growth and profitability.

We also believe that adoption of the ShiftPixy HRIS platform by our clients has had, and will continue to have, far-reaching effects in bringing pay equity to historically lower wage positions, by harnessing the power of the internet-driven gig economy to provide WSEs the ability and freedom to find the best work opportunities available.  The cost efficiencies our clients realize though adoption of the ShiftPixy technology platform, in our opinion, provides the means for them not only to pay higher wages, but also to provide substantial employment benefits not often available to lower wage workers in the modern economy, including access to healthcare and insurance benefits and 401(k) Plans.

Talent Acquisition and Retention

We continually monitor corporate employee turnover rates and those of our clients, as we firmly believe that our success and that of our business partners depends upon retaining highly trained and dedicated team members. We are convinced that our philosophy of providing highly competitive compensation, along with significant opportunities for career growth and development opportunities, encourages longer employment tenure and low levels of voluntary turnover. Given our limited operating history and significant rate of growth, we are not currently able to produce meaningful statistics related to corporate employee turnover and tenure on a macro level, but based on feedback we receive both informally and through periodic formal reviews and evaluations, we believe that our relationship with our corporate employees is excellent.

Company Culture

We expect all of our corporate employees to observe the highest levels of business ethics, integrity, mutual respect, tolerance, and inclusivity, and encourage our clients to demand the same from WSEs. Our Corporate Employee Manual, and those employee manuals that we provide to our clients, set forth detailed provisions reflecting these values, and provide direction for registering complaints, (including through an anonymous hotline jointly administered by our General Counsel and the Chair of our Audit Committee), in the event of violations of our policies. Our executive officers and supervisors maintain “open door” policies, and we encourage our clients to do the same. Any form of retaliation is strictly prohibited.

Development and Training

We invest significant resources in developing and retaining the talent needed to achieve our business goals. We maintain a relatively “flat” corporate organizational structure, whereby our employees benefit from training and mentoring by individuals filling a variety of different functions within ShiftPixy, and we encourage our clients to follow our example. We believe that this highly dynamic environment provides the hands-on training necessary for our corporate employees and WSEs to achieve their career goals, build necessary skills, and advance within their fields.

Oversight and Governance

Our board of directors takes an active role in overseeing our corporate ethics as well as the management of our human capital, which includes reviewing, approving, and implementing policies and procedures governing the administration of the workplace, such as policies related to potential conflicts of interest, compensation, ethics, and elimination of workplace bias and harassment. Our Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Murphy, who is also a member of our board of directors, has been employed by the Company since its inception, and is responsible for the day-to-day administration of these policies and procedures, receiving input and assistance from the Company’s General Counsel as necessary and appropriate. Both our Director of Operations and General Counsel regularly report to our board of directors on issues related to corporate oversight and governance.

Employee Engagement and Wellness

The success of our business is fundamentally connected to the well-being of our people. Accordingly, we are committed to the health, safety and wellness of our corporate employees, and we encourage our clients to make this a priority for their WSEs. We provide our corporate employees and facilitate our clients by providing WSEs with a wide range of benefits, including benefits directed to their health, safety and long-term financial security. This includes taking whatever measures remain necessary in response to COVID-19 pandemic that we determine to be in the best interests of our corporate employees and our client’s WSEs, as well as the communities in which we operate, and which comply with government regulations.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

During Fiscal 2021, the Company made a strategic decision to change its approach to securing workers’ compensation coverage for our clients. This was primarily due to rapidly increasing loss development factors stemming in part from the COVID-19 pandemic. The combination of increased claims from WSEs, the inability of WSEs to obtain employment quickly and return to work after injury claims and increasing loss development factor rates from our insurance and reinsurance carriers resulted in significantly larger potential loss exposures, claims payments, and additional expense accruals. Starting on January 1, 2021, we began to migrate our clients to our new direct cost program, which we believe significantly limits our claims exposure. Effective March 1, 2021, all of our clients had migrated to the direct cost program.

PART I

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described below, that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, and the trading price of our common stock. Some statements in this Form 10-K, including statements in the following risk factors, constitute forward-looking statements. Please refer to the section entitled “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” for more information.

Summary of Material Risk Factors

Risks Relating to Our Business

We have a limited operating history, which makes it difficult for us to evaluate our future business prospects and make decisions based on those estimates for our future performance.

We are an emerging business and are in the process of developing our products and services. We have been in business since July 2015. Although our continuing business processed gross billings of over $39.0 million and $52.2 million for Fiscal 2023, and Fiscal 2022, respectively, it is still difficult, if not impossible, to forecast our future results based upon our limited historical operating data. Because of the related uncertainties, we may be hindered in our ability to anticipate and timely adapt to increases or decreases in sales, revenues or expenses. If we make poor budgetary decisions as a result of unreliable data, our gross billings in the future may decline, which may result in a decline in our stock price.

We currently do not have any commitments to secure additional financing at this time and do not have any commitments to acquire any other businesses or assets. Our long-term future growth and success, including implementation of our growth initiatives, as described above, are dependent not only upon our ability to generate cash from operating activities but also our ability to raise additional capital. Nevertheless, there is no assurance that we will be able to generate sufficient cash from operations, to borrow additional funds or to raise additional equity capital. Our inability to obtain additional cash through any of these avenues could have a material adverse effect on our ability to fully implement our business plan as described herein and grow our business.

We maintained limited self-insurance for the workers’ compensation services that we provide to our clients. If we experience claims in excess of our collected premiums, we might incur additional losses, higher costs, and reduced margins, resulting in a need for more liquidity.

We are responsible for and pay workers’ compensation costs for our WSEs. Until March 1, 2021, we self-insured for up to $500,000 per occurrence and we purchased reinsurance for claims in excess of $500,000. After March 1, 2021, our workers’ compensation coverage moved to a prepaid premium model that does not require us to record additional reserves. Our workers’ compensation billings are designed to cover expected claims based on insurance annuity calculations. These calculations are based on our claims experienced during our limited operating history. At times, these costs have risen substantially as a result of increased claims and claim trends, general economic conditions, changes in business mix, increases in healthcare costs, and government regulations. Although we carry insurance and believe that we currently have reserves sufficient to insulate us against projected losses, any unexpected changes in claim trends, including the severity and frequency of claims, actuarial estimates, and medical cost inflation, could result in us exceeding these projections. If future claims-related liabilities increase due to unforeseen circumstances, or if new laws, rules, or regulations are implemented, costs could increase significantly. There can be no assurance that we will be able to increase the fees charged to our clients in a timely manner and in a sufficient amount to cover increased costs as a result of any changes in claims-related liabilities.

There is no guarantee that our current cash position, expected revenue growth and anticipated financing transactions will be sufficient to fund our operations for the next twelve months.

The Company expects to raise capital from additional sales of its securities during this fiscal year either through registered public offerings or private placements, the proceeds of which the Company intends to use to fund its operations and growth initiatives. There can be no assurance that we will be able to sell securities on terms that the Company is seeking, or at all. Management believes that its current cash position, along with its anticipated revenue growth and proceeds from future sales of its securities, when combined with prudent expense management, cannot alleviate substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern and to fund its operations for at least one year from the date the financial statements included in this report are available. If these sources do not provide the capital necessary to fund the Company’s operations during the next twelve months, from the date of the issuance of the financial statement, we  may need to drastically curtail certain aspects of its operations or expansion activities, consider the sale of additional assets, (although the Company would not expect to obtain the expected proceeds on a forced liquidation) or consider other means of financing. The Company can give no assurance that it will be successful in implementing its business plan and obtaining financing on advantageous terms, or that any such additional financing will be available. If the Company is not successful in obtaining the necessary financing, we do not currently have the cash resources to meet our operating commitments for the next twelve months. The consolidated financial statements included in this report do not include any adjustments for this uncertainty. Therefore, management has concluded that Company that there is substantial doubt its ability to continue as a going concern for the next twelve months from the date of the issuance of the financial statement.

As of August 31, 2023, the Company had cash of $0.1 million and a working capital deficit of $51.0 million. During the year ended August 31, 2023, the Company used approximately $9.2 million of cash from its continuing operations and incurred recurring losses, resulting in an accumulated deficit of $226.4 million. As of August 31, 2023, the Company is delinquent with respect to remitting payroll tax payments to the IRS. The Company has retained tax counsel and has been in near constant communication with the IRS regarding processing its Employee Retention Tax Credits (“ERTCs”).  On September 14, 2023, the IRS has a moratorium on processing new ERTC claims and many of the Company’s clients are seeking refunds.

The Company does not know when the IRS will start processing ERTC claims. In addition, the Company has received notices from the IRS that it has approximately $11.8 million for unpaid tax liabilities including penalties and interest outstanding. This is a partial amount of approximately $22.8 million inclusive of the IRS, states, and local jurisdiction outstanding payroll liabilities as of August 31, 2023. Should the IRS determine the collectability of tax be determined to be in jeopardy, the IRS can, with limited notice, levy the Company’s bank accounts and is subject to enforcement collections. ShiftPixy has requested for a collection due process or equivalent hearing, which are subject to enforced collection efforts.  ShiftPixy has also filed for an abatement of additions to the tax and related interest for the failure to make required deposits and the failure to timely pay required tax that are subject to enforced collection.  That request is pending before the IRS Independent Office of Appeals. If the Company can’t get a resolution of the payroll tax issues and related ERTC credits, an appeal to the US Tax Court can be filed.  There is no assurance that the IRS will abate the Company’s penalties, interest, and process new ERTC claims.

Some clients have filed suits against the Company, demanding that the Company take action to file for additional ERTCs for certain tax periods. Until the matter is concluded, and the taxes are paid, the IRS could, subject to its standard processes and the Company’s right to respond, implement collection actions, including such actions as levying against Company bank accounts, to recover the amounts that it calculates to be due and owing.

The Company has taken aggressive steps to reduce its overhead expenses. The Company’s plans and expectations for the next twelve months include raising additional capital which may help fund the Company’s operations and through acquisitions funded by debt and or stock, as the key driver towards its success. In addition, the Company is changing its business model since it is operating at a loss and not generating positive cash flows from operations. The payroll tax liabilities, interest, and penalties are expected to increase based upon the current Company’s business plans may cause the Company to file for bankruptcy in the near future.

Our success depends on adoption of our products and services by our various types of customers. If these potential customers do not accept and acquire our products and services, then our revenue will be severely limited.

The major customer groups to whom we believe our products and services will appeal (i.e. both clients and WSEs who rely upon shift work), may not embrace our products and services. Acceptance of our products and services will depend on several factors, including cost, ease of use, familiarity of use, convenience, timeliness, strategic partnerships, and reliability. If we fail to adequately meet our customers’ needs and expectations, our product offerings may not be competitive and our ability to commence or continue generating revenues could be reduced. We also cannot be sure that our business model will gain wide acceptance among all targeted customer groups. If the market fails to continue to develop, or develops more slowly than we expect, our ability to continue generating revenues could be reduced.

We assume the obligation to make wage, tax, and regulatory payments for WSEs, and, as a result, are exposed to client credit risks.

Under our typical customer service agreement, we assume the obligations to pay the salaries, wages and related benefits costs and payroll taxes for our WSEs. We assume such obligations as an agent, not as a principal, of the client. Our obligations include responsibility for:

If a client does not pay us, our ultimate liability for WSE payroll and benefits costs could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.

