Our Story
ax·i·al shift
/ˈaksēəl/ /SHift/
Modified noun
An axial shift is an intentional change in focus to serve the needs of frontline managers and staff. The Axial Shift platform provides teams with a purpose-driven work experience by delivering transparency into their performance and potential sales opportunities, as well as tools to control their outcomes and improve their own and their store’s performance.
Our Story
Axial Shift was founded by Ellis Winstanley, a long-time restaurateur, who understood firsthand the critical purpose of the unit level workforce and more importantly the challenges those teams face every day.
Ellis watched as managers struggled to connect their activity on the floor with the reports they ran in the back office. Knowing that too much of his own management time was spent doing repetitive admin work, that his management teams lacked clarity on their contributions, and that team development opportunities were getting left on the floor, Ellis knew the status quo had to change and that he had to create a platform to help his team.
Our Story Continued...
What started as an idea to build a proprietary tool to help his restaurant staff has now grown to Axial Shift. Ellis knew the challenges his team faced weren't unique to his business, and these industry-wide problems quickly became opportunities to strengthen the relationship between team members and leaders across hospitality.
Axial Shift is the first platform to prioritize the continual development of frontline teams by bridging the gap between real-time staff performance, sales, and employee experience.
Now, team leaders and team members can easily see the impact they’re making and how to improve their own outcomes, allowing managers to become coaches to their teams and lead their restaurants with clarity and purpose.
Our Mission and Values
Prioritize people to deliver a purpose-driven experience.
Transparency
We are open, honest, authentic people working to deliver technology that creates data transparency.
Experience
We have walked a mile in our customers’ shoes so we know their pain points. We’re creating solutions to improve and elevate their work experience, and those of their guests.
Purpose
We live and work with purpose and passion for what we do. It’s part of who we are and drives us everyday.
Our Team
Ellis Winstanley
CEO/Founder
Ellis Winstanley is a seasoned restauranteur and business executive with a successful track record of starting up, turning around and growing businesses in the hospitality, software and several other industries. Ellis began turning around historic restaurant brands while in college and has played key roles in dozens of restaurant related operations over the years. It was during this time that Ellis realized there was there was a huge opportunity to improve the experiences of unit level restaurant team members. His passion for solving this problem led him to assemble a team to build Axial Shift, with the core focus of driving great employee experiences through transparency and purpose-driven growth.
Justin Buckley
Chief Operations Officer
Justin Buckley is the Chief Operations Officer at Axial Shift. He has lived in Austin Texas for the last 20+ years and is a native Texan. He has over 21+ years of experience in the SaaS business specific to the hospitality industry. He was one of the first principle leaders to start and create HotSchedules, a leading hospitality software company tailored to the restaurant industry.
During his time at HotSchedules he created and led customer-facing teams and ran operations for a global team. He has a record of achievement in disrupting the SaaS market and implementing innovative strategies and successful program deployments worldwide. He attempts to play golf and loves to be on the lake.
Andrew Markley
Co-Founder/Architect
Andrew Markley is an innovative tech leader who began developing technology several years before attending the University of Texas to formally study computer science. Andrew has played key roles in the development of several business systems across dozens of technology platforms. After years of working with Ellis on a variety of projects Andrew became a Co-Founder of Axial where he oversees strategic initiatives and is passionate about the architecture and usability of the Axial platform.
Matt Woodings
Chief Technology Officer
As one of the original five principal leaders at HotSchedules, Matt Woodings was instrumental in the development, scaling and securing of this ground breaking product. Matt is keen to pull from that wealth of knowledge and apply it to Axial Shift to once again deliver a world class solution. He is excited to focus on empowerment and engagement within Axial Shift to take users to a whole new level of service at their locations.
Outside of the exciting world of tech, you can find Matt on Strava running the roads of Texas, chilling watching movies with his family, or whipping up something delicious in the kitchen.
Careers
We’re growing, and we love where we work! If you’d like to join our mission-driven organization, check out our open positions! If your dream job isn’t listed below, please send your resume to hr@axialshift.com for future consideration.
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