If we are unable to effectively manage growth and maintain low operating costs, our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected. (we have seen a decline not growth)

We have experienced rapid growth since our inception, and our plans contemplate significant expansion of our business. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, (including having geographically dispersed offices and employees), or to anticipate and manage our future growth accurately, our business may be adversely affected. If we are unable to manage our expansion and growth effectively, we may be unable to keep our operating costs low or effectively meet the requirements of an ever-growing, geographically dispersed client base. Our business relies on data systems, billing systems and financial reporting and control systems, procedures and controls. Our success in managing our expansion and growth in a cost-effective manner will require us to upgrade and improve these systems, procedures and controls. If we are unable to adapt our systems and put adequate controls in place in a timely manner, our business may be adversely affected. In addition, our growth may place significant demands on our management, and our overall operational and financial resources. A failure on our part to meet any of the foregoing challenges inherent in our growth strategy may have an adverse effect on our results of our operations and financial condition.

Our targeted customer base is diverse, and we face a challenge in adequately meeting each group’s needs.

Because we serve both employers and employees, we must work constantly to understand the needs, standards and requirements of each group and must devote significant resources to developing products and services for their interests. If we do not accurately predict our customers’ needs and expectations, we may expend valuable resources in developing products and services that do not achieve broad acceptance across the markets, and we may fail to grow our business.

We face intense competition across all markets for our services, which may lead to lower revenue or operating margins. Competing forms of Gig Economy oriented staffing management products and services may be more desirable to consumers or may make our products and services obsolete.

Our competitors range in size from diversified global companies with significant research and development resources to small, specialized firms whose narrower service lines may make them more effective in deploying technical, marketing, and financial resources. Barriers to entry in many of our businesses are low and many of the areas in which we compete evolve rapidly with changing and disruptive technologies, shifting user needs, and frequent introductions of new products and services. Our ability to remain competitive depends on our success in making innovative products, devices, and services that appeal to customers.

Companies compete with us based on a growing variety of business models. The competitive pressures described above may cause decreased sales volumes, price reductions, and/or increased operating costs, such as for research and development, marketing, and sales incentives. This may lead to lower revenue, gross margins, and operating income.

There are currently several different competing Gig Economy oriented staffing management product and service technologies that are being marketed to our potential customers. Further development of any of these technologies may lead to advancements in technology that will make our products and services obsolete. Consumers may prefer alternative technologies and products and services. We cannot guarantee that users of Gig Economy oriented staffing management products and services who will be using our products and services will continue to grow within the industry as a whole. Any developments that contribute to the obsolescence of our products and services may substantially impact our business, reducing our ability to generate or sustain revenues.

Providing specialized Gig Economy oriented staffing management products and services is an emerging yet competitive business, and many of our competitors have greater resources that may enable them to compete more effectively.

We compete in the same markets as many companies that offer not only staffing management products and services focused on the Gig Economy but also more traditional staffing management products and services. There are limited barriers to entry and price competition in the industry, particularly from larger, more traditional industry model competitors, is intense with pricing pressures from competitors and clients increasing. New competitors entering our markets may further increase pricing pressures.

We have observed that clients sometimes competitively bid on new contracts, which is a trend that we expect to continue for the foreseeable future. Some of our competitors have greater resources than we, which may enable them to compete more effectively in this market. Our competitors may devote their resources to developing and marketing products and services that will directly compete with our product lines, and new, more efficient competitors may enter the market. If we are unable to successfully compete with existing companies and new entrants to the market, it will have a negative impact on our business and financial condition.

We operate in an immature and rapidly evolving industry and have a relatively new business model, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects.

The industry in which we operate is characterized by rapidly changing regulatory requirements, evolving industry standards and shifting user and client demands. Our business model is also evolving and is different from models used by other companies in our industry. As a result of these factors, the success and future revenue and income potential of our business is uncertain. Any evaluation of our business and our prospects must be considered in light of these risks and uncertainties, some of which relate to our ability to:

If we are unable to successfully address the challenges posed by operating in an immature and rapidly evolving industry and having a relatively new business model, our business could suffer.

We have claims and lawsuits against us that may result in adverse outcomes.

We are subject to a variety of claims and lawsuits. These claims arise from a wide variety of business practices, significant business transactions, operational claims, and employment practices. Adverse outcomes in some or all of these claims may result in significant monetary damages or injunctive relief that could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business. Such litigation and other claims are subject to inherent uncertainties and management’s view of these matters may change in the future. A material adverse impact on our consolidated financial statements could occur for the period in which the effect of an unfavorable outcome becomes probable and reasonably estimable.

We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or file our periodic reports in a timely manner, which may cause adverse effects on our business, may cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and may lead to a decline in stock price.

Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary to provide reliable financial reports in a timely manner. In connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements for Fiscal 2023, we concluded that there were material weaknesses. The Company did not properly or maintain effective entity level monitoring controls over financial reporting and lacked segregation of duties. In addition, the Company did not properly design, implement and constantly operate effective controls over the completeness and accuracy of its penalty and interest calculation associated with its outstanding payroll tax liabilities. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The Company has limited staff in its financial department and the plans on effective; remediating these deficiencies is to engage third-party experts to first review the Company’s financial operations, consider what is the most cost-effective way to assist ShiftPixy to perform  the following:

In addition, the Company did not design or maintain effective controls over its’ service organizations and IT vendors. More specifically, the company did not properly design or implement appropriate user access controls or have controls in place to review applicable complementary user entity controls described in service organizations’ reports for their potential impact on the Company’s financial reporting.

If we are unable to successfully remediate our material weaknesses or identify any future significant deficiencies or material weaknesses, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, a material misstatement in our consolidated financial statements could occur, or we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports, all of which could adversely affect our business and cause our stock price to decline as a result. In addition, even if we remediate our material weaknesses, we will be required to expend significant time and resources to further improve our internal controls over financial reporting, including by further expanding our finance and accounting staff to meet the demands that are placed upon us as a public company, including the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. If we fail to adequately staff our accounting and finance function to remediate our material weaknesses or fail to maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting, any new or recurring material weaknesses could prevent us from concluding that our internal control over financial reporting is effective and impair our ability to prevent material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements, which could cause our business to suffer.

If we are unable to secure or pay for the insurance coverage required for our business operations, or if we lose any existing coverage, we may not be able to offer some of our services and our revenues could be reduced.

We are required to obtain and maintain various types of insurance coverage for our business, in particular health and workers’ compensation insurance related to our employment of WSEs. Although we have contracts with all types of providers currently necessary for our business, if in the future we are unable to secure the insurance coverage required for our business operations, or if we lose any existing coverage, we may not be able to offer some of our services and our revenues could be reduced. In addition, any increases in the cost of insurance coverage we are required to maintain could reduce our profitability (or increase our net losses).

We may be subject to penalties and interest payable on taxes as a result of data entry into our software or manual error.

Our input of data in our tax processing software must be entered properly to process the data and payments correctly with regard to clients, co-employees and applicable tax agencies. If we input incorrect data or input accurate data incorrectly, we could inadvertently overbill or underbill our clients or overpay or underpay applicable taxes, resulting in the loss of net income and/or clients and/or the incurrence of tax penalties and interest. Despite our efforts to reconcile taxes on a monthly basis, we may incur additional taxes, penalties and interest for which we may or may not bill our clients.

We may be subject to increases in penalties and interest payable on our payroll taxes due to delinquent payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, states and local jurisdiction.

The Company has outstanding delinquent payroll tax liabilities to the Internal Revenue Service, states and local authorities that have increased from August 31, 2022 to August 31, 2023 from not paying the required current and past payroll taxes from $12.9 million to $22.8 million as of August 31, 2022 and August 31, 2023, respectively. The accrued penalty and interest have increased from $0.9 million to $6.5 million as of August 31, 2022 to August 31, 2023, respectively, The IRS, states and local jurisdictions can levy the Company’s bank accounts and is subject to enforcement collections. ShiftPixy has requested for a collection due process or equivalent hearing, that are subject to enforced collection.  ShiftPixy has also filed for an abatement of additions to tax and related interest for the failure to make required deposits and the failure to timely pay required tax that are subject to enforced collection.  That request is pending before the IRS Independent Office of Appeals.

Our ability to adjust and collect service fees for increases in unemployment tax rates may be limited.

We record our State Unemployment Tax (“SUI”) expense based on taxable wages and tax rates assigned by each state. SUI tax rates vary by state and are determined, in part, based on prior years’ compensation experience in each state. Prior to the receipt of final tax rate notices, we estimate our expected SUI tax rate in those states for which tax rate notices have not yet been received for purposes of pricing. In a period of adverse economic conditions state unemployment funds may experience a significant increase in the number of unemployment claims. Accordingly, SUI tax rates would likely increase substantially. Some states have the ability under law to increase SUI tax rates retroactively to cover deficiencies in the unemployment fund.

In addition, taxes under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (“FUTA”) may be retroactively increased in certain states in the event the state fails to timely repay federal unemployment loans. Employers in such states are experiencing higher FUTA tax rates as a result of not repaying their unemployment loans from the federal government in a timely manner. The credit reduction is an additional tax on the FUTA wage base for employers in states that continue to have outstanding federal unemployment insurance loans beginning with the fifth year in which there is a balance due on the loan. States have the option to apply for a waiver before July 1st of the year in which the credit reduction is applicable.

Generally, our contractual agreements allow us to incorporate such statutory tax increases into our service fees upon the effective date of the rate change. However, our ability to fully adjust service fees in our billing systems and collect such increases over the remaining term of the clients’ contracts could be limited, resulting in a potential tax increase not being fully recovered. As a result, such increases could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.

Risks Relating to Technology

We collect, use, transmit and store personal and business information with the use of data service vendors, and a security or privacy breach may damage or disrupt our businesses, result in the disclosure of confidential information, damage our reputation, increase our costs or cause losses.

In connection with our business, we collect, use, transmit and store with data services vendors large amounts of personal and business information about our clients and shift employees, including payroll information, healthcare information, personal and limited business financial data, social security numbers, bank account numbers, tax information and other sensitive personal and business information. In addition, as we continue to grow the scale of our business, we will process and store with data services vendors an increasing volume of personally identifiable information from our users. Our data services vendors include PrismHR, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft OneDrive, ShareFile, Dropbox, Egnyte, Smartsheet, Sage Intacct, MasterTax, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office 365, DocuSign and RightSignature. We believe these vendors implement industry standard or more stringent data security measures to protect the data that we transmit through and/or store with them. Despite our efforts to protect customer data, perceptions that the collection, use, and storage of personal information are not satisfactorily protected could inhibit sales and limit adoption of our services. In addition, the continued occurrence of high-profile data breaches provides evidence of an external environment increasingly hostile to information security.

We are focused on ensuring that our operating environments safeguard and protect personal and business information, and we will devote significant resources to maintaining and regularly updating our systems and processes. The cost to maintain these safeguards is significant and may increase as we grow, which may limit our ability to employ our resources elsewhere and slow our ability to grow. Despite our efforts to maintain security controls across our business, it is possible our security controls over personal data, our training of employees and vendors on data security, and other practices we follow may not prevent the improper disclosure of customer data that we or our vendors store and manage. In addition, attacks on information technology systems continue to grow in frequency, complexity and sophistication, and we may be targeted by unauthorized parties using malicious tactics, code and viruses.

We engage third party contractors who monitor our activities in a manner designed to prevent, detect and respond to data security incidents. However, because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently and may be difficult to detect for long periods of time, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventive measures. In addition, hardware, software, or applications we develop or procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture or other problems that could unexpectedly compromise the confidentiality, integrity or availability of data or our systems. Unauthorized parties may also attempt to gain access to our systems or facilities, or those of third parties with whom we do business, through fraud, trickery, or other methods of deceiving our employees, contractors, or temporary staff. As these threats continue to evolve, we may be required to invest significant additional resources to modify and enhance our information security and controls or to investigate and remediate any security vulnerabilities. In addition, while our operating environment is designed to safeguard and protect personal and business information, we do not have the ability to monitor the implementation of similar safeguards by our clients, vendors or their respective employees, and, in any event, third parties may be able to circumvent those security measures.

Any cyber-attack, unauthorized intrusion, malicious software infiltration, network disruption, denial of service, corruption of data, theft of non-public or other sensitive information, any similar act by a malevolent party, or inadvertent acts by our own employees, could result in the disclosure or misuse of confidential or proprietary information, harm our reputation, and could have a materially adverse effect on our business operations, or that of our clients, create financial liability, result in regulatory sanction, or generate a loss of confidence in our ability to serve clients or cause current or potential clients to choose another service provider, or subject us to liability under laws that protect personal data, resulting in increased costs or loss of revenue. Although we believe that through our third party contractors, we maintain an adequate program of information security and controls and any threats that we might have encountered to date have not materially impacted us, the impact of a data security incident could have a materially adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, any further security measures we may undertake to address further protections may cause higher operating expenses.

We are also subject to various federal and state laws, rules and regulations relating to the collection, use, transmission and security of personal and business information. In addition, the possession and use of personal information and data in conducting our business subjects us to laws that may require notification to regulators, clients or employees in the event of a privacy breach and may impose liability on us for privacy deficiencies, including but not limited to liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, such as HIPAA, and regulatory penalties. These laws continue to develop, the number of jurisdictions adopting such laws continues to increase, and these laws may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The future enactment of more restrictive laws, rules or regulations could have a materially adverse impact on us through increased costs or restrictions on our businesses and noncompliance could result in regulatory penalties and significant legal liability. In addition, enforcement actions and investigations by regulatory authorities related to data security incidents and privacy violations continue to increase.

Some of the activities in which our shift workers could become involved include health care information-related responsibilities that could invoke the need for compliance with HIPAA as amended by the HITECH Act. The United States Department of Health and Human Services has issued regulations that establish uniform standards governing the conduct of certain electronic health care transactions and protect the privacy and security of protected health information used or disclosed by health care providers and other covered entities. Three principal regulations with which we are required to comply have been issued in final form under HIPAA: privacy regulations, security regulations, and standards for electronic transactions, which establish standards for common health care transactions. Privacy regulations cover the use and disclosure of protected health information by health care providers. They also set forth certain rights that an individual has with respect to his or her protected health information maintained by a health care provider, including the right to access or amend certain records containing protected health information or to request restrictions on the use or disclosure of protected health information. The security regulations establish requirements for safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of protected health information that is electronically transmitted or electronically stored. The HITECH Act, among other things, establishes certain health information security breach notification requirements. A covered entity must notify any individual whose protected health information is breached. The HIPAA privacy and security regulations establish a uniform federal “floor” and do not supersede state laws that are more stringent or provide individuals with greater rights with respect to the privacy or security of, and access to, their records containing protected health information. These laws contain significant fines and other penalties for wrongful use or disclosure of protected health information. Additionally, to the extent that we submit electronic health care claims and payment transactions that do not comply with the electronic data transmission standards established under HIPAA and the HITECH Act, payments to us may be delayed or denied.

We may be vulnerable to security breaches that could disrupt our operations and adversely affect our business.

Despite security measures and business continuity plans, our information technology networks, and infrastructure may be vulnerable to damage, disruptions, or shutdowns due to unauthorized access, computer viruses, cyber-attacks, distributed denial of service, and other security breaches. An attack on our security breach of our network could result in interruption or cessation of access and services, our inability to meet our access and service level commitments, and potentially compromise customer data transmitted over our network. We cannot guarantee that our security measures will not be circumvented, resulting in network failures or interruptions that could impact our network availability and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results. We may be required to expend significant resources to protect against such threats. If an actual or perceived breach of our security occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed, and we could lose customers. Any such events could result in legal claims or penalties, disruption in operations, misappropriation of sensitive data, damage to our reputation, and/or costly response measures, which could adversely affect our business.

If we are unable to protect our proprietary and technology rights our operations will be adversely affected.

Our success will depend in part on our ability to protect our proprietary rights and technologies, including those related to our products and services. Protecting our intellectual property rights and combating unlicensed copying and use of our software and other intellectual property is difficult. Except as otherwise noted herein, we have not obtained any formal patent, trademark or similar protection. Our failure to adequately protect our proprietary rights may adversely affect our operations. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our services or to obtain and use trade secrets or other information that we regard as proprietary. Based on the nature of our business, we may or may not be able to adequately protect our rights through patent, copyright and trademark laws. Our means of protecting our proprietary rights in the United States or abroad may not be adequate, and competitors may independently develop similar technologies. In addition, litigation may be necessary in the future to:

Any such litigation could result in substantial costs if we are held to have willfully infringed upon another party’s intellectual property, or to expend significant resources to develop non-infringing technology and would divert the attention of management from the implementation of our business strategy. Furthermore, the outcome of any litigation is inherently difficult to predict, and we may not prevail in any litigation in which we become involved.

Software products we use in our business may contain defects which will make it more difficult for us to establish and maintain customers.

We currently use PrismHR software for our payroll processing. We also use MasterTax to process our tax reports and filings, and a host of other software products in the course of conducting our business. Our mobile application, along with the client portal and the ShiftPixy Command Hub, constitute our proprietary software and contain components that are licensed from third parties that constitute public domain software. Our payroll processing software and other software products that we use in our business, including our mobile application, could contain undetected design faults and software errors, or “bugs” that are discovered only after they have been installed and used by a significant number of customers. Any such defect or error in new or existing software or applications could cause delays in delivering our technology or require design modifications. These developments could adversely affect our competitive position and cause us to lose potential customers or opportunities. Since our technologies are intended to be utilized to supply human resources related services, the effect of any such bugs or delays will likely have a detrimental impact on us. In addition, given that our specialized human resources software and services have yet to gain widespread acceptance in the market, any delays or other problems caused by software bugs would likely have a more detrimental impact on our business than if we were a more established company.

If a contract relating to our mission critical software that we use in our business is terminated or not renewed, our business could be seriously disrupted, and our revenues significantly reduced.

If a contract relating to our mission-critical software services, such as that applicable to payroll and payroll tax processing, is terminated or not renewed, and we do not have an effective replacement software, our business and revenues will suffer. Although there are other software vendors we can use, it may take time to negotiate an agreement and make any replacement software operational. Accordingly, if the software agreements that we use in our business are terminated or not renewed, our business could be seriously disrupted, and our revenues significantly reduced until we locate replacement software and make it operational.

Our systems may be subject to disruptions that could have a materially adverse effect on our business and reputation.

Our business is and will continue to be highly dependent on our ability to process, on a daily basis, a large number of complicated transactions. We rely heavily on our payroll, financial, accounting, and other data processing systems. We may not be successful in preventing the loss of client data, service interruptions or disruptions to our operations from system failures. If any of these systems fail to operate properly or become disabled even for a brief period of time, we could suffer financial loss, a disruption of our businesses, liability to clients, regulatory intervention, or damage to our reputation, any of which could have a materially adverse effect on our results of operation or financial condition.

Because we store data in the cloud with providers such as Microsoft and Amazon, any disruptions in our ability to access this data or any breach of security concerning this data in the cloud could have a materially adverse effect on our business and reputation.

Our business is and will continue to be highly dependent on data storage in the cloud with providers such as Microsoft and Amazon. These cloud storage systems may fail to operate properly or become disabled. We expect our use of data to increase, including through the use of analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. There could also be security breaches of our data stored in the cloud. If there is loss of client data, service interruptions or disruptions to our operations related to our cloud data storage, even for a brief period of time, we could suffer financial loss, a disruption of our business, liability to clients, regulatory intervention, or damage to our reputation, any of which could have a materially adverse effect on our results of operation or financial condition.

We made significant investments in our software that may not meet our expectations.

Developing new technologies is complex. It can require long development and testing periods. Significant delays in new releases or significant problems in creating new products or services could adversely affect our revenue.

We may not be able to protect our source code from copying in the event of an unauthorized disclosure.

Source code, the detailed program commands for our operating systems and other software programs, is critical to our business. We take significant measures to protect the secrecy of large portions of our source code. If a significant portion of our source code leaks, we could lose future trade secret protection for that source code. It may become easier for third parties to compete with our products by copying functionality, which could adversely affect our revenue and operating margins. Unauthorized disclosure of source code also could increase the security risks described in the next paragraph.

We may have outages, data losses, and disruptions of our online services if we fail to maintain an adequate operations infrastructure.

Our increasing user traffic, growth in services, and the complexity of our services demand more computing power. We spend substantial amounts to build, purchase, or lease data centers and equipment and to upgrade our technology and network infrastructure to handle more data. These demands continue to increase as we grow our workforce. Maintaining, securing, and expanding this infrastructure is expensive and complex. It requires that we maintain an internet connectivity infrastructure that is robust and reliable within competitive and regulatory constraints that continue to evolve. Inefficiencies or operational failures, including temporary or permanent loss of customer data or insufficient internet connectivity, could diminish the utility or functionality of our products, and adversely impact the quality of our services and user experience, resulting in contractual liability, claims by users and other third parties, regulatory actions, damage to our reputation, and loss of current and potential users, subscribers, and advertisers, each of which could have a materially adverse impact on our operating results and financial condition.

Our software may experience quality or supply problems.

Our software may experience quality or reliability problems. The highly sophisticated software we have been developing may contain bugs and other defects that interfere with their intended operation. Any defects we do not detect and fix in pre-release testing could cause reduced sales and revenue, damage to our reputation, repair or remediation costs, delays in the release of new products or versions, or legal liability. Although our license agreements typically contain provisions that limit our exposure to liability, there is no assurance these provisions will withstand legal challenge.

We intend to use open source blockchain technology in our technology platform. This technology has been scrutinized by regulatory agencies and therefore we may be impacted by unfavorable regulatory action in one or more jurisdictions.

We intend to use open source blockchain technology as a secure repository for “device reputation” information acquired by our technology platform. Blockchain technologies have been the subject of scrutiny by various regulatory bodies around the world. We could be impacted by one or more regulatory inquiries or actions, including but not limited to restrictions on the use of blockchain technology, which could impede or limit the use of this technology within our product offerings.

We depend heavily on Scott W. Absher, our Chief Executive Officer and director. The loss of his services could harm our business.

Our future business and operations depend in significant part upon the continue contributions of Scott W. Absher, our Chief Executive Office and Chair of our bord of directors. If we lose his services, or if he fails to perform his current position, or if we are unable to attract, retain skilled employees in addition to Mr. Abwehr, this could adversely affect the development and implementation of our business plan and harm our business.

If we are not recognized as an employer of WSEs under federal and state regulations, or we are deemed to be an insurance agent or third-party administrator, we and our clients could be adversely impacted.

While in our client engagements we sometimes arrange for our clients to act as sponsor of employee benefit plans, we also sponsor the benefit plans applicable to their WSEs. For us to sponsor employee benefit plan offerings for WSEs, we must qualify as an employer for certain purposes under the Code and ERISA. In addition, our status as an employer is important for the purposes of ERISA’s preemption of certain state laws. The definition of an employer under various laws is not uniform, and under both the Code and ERISA, the term is defined in part by complex multi-factor tests.

Generally, these tests are designed to evaluate whether an individual is an independent contractor or employee, and they provide substantial weight to whether a purported employer has the right to direct and control the details of an individual’s work. Some factors that the IRS has considered important in the past have included the employer’s degree of behavioral control (the extent of instructions, training and the nature of the work), the financial control and the economic aspects of the relationship, and the intent of the parties, as evidenced by (i) the specific benefit, contract, termination and other similar arrangements between the parties, and (ii) the “on-going” versus “project-oriented” nature of the work to be performed. However, a definitive judicial interpretation of “employer” in the context of employer relationships such as those in which we engage has not been established. For ERISA purposes, for example, courts have held that test factors relating to ability to control and supervise an individual are less important, while the U.S. Department of Labor has issued guidance that certain entities in the HR outsourcing industry do not qualify as common law employers for ERISA purposes. Moreover, when our mobile application is fully functional, the scope of our employer status will increase, changing the legal analysis. Although we believe that we qualify as an employer of WSEs under ERISA, and the U.S. Department of Labor has not provided guidance otherwise, we are not able to predict the outcome of any future regulatory challenge.

If we are not recognized as an employer under the Code or ERISA, we may be required to change the method by which we report and remit payroll taxes to the tax authorities and the method by which we provide, or discontinue providing, certain employee benefits to WSEs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We may also need to qualify as an employer of WSEs under state regulations, which govern licensing, certification and registration requirements. Nearly all states have enacted laws and regulations in this regard. While we believe that we qualify as an employer of WSEs under these state regulations, these requirements vary from state to state and change frequently and if we are not able to satisfy existing or future licensing requirements or other applicable regulations of any states, we may be prohibited from doing business in that state.

Lapses in our WSE screening process may harm our reputation or relationship with clients, or result in litigation, which may impact our financial condition.

Our business model is dependent on hiring WSEs who will provide high quality service for our clients. Lapses in our screening process may result in WSEs being hired who do not meet the standard expected by our clients. This may hurt our relationship with our clients or result in them placing their business elsewhere, which would negatively impact on our ability to remain in business. Criminal behavior by our WSEs resulting from a lapse in our screening process may subject us to litigation from our clients or government regulators, which may also be costly and/or damage our reputation.

We are in the business of providing WSEs to clients, and there is a risk that we will be sued and/or held liable for claims resulting from actions by or against our WSEs.

Our WSEs perform their jobs in the workplaces of our clients. Our ability to control the workplace environment of our clients is extremely limited. Further, many WSEs have access to our clients’ information systems and confidential information. Based on our relationship with these WSEs, we incur a risk of liability arising from various workplace events, including claims of physical injury, discrimination, harassment or failure to protect confidential personal information. Other inherent risks include possible claims of errors and omissions; intentional misconduct; release, misuse or misappropriation of client intellectual property; employment of undocumented immigrants; criminal activity; torts; or other claims. These claims can carry significant financial penalties and damages.

We have not experienced significant claims for damages or losses to date arising from the actions of WSEs. However, there is a risk that we will be subject to such claims in the future and may be held liable even if our contribution to the injury is minimal or absent. We may also be required to indemnify our clients against claims brought against them by or against WSEs. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, the costs of mounting our defense might be significant and damaging to us. We may incur reputational costs and/or be subject to investigations by public agencies, which could result in associated negative publicity. We may also lose clients as a result of claims against us.

Risks Relating to Regulations and Compliance

Failure to comply with, or changes in, laws and regulations applicable to our business, particularly potential changes to the ACA, could have a materially adverse effect on our marketing plan as well as our reputation, results of operations or financial condition, or have other adverse consequences.

Our business is subject to a wide range of complex laws and regulations. For example, many states regulate entities offering employment related services such as those offered by us directly or through our subsidiaries and require licenses as a prerequisite to the operation of such enterprises in their respective jurisdictions. There can be no assurance that either we or our subsidiaries will be successful in either securing or maintaining a license or licenses in compliance with a particular state’s laws and regulations. Further, many states require that workers’ compensation policies offered by employment related firms such as ours be managed according to strict rules and/or that unemployment insurance filings be administered according to strict rules.

Failure to comply with such laws and regulations could result in the suspension or revocation of licenses or registrations, the limitation, suspension or termination of services, and the imposition of consent orders or civil and criminal penalties, including fines, that could damage our reputation and have a materially adverse effect on our results of operation or financial condition.

In addition, changes in laws or regulations, or changes in the interpretation of laws or regulations by a regulatory authority, may decrease our revenues and earnings and may require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our business. For example, a change in regulations either decreasing the amount of taxes to be withheld or allowing less time to remit taxes to government authorities would adversely impact interest income from investing client funds before such funds are remitted to the applicable taxing authorities. Changes in taxation regulations could adversely affect our effective tax rate and our net income. Changes in laws that govern the co-employment arrangement between a PEO and its WSEs may also require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our business.

Changes to the ACA, as amended, related state laws, and the regulations adopted or to be adopted thereunder, have the potential to impact substantially the way that employers provide health insurance to employees and the health insurance market for the small and mid-sized businesses that constitute our clients and prospects. The repeal or replacement of the ACA, the elimination of employer mandates and similar employer requirements currently imposed by the ACA, and other regulatory changes could in the future reduce our revenues. Amendments to money transmitter statutes have required us to obtain licenses in some jurisdictions. The adoption of new money transmitter statutes in other jurisdictions, changes in regulators’ interpretation of existing state and federal money transmitter or money services business statutes or regulations, or disagreement by a regulatory authority with our interpretation of such existing statutes or regulations, could require additional registration or licensing, limit certain business activities until they are appropriately licensed, and expose us to financial penalties. These occurrences could also require changes to our compliance programs and to the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our money movement business or client funds investment strategy, which could adversely impact interest income from investing client funds before such funds are remitted.

Failure to secure any necessary registrations or licensure could affect our ability to operate certain segments of our business in certain jurisdictions.

Some states require licensure or registration of businesses offering professional employer offering “PEO” services. While some elements of our service offering overlap with PEO services, we believe that our human capital platform is more in line with a traditional staffing model. However, if we need and are unable to secure registration or licensure of such service offerings in a particular state, our ability to grow that segment of our business in such state would be impaired and could affect our ability to increase our revenues and meet certain customer requirements in such states.

We may be subject to Private Attorney General’s Act (“PAGA”) claims which we may require additional capital to defend.

Our work force currently resides mostly in the State of California. Employment laws in the State of California can be complex and undefined where a direct employment or co-employment relationship exists, both of which are contemplated to some extent in our current business and, (to a lesser extent), our future plans. PAGA allows plaintiffs to bring class action-like lawsuits against employers that can result in substantial costs to defend and can result in large fines for seemingly insignificant or inadvertent clerical errors. As our business expands, the risk will increase that such PAGA claims will be filed and litigated, which may result in increased costs to us.

Laws related to the classification of Gig Economy workers are changing, and we may be subject to state and local regulations impacting how we classify our workers.

A significant portion of our business is located in the State of California which recently passed AB-5 relating to the classification of certain gig workers as employees instead of independent contractors. This legislation, to the extent it applied to “app-based drivers”, was repealed by Proposition 22, which restored these drivers to the status of independent contractors. Nevertheless, Proposition 22 also instituted various labor and wage policies that are specific to app-based drivers and their employers that do not apply to other independent contractors, including: (i) minimum wage requirements; (ii) working hours limitations; (iii) requiring companies to pay healthcare subsidies under certain circumstances; and (iv) requiring companies to provide or make available occupational accident insurance and accidental death insurance to their app-based drivers. Other states such as New York and New Jersey, two of our potential markets, are also considering legislation designed to change the status of gig workers from independent contractors to employees, or at least provide some of the wage, hour and benefit guarantees currently provided to traditional employees to gig workers. We anticipate that classification status will continue to be an unsettled area of law for the foreseeable future. Changes in classification can result in a change to various requirements associated with the payment of wages, tax withholding, and the provision of unemployment, health, and other traditional employer-employee related benefits. While we currently classify all WSEs as employees, our business plans potentially include the use of large numbers of independent contractors.

If we are unable to utilize independent contractors, or the cost to use independent contractors becomes more expensive, our future growth opportunities may be limited or reduced. Costs or delays associated with revising our services to account for changes in the status of employees and independent contractors may have a significant impact on our future growth. Changes to the law may impact the desirability or applicability of our business model, which could impact our ability to continue as a going concern.

Financial Market Risks

Our Common Stock is thinly traded, which can cause volatility in its price.

Our Common Stock is listed for trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC (“Nasdaq”), and is thinly traded. Thinly traded stock can be more susceptible to market volatility. This market volatility could significantly affect the market price of our common stock without regard to our operating performance. Securities markets worldwide experience significant price and volume fluctuations. In addition, the price of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to the following factors, among others:

The market price of our Common Stock will also be impacted by our quarterly operating results, which can fluctuate from quarter to quarter.

A controlling stake of our common stock is closely held by our board of directors Chair and CEO, Scott W. Absher, which may limit a minority shareholder from influencing corporate governance.

Our President, CEO and director, Scott W. Absher, currently owns approximately as of December 11, 2023, 88%  of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company’s common stock; accordingly, he may be deemed to control the Company as a result of his voting power and otherwise has significant influence over the voting matters of the shareholders of the Company’s common stock, including but not limited to the power to elect directors and approve other actions that require stockholder approval. Notwithstanding Mr. Absher’s share ownership percentage, no action has been taken to seek the Controlled Company Exemption available under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5615I(2). If the Company were to seek Controlled Company status, (a) we would not be required to comply with certain governance requirements set forth in the listing standards, including requiring a majority of independent Directors on our Board, the determination of the compensation of our executive officers solely b’ independent Directors, and the recommendation of nominees for Director solely by independent Directors, and (b) as a result, the Company’s stockholders would not have certain of the same protections as a stockholder of other publicly-traded companies, and the market price of the Company’s common stock could be adversely affected. The concentration of ownership with respect to the Company’s common stock also results in there being a limited trading volume, which may make it more difficult for stockholders to sell their shares and increase the price volatility of the Company’s common stock.

If we are unable to continue to meet the listing requirements of Nasdaq, our common stock will be delisted.

Our common stock currently trades on Nasdaq, where it is subject to various listing requirements. Prior to effecting the one-for-twenty-four (1:24) reverse stock split on October 14, 2023, we were notified by Nasdaq that we were not in compliance with certain of this listing requirement.  On October 30, 2023, Nasdaq notified us that we had achieved compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) in as much as the closing bid price of the Company’s common stock had been at $1.00 per share or greater for the requisite period. On June 5, 2023, Nasdaq notified us that we are not in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1) in as much as our listed securities have a market value of less than $35 million. In addition, we do not currently meet the alternative compliance standards relating to stockholders’ equity or net income from continuing operations. On August 2, 2023, Nasdaq notified the Company that we were not in compliance NASDAQ’s Listing Rule 560. This was due to the resignation of our independent director who was a member of the Company’s audit committee. The Company does not presently comply with NASDAQ’s requirement  that a majority of the Company’s board of directors be comprised of independent directors, and that the Company has an audit committee comprised of at least three independent directors, one of which “has past employment experience in finance or accounting, requisite professional certification in accounting, or any other comparable experience or background which results in the individual’s financial sophistication, including being or having been a chief executive officer, chief financial officer or other senior officer with financial oversight responsibilities. This does not have any immediate effect on the listing of the Company’s common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market, and the Company has until the earlier of the Company’s next annual shareholders’ meeting or July 25, 2024 (or, if the next annual shareholders’ meeting is held before January 22, 2024, then by that date), to regain compliance, the “Compliance Period”).  If the Company does not achieve compliance within the Compliance Period, it will receive written notice from Nasdaq that its securities are subject to delisting, which is a determination that the Company could appeal to the Nasdaq Hearings Panel. If we are unable to achieve and maintain compliance with this listing standards or other Nasdaq listing requirements in the future, we could be subject to suspension and delisting proceedings. A delisting of our common stock and our inability to list on another national securities market could negatively impact us by: (i) reducing the liquidity and market price of our common stock; (ii) reducing the number of investors willing to hold or acquire our common stock, which could negatively impact our ability to raise equity financing; (iii) limiting our ability to use certain registration statements to offer and sell freely tradable securities, thereby limiting our ability to access the public capital markets; and (iv) impairing our ability to provide equity incentives to our employees.     

If we are unable to pay delinquent payroll taxes and interest to the Internal Revenue Service, states and local tax jurisdictions.

We are responsible for remitting payroll taxes for our clients on a timely basis. As of August 31, 2023, we have approximately $29.5 million related to outstanding payroll taxes and associated penalties and interest. The IRS, states and local jurisdictions can place liens on our Company. Although the Company is appealing penalties and interest, there is no assurance that this will occur. Our bank accounts can be frozen, and the Company may be forced to file for bankruptcy.

Risks Relating to Our Business     

We maintained limited self-insurance for the workers’ compensation services that we provide to our clients. If we experience claims in excess of our collected premiums, we might incur additional losses, higher costs, and reduced margins, resulting in a need for more liquidity.

We are responsible for and pay workers’ compensation costs for our WSEs. Until March 1, 2021, we self-insured for up to $500,000 per occurrence and we purchased reinsurance for claims in excess of $500,000. After March 1, 2021, our workers’ compensation coverage moved to a prepaid premium model that does not require us to record additional reserves. Our workers’ compensation billings are designed to cover expected claims based on insurance annuity calculations. These calculations are based on our claims experienced during our limited operating history. At times, these costs have risen substantially as a result of increased claims and claim trends, general economic conditions, changes in business mix, increases in healthcare costs, and government regulations. Although we carry insurance and believe that we currently have reserves sufficient to insulate us against projected losses, any unexpected changes in claim trends, including the severity and frequency of claims, actuarial estimates, and medical cost inflation, could result in us exceeding these projections. If future claims-related liabilities increase due to unforeseen circumstances, or if new laws, rules, or regulations are implemented, costs could increase significantly. There can be no assurance that we will be able to increase the fees charged to our clients in a timely manner and in a sufficient amount to cover increased costs as a result of any changes in claims-related liabilities.

Our success depends on the adoption of our products and services by our various types of customers. If these potential customers do not accept and acquire our products and services, then our revenue will be severely limited.

The major customer groups to whom we believe our products and services will appeal (i.e. both clients and WSEs who rely upon shift work), may not embrace our products and services. Acceptance of our products and services will depend on several factors, including cost, ease of use, familiarity of use, convenience, timeliness, strategic partnerships, and reliability. If we fail to adequately meet our customers’ needs and expectations, our product offerings may not be competitive and our ability to commence or continue generating revenues could be reduced. We also cannot be sure that our business model will gain wide acceptance among all targeted customer groups. If the market fails to continue to develop, or develops more slowly than we expect, our ability to continue generating revenues could be reduced.

If we are unable to effectively manage growth and maintain low operating costs, the results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected. (we have seen a decline not growth)

Since our inception, our plans contemplate significant expansion of our business. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, (including having geographically dispersed offices and employees), or to anticipate and manage our future growth accurately, our business may be adversely affected. If we are unable to manage our expansion and growth effectively, we may be unable to keep our operating costs low or effectively meet the requirements of an ever-growing, geographically dispersed client base. Our business relies on data systems, billing systems and financial reporting and control systems, procedures and controls. Our success in managing our expansion and growth in a cost-effective manner will require us to upgrade and improve these systems, procedures and controls. If we are unable to adapt our systems and put adequate controls in place in a timely manner, our business may be adversely affected. In addition, our growth may place significant demands on our management, and our overall operational and financial resources. A failure on our part to meet any of the foregoing challenges inherent in our growth strategy may have an adverse effect on our results of our operations and financial condition.

Our targeted customer base is diverse, and we face a challenge in adequately meeting each group’s needs.

Because we serve both employers and employees, we must work constantly to understand the needs, standards and requirements of each group and must devote significant resources to developing products and services for their interests. If we do not accurately predict our customers’ needs and expectations, we may expend valuable resources in developing products and services that do not achieve broad acceptance across the markets, and we may fail to grow our business.

We face intense competition across all markets for our services, which may lead to lower revenue or operating margins. Competing forms of Gig Economy oriented staffing management products and services may be more desirable to consumers or may make our products and services obsolete.

Our competitors range in size from diversified global companies with significant research and development resources to small, specialized firms whose narrower service lines may make them more effective in deploying technical, marketing, and financial resources. Barriers to entry in many of our businesses are low and many of the areas in which we compete evolve rapidly with changing and disruptive technologies, shifting user needs, and frequent introductions of new products and services. Our ability to remain competitive depends on our success in making innovative products, devices, and services that appeal to customers.

Companies compete with us based on a growing variety of business models. The competitive pressures described above may cause decreased sales volumes, price reductions, and/or increased operating costs, such as for research and development, marketing, and sales incentives. This may lead to lower revenue, gross margins, and operating income.

There are currently several different competing Gig Economy oriented staffing management product and service technologies that are being marketed to our potential customers. Further development of any of these technologies may lead to advancements in technology that will make our products and services obsolete. Consumers may prefer alternative technologies and products and services. We cannot guarantee that users of Gig Economy oriented staffing management products and services who will be using our products and services will continue to grow within the industry as a whole. Any developments that contribute to the obsolescence of our products and services may substantially impact on our business, reducing our ability to generate or sustain revenues.

Providing specialized Gig Economy oriented staffing management products and services is an emerging yet competitive business, and many of our competitors have greater resources that may enable them to compete more effectively.

We compete in the same markets as many companies that offer not only staffing management products and services focused on the Gig Economy but also more traditional staffing management products and services. There are limited barriers to entry and price competition in the industry, particularly from larger, more traditional industry model competitors, is intense with pricing pressures from competitors and clients increasing. New competitors entering our markets may further increase pricing pressures.

We have observed that clients sometimes competitively bid new contracts, which is a trend that we expect to continue for the foreseeable future. Some of our competitors have greater resources than we, which may enable them to compete more effectively in this market. Our competitors may devote their resources to developing and marketing products and services that will directly compete with our product lines, and new, more efficient competitors may enter the market. If we are unable to successfully compete with existing companies and new entrants to the market, it will have a negative impact on our business and financial condition.

We operate in an immature and rapidly evolving industry and have a relatively new business model, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects.

The industry in which we operate is characterized by rapidly changing regulatory requirements, evolving industry standards and shifting user and client demands. Our business model is also evolving and is different from models used by other companies in our industry. As a result of these factors, the success and future revenue and income potential of our business is uncertain. Any evaluation of our business and our prospects must be considered in light of these risks and uncertainties, some of which relate to our ability to:

If we are unable to successfully address the challenges posed by operating in an immature and rapidly evolving industry and having a relatively new business model, our business could suffer.

We may never successfully commercialize ShiftPixy Labs.

We have invested a substantial amount of our time and resources in developing ShiftPixy Labs and its related services and technology. Commercialization of ShiftPixy Labs will require additional development, customer engagement, significant marketing efforts and ongoing investment before it can provide us with any additional revenue. Despite our efforts, ShiftPixy Labs may not become commercially successful. Failure to successfully deploy and commercialize ShiftPixy Labs could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

We use and leverage open-source technology in our technology platform which may create risks of security weaknesses.

Some parts of our technology that we currently use, and that we intend to develop in the future, incorporate (or may incorporate in the future) open-source technology, including the blockchain technology that we intend to use in our technology platform. There is a risk that the development team, or other third parties may, intentionally or unintentionally, introduce weaknesses or bugs into the core infrastructure elements of our technology solutions that interfere with the use of such technology which, in turn, could have a material negative impact on our business and operations.

Risks Relating to Management and Personnel

We depend heavily on Scott W. Absher, our Chief Executive Officer and director. The loss of his services could harm our business.

Our future business and results of operations depend in significant part upon the continued contributions of Scott W. Absher, our Chief Executive Officer and Chair of our board of directors. If we lose his services or if he fails to perform in his current position, or if we are not able to attract and retain skilled employees in addition to Mr. Absher, this could adversely affect the development and implementation of our business plan and harm our business.

If we are not recognized as an employer of WSEs under federal and state regulations, or we are deemed to be an insurance agent or third-party administrator, we and our clients could be adversely impacted.

While in our client engagements we sometimes arrange for our clients to act as sponsor of employee benefit plans, we also sponsor the benefit plans applicable to their WSEs. For us to sponsor employee benefit plan offerings for WSEs, we must qualify as an employer for certain purposes under the Code and ERISA. In addition, our status as an employer is important for the purposes of ERISA’s preemption of certain state laws. The definition of an employer under various laws is not uniform, and under both the Code and ERISA, the term is defined in part by complex multi-factor tests.

Generally, these tests are designed to evaluate whether an individual is an independent contractor or employee, and they provide substantial weight to whether a purported employer has the right to direct and control the details of an individual’s work. Some factors that the IRS has considered important in the past have included the employer’s degree of behavioral control (the extent of instructions, training and the nature of the work), the financial control and the economic aspects of the relationship, and the intent of the parties, as evidenced by (i) the specific benefit, contract, termination and other similar arrangements between the parties, and (ii) the “on-going” versus “project-oriented” nature of the work to be performed. However, a definitive judicial interpretation of “employer” in the context of employer relationships such as those in which we engage has not been established. For ERISA purposes, for example, courts have held that test factors relating to ability to control and supervise an individual are less important, while the U.S. Department of Labor has issued guidance that certain entities in the HR outsourcing industry do not qualify as common law employers for ERISA purposes. Moreover, when our mobile application is fully functional, the scope of our employer status will increase, changing the legal analysis. Although we believe that we qualify as an employer of WSEs under ERISA, and the U.S. Department of Labor has not provided guidance otherwise, we are not able to predict the outcome of any future regulatory challenge.

If we are not recognized as an employer under the Code or ERISA, we may be required to change the method by which we report and remit payroll taxes to the tax authorities and the method by which we provide, or discontinue providing, certain employee benefits to WSEs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We may also need to qualify as an employer of WSEs under state regulations, which govern licensing, certification and registration requirements. Nearly all states have enacted laws and regulations in this regard. While we believe that we qualify as an employer of WSEs under these state regulations, these requirements vary from state to state and change frequently and if we are not able to satisfy existing or future licensing requirements or other applicable regulations of any states, we may be prohibited from doing business in that state.

Lapses in our WSE screening process may harm our reputation or relationship with clients, or result in litigation, which may impact our financial condition.

Our business model is dependent on hiring WSEs who will provide high quality service for our clients. Lapses in our screening process may result in WSEs being hired who do not meet the standard expected by our clients. This may hurt our relationship with our clients or result in them placing their business elsewhere, which would negatively impact on our ability to remain in business. Criminal behavior by our WSEs resulting from a lapse in our screening process may subject us to litigation from our clients or government regulators, which may also be costly and/or damage our reputation.

We are in the business of providing WSEs to clients, and there is a risk that we will be sued and/or held liable for claims resulting from actions by or against our WSEs.

Risks Relating to Regulations and Compliance

Failure to comply with, or changes in, laws and regulations applicable to our business, particularly potential changes to the ACA, could have a materially adverse effect on our marketing plan as well as our reputation, results of operations or financial condition, or have other adverse consequences.

Our business is subject to a wide range of complex laws and regulations. For example, many states regulate entities offering employment related services such as those offered by us directly or through our subsidiaries and require licenses as a prerequisite to the operation of such enterprises in their respective jurisdictions. There can be no assurance that either we or our subsidiaries will be successful in either securing or maintaining a license or licenses in compliance with a particular state’s laws and regulations. Further, many states require that workers’ compensation policies offered by employment related firms such as ours be managed according to strict rules and/or that unemployment insurance filings be administered according to strict rules.

Failure to comply with such laws and regulations could result in the suspension or revocation of licenses or registrations, the limitation, suspension or termination of services, and the imposition of consent orders or civil and criminal penalties, including fines, that could damage our reputation and have a materially adverse effect on our results of operation or financial condition.

In addition, changes in laws or regulations, or changes in the interpretation of laws or regulations by a regulatory authority, may decrease our revenues and earnings and may require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our business. For example, a change in regulations either decreasing the amount of taxes to be withheld or allowing less time to remit taxes to government authorities would adversely impact interest income from investing client funds before such funds are remitted to the applicable taxing authorities. Changes in taxation regulations could adversely affect our effective tax rate and our net income. Changes in laws that govern the co-employment arrangement between a PEO and its WSEs may also require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our business.

Changes to the ACA, as amended, related state laws, and the regulations adopted or to be adopted thereunder, have the potential to impact substantially the way that employers provide health insurance to employees and the health insurance market for the small and mid-sized businesses that constitute our clients and prospects. The repeal or replacement of the ACA, the elimination of employer mandates and similar employer requirements currently imposed by the ACA, and other regulatory changes could in the future reduce our revenues. Amendments to money transmitter statutes have required us to obtain licenses in some jurisdictions. The adoption of new money transmitter statutes in other jurisdictions, changes in regulators’ interpretation of existing state and federal money transmitter or money services business statutes or regulations, or disagreement by a regulatory authority with our interpretation of such existing statutes or regulations, could require additional registration or licensing, limit certain business activities until they are appropriately licensed, and expose us to financial penalties. These occurrences could also require changes to our compliance programs and to the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our money movement business or client funds investment strategy, which could adversely impact interest income from investing client funds before such funds are remitted.

Failure to secure any necessary registrations or licensure could affect our ability to operate certain segments of our business in certain jurisdictions.

Some states require licensure or registration of businesses offering PEO services. While some elements of our service offering overlap with PEO services, we believe that our human capital platform is more in line with a traditional staffing model. However, if we need and are unable to secure registration or licensure of such service offerings in a particular state, our ability to grow that segment of our business in such state would be impaired and could affect our ability to increase our revenues and meet certain customer requirements in such states.

Laws related to the classification of Gig Economy workers are changing, and we may be subject to state and local regulations impacting how we classify our workers.

A significant portion of our business is located in the State of California which recently passed AB-5 relating to the classification of certain gig workers as employees instead of independent contractors. This legislation, to the extent it applied to “app-based drivers”, was repealed by Proposition 22, which restored these drivers to the status of independent contractors. Nevertheless, Proposition 22 also instituted various labor and wage policies that are specific to app-based drivers and their employers that do not apply to other independent contractors, including: (i) minimum wage requirements; (ii) working hours limitations; (iii) requiring companies to pay healthcare subsidies under certain circumstances; and (iv) requiring companies to provide or make available occupational accident insurance and accidental death insurance to their app-based drivers. Other states such as New York and New Jersey, two of our potential markets, are also considering legislation designed to change the status of gig workers from independent contractors to employees, or at least provide some of the wage, hour and benefit guarantees currently provided to traditional employees to gig workers. We anticipate that classification status will continue to be an unsettled area of law for the foreseeable future. Changes in classification can result in a change to various requirements associated with the payment of wages, tax withholding, and the provision of unemployment, health, and other traditional employer-employee related benefits. While we currently classify all WSEs as employees, our business plans potentially include the use of large numbers of independent contractors.

If we are unable to utilize independent contractors, or the cost to use independent contractors becomes more expensive, our future growth opportunities may be limited or reduced. Costs or delays associated with revising our services to account for changes in the status of employees and independent contractors may have a significant impact on our future growth. Changes to the law may impact the desirability or applicability of our business model, which could impact our ability to continue as a going concern.

General Risk Factors

Third parties may claim we infringe their intellectual property rights. 

From time to time, others claim we infringe their intellectual property rights. The number of these claims may grow because of constant technological change in the markets in which we compete, the extensive patent coverage of existing technologies and the rapid rate of issuance of new patents. To resolve these claims, we may enter into royalty and licensing agreements on terms that are less favorable than currently available, stop selling or redesign affected products or services, or pay damages to satisfy indemnification commitments to our customers. These outcomes may cause operating margins to decline. Besides money damages, equitable relief is available in some jurisdictions that, if granted, could limit or eliminate our ability to import, market, or sell our products or services that contain infringing technologies.  

Our business depends on our ability to attract and retain talented employees. 

Our business is based on successfully attracting and retaining talented employees. The market for highly skilled workers and leaders in our industry is extremely competitive. If we are less successful in our recruiting efforts, or if we cannot retain key employees, our ability to develop and deliver services successfully may be adversely affected. If we cannot hire additional qualified personnel, we may continue to have internal control weaknesses. Effective succession planning is also important to our long-term success. Failure to ensure effective transfer of knowledge and smooth transitions involving key employees could hinder our strategic planning and execution. How employment- related laws are interpreted and applied to our workforce practices may result in increased operating costs and less flexibility in how we meet our workforce needs. 

Catastrophic events or geopolitical conditions may disrupt our business.  

Monetary and fiscal policies and political and economic conditions may substantially change. When there is a slowdown in the economy, employment levels may decrease with a corresponding impact on our businesses.  

Clients may react to worsening conditions by reducing their spending on payroll and other outsourcing services or renegotiating their contracts with us.  

Worsening economic conditions, including inflation, recession, or other changes in economic conditions, may cause businesses to rely less on vendors in our business, which could adversely affect our revenue. If demand for our services declines, or business spending for such services declines, our revenue will be adversely affected.

Challenging economic conditions also may impair the ability of our customers to pay for products and services they have purchased. As a result, allowances for doubtful accounts and write-offs of accounts receivable may increase. 

We are dependent upon various large banks to execute Automated Clearing House and wire transfers as part of our client payroll and tax services. A systemic shutdown of the banking industry would impede our ability to process funds on behalf of our payroll and tax services clients and could have an adverse impact on our financial results and liquidity. 

A disruption or failure of our systems or operations because of a major earthquake, weather event, cyber-attack, terrorist attack, fire, pandemic, (including the COVID-19 pandemic), or other catastrophic event could cause delays in completing sales, providing services, or performing other critical functions. A significant portion of our research and development activities and certain other essential business operations are located in the Irvine, California area, which is a seismically active region, and the Miami, Florida area, which is subject to extreme seasonal weather events such as hurricanes and flooding. A catastrophic event that results in the destruction or disruption of any of our critical business or IT systems could harm our ability to conduct normal business operations. California has also experienced destructive fires recently. As a result of these fires, power and utilities are occasionally shut off parts of the state. A fire or risk of fire may result in damage to our facilities, the temporary or permanent shut down of our or our clients’ facilities, disruption to our power supply or utilities, or other disruptions that may harm our ability to conduct business.  

Abrupt political change and terrorist activity may pose threats to our business and increase our operating costs. These conditions also may add uncertainty to the timing and budget for technology investment decisions by our customers and may cause supply chain disruptions for hardware manufacturers. Geopolitical change may result in changing regulatory requirements that could impact our operating strategies, hiring, and profitability.  

Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us or our customers may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition, or results of operations.  

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CARES Act was signed into law in March 2020. The CARES Act modifies certain of the changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Tax Act”). Changes in corporate tax rates, the realization of net deferred tax assets relating to our U.S. operations, and the deductibility of expenses under the Tax Act, as amended by the CARES Act, or future tax reform legislation could have a material impact on the value of our deferred tax assets, could result in significant one-time charges in the current or future taxable years, and could increase our future U.S. tax expense. The foregoing items, as well as any other future changes in tax laws, could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition, or results of operations. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the Tax Act, as amended by the CARES Act, or any newly enacted federal tax legislation.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 2. Properties

Principal Offices and ShiftPixy Labs

We leased space for our principal office and kitchens and production facilities associated with ShiftPixy Labs at 4101 NW 25 Street, Miami, Florida 33142. Our landlord is Runway 1 LLC. We began leasing 23,500 square feet on November 1, 2020. The lease term is for 64 months, with an expiration date of February 28, 2026. Our corporate office was moved to this location since we needed to move from our lease at 501 Brickell Key Drive, Suite 300, Miami, FL 33131.There was extensive renovations of the campus and building in which the Company’s offices were situated, citing substantial impairments to the Company’s ability to conduct business as well as concerns regarding the health and well-being of the Company’s employees and guests, and the landlord’s inability and refusal to provide any adequate relief. See Note 15. Contingencies to the Company’s accompanying Consolidated Financial Statement.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

In the normal course of business, we are subject to various claims and litigation. While the outcome of any litigation is inherently unpredictable, we believe that we have valid defenses with respect to the legal matters pending against us and that the ultimate resolution of these matters will not have a materially adverse impact on our financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows, except as discussed in Note 15. Contingencies to the Consolidated Financial Statements, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters, and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Trading History

Our common stock was listed for trading on Nasdaq on June 28, 2017, under the symbol “PIXY.”

Number of Equity Security Holders

As of December 11, 2023, the Company had 72 holders of record of our common stock. This does not include beneficial owners holding common stock in street name. As such, the number of beneficial holders of our shares could be substantially larger than the number of shareholders of record.

Dividends

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. For the foreseeable future, we intend to retain any earnings to finance the development and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock. Any future determination to pay dividends will be at the discretion of the board of directors and will be dependent upon then existing conditions, including our financial condition and results of operations, capital requirements, contractual restrictions, business prospects and other factors that the board of directors considers relevant. There are no restrictions in our articles of incorporation or bylaws that prevent us from declaring dividends. The Wyoming Statutes, however, prohibit us from declaring dividends that were, after giving effect to the distribution of the dividend:

• we would not be able to pay our debts as they become due in the usual course of business; or

• our total assets would be less than the sum of our total liabilities plus (unless the articles of incorporation permit otherwise) the amount that would be needed, if the corporation were to be dissolved at the time of the distribution, to satisfy the preferential rights upon dissolution of shareholders whose preferential rights are superior to those receiving the distribution.

Reverse Stock Split

On October 14, 2023, the Company effected a (1:40) reverse stock split. All common shares and common stock equivalents are presented retroactively to reflect the reverse split.

As discussed in Note 16, Subsequent Events to the Consolidated Financial Statements, which is incorporated herein by reference, effective August 31, 2022, the Company filed articles of amendment to the Company’s articles of incorporation to effect a one-for-one hundred (1:24) reverse split of the Company’s issued and outstanding shares of Common Stock. The reverse split became effective on Nasdaq October 16, 2023. All common shares and common stock equivalents are presented retroactively to reflect the reverse split.

Sale of Unregistered Securities

None

Stock Option / Stock Issuance Plan

In March 2017, the Company adopted its 2017 Stock Option/Stock Issuance Plan (the “Plan”). The Plan provides incentives to eligible employees, officers, directors and consultants in the form of incentive stock options (“ISOs”), non-qualified stock options (“NQs”), (each of which is exercisable into shares of common stock) (collectively, “Options”) or shares of common stock (“Share Grants”).

On March 6, 2023, the shareholders approved an increase in the number of shares of common stock issuable under the Plan from 1,250 to 31,250. Under the terms of the Plan, options granted prior to July 1, 2020, each option has a term of service vesting provision over a period of time as follows: 25% vest after a 12-month service period following the award, with the balance vesting in equal monthly installments over the succeeding 36 months. Options granted on or after July 1, 2020, typically vest over four years, with 25% of the grant vesting one year from the grant date, and the remainder in equal quarterly installments over the succeeding 12 quarters. All options granted to date have a stated ten-year term.

Stock grants are issued at fair value, considered to be the market price on the grant date. The fair value of option awards is estimated on the grant date using the Black-Scholes stock option pricing model, which uses certain assumptions related to risk-free interest rates, expected volatility, expected life of the stock options and future dividends.

The Company elected to account for forfeitures under the Plan as they occur. Any compensation cost previously recognized for an unvested award that is forfeited because of a failure to satisfy a service condition is reversed in the period of the forfeiture.

As of August 31, 2023, there are 30,833 shares available under the Plan.

Preferred Shares Convertible into Common Stock

Prior to the shareholder vote to approve the reverse stock split, the Company on August 2, 2022, amended its Articles of Incorporation to state that only the common stock is affected if the reverse stock split is effectuated with no intention to affect the preferred series A stock of the company. The reverse stock split was subsequently approved by the shareholders, and effectively the terms and conditions of the preferred stock were “deemed modified” and treated as an extinguishment (in accordance with ASC 470-50 and ASC 260-10-S99-2 for the disproportionate value received (the carrying compared to the fair value received).

On September 1, 2022, Mr. Absher converted 358,333 preferred shares series A to 358,333 shares of the Company’s common stock. Pursuant to Rule 144, these 358,333 shares of common stock are subject to a six-month holding period during which they may not be sold in the marketplace. All of the 358,333 preferred shares series A were converted into common shares on September 1, 2022, after the Company's reverse stock split had taken effect. Accordingly, no preferred stock series A shares are issued and outstanding as of August 31, 2023. As noted in Note 15, Contingencies, however, the trustee of the bankruptcy estate of Mr. Holmes is now asserting rights to preferred options and has attempted to convert preferred options into shares of preferred series A stock. See Subsequent Events Note 15, and the Company has come to an understanding in this matter to settle for $550,000, which has been accrued for in accounts payable and accrued liabilities as of August 31, 2023, in the accompany consolidated balance sheet.

On August 21, 2023, holders of an aggregate of 358,672 (representing 70.7%) of the Company’s outstanding shares of common stock, approved by written consent (a) a one-for-twenty four (1:24) (or such other ratio as may be determined by the Board) reverse split of the Company’s common stock, and, separately, (b) the Company’s grant to its founder and CEO of the Option Agreement providing to him  a conditional right to receive 4,744,234 shares of the Company’s preferred stock series A. This was approved by the shareholders.

On August 22, 2023, the Company entered into an agreement (the “Option Agreement”) with the Company’s founder and CEO, Mr. Absher, providing for the conditional issuance to him of a right to receive 4,744,234 shares of the Company’s preferred stock series A. The Company used the following assumptions to value the expense related to the preferred shares of series A: (i) life of 1.1years; (ii) risk free rate of 5.57%; (iii) volatility of 186.168%; (iv) exercise price of $0.0001 per share; and (v) market price of $0.66 per share common (based upon the Company’s traded stock price) (vi) a fair value of $0.65999 per share of the Company’s common stock. The Company recorded $3.1 million as stock-based compensation expense that is included general and administrative expenses for the year ending August 31, 2023, in the accompanying Consolidated Statements of Operations. See Note 16, Subsequent Events for the issuance of 4,744,234 shares to Mr. Absher on October 17, 2023. and the Company will be recording a preferential dividend on preferred series A of $67.4 million will be recorded. This has no impact on Stockholders’ Deficit.

Item 6. [Reserved.]

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis or Plan of Operation.

The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our financial statements and the related notes, and other financial information included in this Form 10-K.

Our Management’s Discussion and Analysis contains not only statements that are historical facts, but also statements that are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are, by their very nature risky, and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this Form 10-K. These risks and uncertainties include international, national, and local general economic and market conditions; our ability to sustain, manage, or forecast growth; our ability to successfully make and integrate acquisitions; new product development and introduction; existing government regulations and changes in, or the failure to comply with, government regulations; adverse publicity; competition; the loss of significant customers or suppliers; fluctuations and difficulty in forecasting operating results; change in business strategy or development plans; business disruptions; the ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; the ability to protect technology; the risk of foreign currency exchange rate; and other risks that might be detailed from time to time in our filings with the SEC. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this Form 10-K.

Although the forward-looking statements in this Form 10-K reflect the good faith judgment of our management, such statements can only be based on facts and factors currently known by them. You are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by us in this Form 10-K as we attempt to advise interested parties of the risks and factors that may affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations and prospects. For a more detailed discussion of the inclusion of forward-looking statements in this Form 10-K, please refer to the discussion, above, entitled “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Information.”

Overview

We are a human capital management (”HCM") platform. We provide payroll and related employment tax processing, human resources and employment compliance, employment related insurance, and employment administrative services solutions for our business clients (“clients” or “operators”) and shift work or “gig” opportunities for worksite employees (“WSEs” or “shifters”). As consideration for providing these services, we receive administrative or processing fees as a percentage of a client’s gross payroll. The level of our administrative fees is dependent on the services provided to our clients, which ranges from basic payroll processing to a full suite of human resources information systems ("”RIS") technology. Our primary operating business metric is gross billings, consisting of our clients’ fully burdened payroll costs, which includes, in addition to payroll, workers’ compensation insurance premiums, employer taxes, and benefits costs.

Our goal is to be the best online fully-integrated workforce solution and employer services support platform for lower-wage workers and employment opportunities. We have built an application and desktop capable marketplace solution that allows for workers to access and apply for job opportunities created by our clients and to provide traditional back-office services to our clients as well as real-time business information for our clients’ human capital needs and requirements.

We have designed our business platform to evolve to meet the needs of a changing workforce and a changing work environment. We believe our approach and robust technology will benefit from the observed demographic workplace shift away from traditional employee/employer relationships towards the increasingly flexible work environment that is characteristic of the gig economy. We believe this change in approach began after the 2008 financial crisis and is currently being driven by the labor shortage created out of the COVID-19 economic crisis. We also believe that a significant problem underpinning the lower wage labor crisis is the sourcing of workers and matching temporary or gig workers to short-term job opportunities.

We have built our business on a recurring revenue model since our inception in 2015. Our initial market focus has been to monetize a traditional staffing services business model, coupled with developed technology, to address underserved markets containing predominately lower wage employees with high turnover, including the light industrial, food service, restaurant, and hospitality markets.

Our primary focus was on clients in the restaurant and hospitality industries, market segments traditionally characterized by high employee turnover and low pay rates. We believe that these industries will be better served by our HRIS technology platform and related mobile smartphone application that provides payroll and human resources tracking for our clients. The use of our HRIS platform should provide our clients with real-time human capital business intelligence and we believe will result in lower operating costs, improved customer experience, and revenue growth. All of our clients enter into service agreements with us or one of our wholly-owned subsidiaries to provide these services.

We believe that our value proposition is to provide a combination of overall net cost savings to our clients, for which they are willing to pay increased administrative fees that offset the costs of the services we provide, as follows:

Our management believes that providing this baseline business, coupled with our technology solution, provides a unique, value-added solution to the HR compliance, staffing, and scheduling problems that businesses face. Over the past twenty-four months, in the face of the COVID-19 and post COVID-19 pandemic, we have instituted various growth initiatives described below that are designed to accelerate our revenue growth. These initiatives include the matching of temporary job opportunities between workers and employers under a fully compliant staffing solution through our HRIS platform. For this solution to be effective, we need to obtain a significant number of WSEs in concentrated geographic areas to fulfill our clients’ unique staffing needs and facilitate the client-WSE relationship. 

Managing, recruiting, and scheduling a high volume of low-wage employees can be both difficult and expensive. Historically, the acquisition and recruiting of such an employee population has been a labor intensive and expensive process in part due to high onboarding costs and complex issues surrounding such matters as tax information capture or I-9 verification. Early in our history, we evaluated these costs and found that proper process flows that are automated with blockchain and cloud technology, coupled with access to lower cost workers’ compensation policies resulting from economies of scale, could result in a profitable and low-cost scalable business model.

Over the past five years, we have invested heavily in a robust, cloud-based HRIS platform to:

In the past, our executive team spent an enormous effort on the failed SPAC transaction, and it cost the Company significant amount of money. We did gain many contacts from this which we have identified as target for acquisition. Our current business plan is to raise debt and issue stock for acquisitions to grow our business.

In addition, we face many challenges from ongoing legal issues which is disclosed in Note 15, Contingencies to our Consolidated Financial Statement, delinquent payroll tax liability and associated penalties and interest which is approximately $29.5 million.

The Company has a guaranteed cost program for its workers compensation program. In the past, the Company had a self-insured workers compensation program and is still dealing with the insured carrier over the claim liability of approximately $5.6 million. The insurance carrier, Sunz Insurance Solutions, LLC has filed a litigation case against the Company, see Note 15, Contingencies to our Consolidated Financial Statements.

Software Development  

We believe that our HRIS platform and the related mobile functionality that we are developing will be key differentiators and drivers of our low-cost customer acquisition strategy. As such, we have invested heavily in our HRIS platform over the past five years.

The heart of ShiftPixy’s employment services solutions is a technology platform, including a smartphone application, through which our WSEs will be able to find available shifts at our clients' locations, solving a problem of finding available shifts for both the shifters looking for additional shifts when they want to work and businesses looking to fill open shifts.

A key element of our software development involves using our blockchain ledger to process and record our critical Peer-to-Peer (“P2P”) connections. While not necessarily a new development, we note that we intend to use blockchain technology to keep our data secure. Any data considered to be a human capital validation point or part of the hiring and onboarding process will be utilized and recorded in our blockchain ledger. For example, we expect the employee I-9 verification process—one of the most stringent, rigorous, and penalty-laden compliance procedures – to be positively impacted by blockchain utilization of biometric authentication and automatic verification of I-9 data, removing human error in the process of screening for fraudulent information. Verification of that data on the blockchain will allow both employers and auditing agencies to confidently validate additional criteria such as employment dates, and candidates’ backgrounds (i.e., education, references, certifications, etc.), and share the verification status directly on multiple distributed sources within the blockchain, further underscoring the reliability and accuracy of candidates’ information and corporate compliance.

Future implementation of blockchain technology within the ShiftPixy Ecosystem is anticipated to include extended applications for payroll and real-time payments, and utilization of smart contracts for employment contracts, which will facilitate recording of credible, trackable, and irreversible transactions without third parties. For purposes of clarification, we note that ShiftPixy has never, does not now and will never use its blockchain technology in any form of cryptocurrency or crypto-currency related application.

Our smartphone application is one of the software components of what we call the mobile platform, and together with the ShiftPixy “Command Hub” and the client portal, is being developed, tested and released in stages. We have released and are currently using the multilingual onboarding feature of our software, which enables us to capture all application process related data regarding our assigned WSEs and to introduce WSEs to and integrate them into the ShiftPixy Ecosystem. This multilingual feature will allow us to move faster into outside markets and will reduce the time and cost to bring new WSEs onto our HRIS platform.

Our smartphone onboarding functionality streamlines the typical burdensome pile of new employee paperwork into a seamless user-friendly workflow that is fully compliant with governmental requirements. By leveraging artificial intelligence capabilities, new hires are guided by a conversation with a “Pixy” chatbot that asks the necessary questions and generates the required employment documents in a highly personal and engaging way. Following completion of the questions, applicable onboarding paperwork is prepopulated with the data and prepared for the employee’s signature to be affixed digitally via the app as well.

We believe that our technology and approach to human capital management provides our clients’' management with a unique real-time business intelligence window into their human capital needs. In addition to standard management reporting, our technology provides real-time tools for management to quickly assess and plan their human capital staffing requirements.

Prior to March 2019, we primarily used turnkey contract software development firms to build the software code, mobile application, and license integrations required to build the functional solution, with our internal personnel maintaining principally an oversight role. Beginning in March 2019, we hired and assembled an internal development team for cost-cutting and for better feature and implementation control. Our development team was fully in place by August 2019 and focused on delivering a version of our mobile application and software solution using a combination of third-party licensed software and internally developed software.

We began building our internal software development team and transitioned away from our former software development vendor to expedite our technology deployment. We launched version 2.0 of our mobile application and enhanced user features, including onboarding, scheduling and driver management, during the fourth quarter of Calendar 2019.

We continued our software development internally primarily by focusing on feature enhancements such as delivery, scheduling, and onboarding functionality improvement, as well as better integration and more seamless process flow improvements. We believe that this has resulted in an improved user experience, reduced internal staff time required for onboarding, and increased trials of  

Results of Operations

The following table summarizes the consolidated results of our operations for the year ended August 31, 2023 and August 31, 2022:

Fiscal 2023 vs. Fiscal 2022

Our financial performance for the years ended August 31, 2023, compared to August 31, 2022, included the following significant items:

Revenue, net decreased $18.9 million or 52.4%, from $36.0 million for the year ended August 31, 2022 to $17.1 million for the year ended August 31, 2023. This decrease is related to the loss of clients during the end of Fiscal 2022 due to executives who focused their time on the SPAC the impact of this is reflected in during the year ended August 31, 2023. The Company was expected clients from the SPAC transaction which would have resulted in additional revenues, an increase in gross margins and expected cost savings. The Company’s plans to increase revenues from acquisitions which are expected to be funded from debt and stock.

Gross Profit for the years ended August 31, 2023 compared to August 31, 2022 was 5.1% and 4.9 %, respectively, remained consistent.

Operating expenses decreased $10.2 million  from $45.0 million for the year ended August 31, 2022 to $34.8 million. For the year ended August 31. 2023. The components of operating expenses change for such periods are as follows:

Salaries, wages and payroll taxes decreased $4.0 million from $14.8. million for the year August 31, 2022 to $158 for the year ended August 31, 2023, the decrease is directly related to the reduction in employees from 61 employees to 31 employees for the year ended August 31, 2022 to August 31, 2023, respectively. Included in salaries, wages and payroll taxes is penalties and interest expense for payroll taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service, states and local taxing authorities. For the year ended August 31, 2022 penalties and interest expense was $1.2 million as compared to $6.1 million for the year ended August 31, 2023. The increase of $4.9 million resulted due to an increase in payroll tax owed to the Internal Revenue Service, states and local taxing authorities from $12.9 million to $22.8 million as of August 31, 2022 and August 31, 2023, respectively. The Company is expected to record additional penalties from its outstanding payroll obligations to the IRS, states and local authorities.

Professional fees primarily consist of legal fees, accounting and public company costs, board fees, and consulting fees. Professional fees decreased by $4.1 million, from $7.7 million for the year ended August 31, 2022 to $3.6 million for the year ended August 31, 2023. The decrease is primarily related to the ceased operations of our sponsored SPAC for which the Company is no longer incurring expenses of $1.7 million. In addition, the Company experienced a decrease in legal fees of $1.6 million. 

Research and expense of costs associated with research and development outsourced to third parties. Software development costs decreased by $2.3 from $2.5 million for the year ended August 31, 2022 to $0.3 million for the year ended August 31, 2023. The decrease is related to the reduction of external IT consultants as the application was essentially completed during the second half of Fiscal 2022.

Impairment asset expense is a non-cash charge for the year ended August 31, 2023 and was $1.4 million related to the assets related for Labs the launch of which the Company postponed its launch. The Company wrote down long-term assets to its estimated fair value by $1.0 million and $0.4 million from its non-recoupable security deposits related to its abandoned leases. 

Right-of-use asset impairment for the years ended August 31, 2023 and August 31, 2022 the Company recorded a non-cash impairment charge based upon the asset value at each reporting period. The non-recurring impairment for the year ended August 31, 2023 of $2.5 million was the result of the Company decision abandoning the leases for its offices in Irvine California and Sunrise, Florida. The right-of-use asset impairment for the year ended August 31, 2022 was $3.9 million which related to an abandoned lease in Brickell, Florida. The determination was based on the Company’s inability to utilize the premises as they were under extensive construction by the landlord resulting in a significant negative impact on the Company’s ability to conduct business and the health and well-being of the Company’s employees and guests.

General and administrative expenses consist of office rent and related overhead, software licenses, insurance, stock- based compensation, insurance. marketing, travel and entertainment, a reserve for uncollectable purchase price note receivable and other general business expenses. General and administrative expenses decreased by $4.9 million from $15.6 million for the ended August 31, 2022 to $10.7 million for the year ended August 31, 2023. The decrease primarily relates to a decrease from a $4.0 million uncollectable purchase price note receivable resulting from a January 2020 transaction. In addition, there were decreases from insurance related to the SPAC of $1.9 million and other expenses due to the reduction in various expenses as the Company as a result in decreases cost cutting offset by an increase legal settlement of $1.4 million and marketing expenses of 0.6 million.

SPAC offering expanses was $0.5 million for the year ended August 31, 2022 and was due to the abandonment of the initial public offering.  

Income (loss) from discontinued operations represents the reassessment of the workers' compensation claims reserve associated with our former clients that we transferred to Vensure as part of the Vensure Asset Sale. Income from discontinued operations increased by $0.8 million was primarily related to the gain recorded from the settlement with Everest.

Net loss for the years ended August 31, 2023 decreased by $10.4 million from $44.0 million compared to $33.6 million based upon the factors above. 

LIQUIDITY, CAPITAL RESOURCES AND GOING CONCERN

As of August 31, 2023, the Company had cash of $0.1 million and a working capital deficit of $51.0 million. During the year ended August 31, 2023, the Company used approximately $9.2 million of cash from its continuing operations and incurred recurring losses, resulting in an accumulated deficit of $226.4 million. As of August 31, 2023, the Company is delinquent with respect to remitting payroll tax payments to the IRS, states, and local jurisdictions. The Company has retained tax counsel and has been in near constant communication with the IRS regarding processing its Employee Retention Tax Credits (“ERTCs”).  On September 14, 2023, the IRS has a moratorium on processing new ERTC claims and many of the Company’s clients are seeking refunds. The Company has filed recent ETRC claims and has not received any notifications of acceptance from the IRS. Some clients have filed suits against the Company, demanding that the Company take action to file for additional ERTCs for certain tax periods.

ShiftPixy has received notices from the IRS owe approximately $11.8 million for unpaid tax liabilities, including penalties and interest. The balances reported on such notices do not represent the full payroll tax liability of as of August 31, 2023. The Company expects payroll tax liabilities, penalties and interest to increase in the future.  Moreover, the IRS has threatened to take enforced collection against ShiftPixy potentially. ShiftPixy has taken steps to preserve so-called “collection due process rights” and present collection alternatives to the proposed enforced collection.  Specifically:

Notwithstanding the above-described requests for a collection due process hearing, should the IRS determine the collectability of tax be in jeopardy, the IRS can, with limited notice, levy the affected Company’s bank accounts and subject it to enforced collection if ShiftPixy cannot obtain a resolution of the payroll tax issues, the United States Tax Court can review Appeals’ determination.  There is no assurance that the IRS will abate penalties and interest currently assessed against ShiftPixy. If ShiftPixy cannot get abated the outstanding penalties, and interest or raise the necessary capital to fund its payroll tax obligations and collection alternative, it may cause ShiftPixy to file for bankruptcy protection in the near future.

The Company has taken aggressive steps to reduce its overhead expenses. The Company’s plans and expectations for the next twelve months include raising additional capital which may help fund the Company’s operations and strengthening the Company’s sales force strategy by focusing on staffing services as the key driver towards its success. In addition, the Company is changing its business model since it is operating at a loss and not generating positive cash flows from operations. The payroll tax liabilities, interest, and penalties to increase. Based upon the current Company’s business plans may cause the Company to file for bankruptcy in the near future. 

The Company expects to engage in additional sales register securities during Fiscal 2024, either through registered offerings or private placements, the proceeds of which the Company intends to use to fund its operations. If these sources do not provide the capital necessary to fund the Company’s operations during the next twelve months, it may need to curtail certain aspects of its operations or expansion activities, consider the sale of additional assets, or consider other means of financing. The Company is also seeking acquisition targets for growth, a recurring revenue base, significant gross profit conversion, margin expansion opportunities, a light industrial sector focus, a blue-chip client base, cyclical tailwinds, and a tenured management team willing and able to execute a comprehensive integration plan. The Company can give no assurance that it will be successful in implementing its business plan and obtaining financing on advantageous terms, or that any such additional financing will be available. If the Company is not successful in obtaining the necessary financing, we do not currently have the cash resources to meet our operating commitments for the next twelve months from the issuance of the financial statements. The accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements do not include any adjustments for this uncertainty.

Under the existing accounting guidance, management must evaluate whether there are conditions or events, considered in the aggregate, that raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date the consolidated financial statements are issued. This evaluation initially does not take into consideration the potential mitigating effect of management’s plans that have not been fully implemented as of the date the consolidated financial statements are issued. When substantial doubt is determined to exist, management evaluates whether the mitigating effect of its plans sufficiently alleviates substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The mitigating effect of management’s plans; however, is only considered if both (1) it is probable that the plans will be effectively implemented within one year after the date the  Consolidated Financial Statements are issued, and (2) it is probable that the plans, when implemented, may mitigate the relevant conditions or events that raise substantial doubt about the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date the Consolidated Financial Statements are issued. Therefore, management has concluded that there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern from twelve months the date of the issuance of issuance of the financial statements.

Historically, the Company’s principal source of financing has come through the sale of the Company’s common stock, including in certain instances, warrants and the issuance of convertible notes.

On October 5, 2023, the Company,  entered into a securities purchase agreement with an institutional investor, pursuant to which the Company issued and sell to the investor (i) in a registered direct offering, 56,250 shares of common stock of the Company common stock at a price of $26.40 per share, and pre-funded warrants (the “Pre-Funded Warrants”) to purchase up to 38,125 shares of common stock at a price of $26.40 per share and an exercise price of $0.0001 per share of common stock, and (ii) in a concurrent  private placement, common stock purchase warrants (the “Private Placement Warrants”), exercisable for an aggregate of up to 56,250 shares of common stock, at an exercise price of $26.40 per share of common stock. The Pre-Funded warrants were exercised. The net proceeds of this offering were $2.0 million.

The following table sets forth a summary of changes in cash flows for the years ended August 31, 2023 and August 31, 2022.