If you're looking to build a business around it you mind want to rethink your positioning (i.e. No middle-man / No percentage) as that limits where you can go. You want to put yourself in a position where both sides of the market are happy for you to take a commission.
For example by being an intermediary you could reduce IR35 risk for the hiring company or reducing payment risk for the freelancer (i.e providing payment escrow) .
I know the space fairly well (I used to run a developer job board startup) and I think there's definitely a space in the market for an on-site freelance marketplace; but the reason no-one has solved it before is the chicken-and-egg problem - with remote-working marketplaces there's less issues with matching liquidity but with local marketplaces it's a much bigger deal so you might want to think about ways you can tackle the problem.
@eriktorenberg No-one really owns the local on-site freelancer space; most of the big freelancing sites are primarily focused on remote-work. Freelance hiring is still fairly fragmented across sites like Dribbble, Craigslist/Gumtree, Twitter, etc.
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@imranghory you mentioned important points and I agree with all of them. Just wanted add one more point to payment escrow. Depending on the implementation it usually speeds up payment significantly. I used to run a remote-working marketplace in Europe. It can be common that freelancers have to wait couple of months for being paid (i.e. Spain, Italy). Payment escrow solves that problem. Our users loved it.
@imranghory The percentage model isn't something I have ever wanted for OnSite, I don't feel it would really be fixing anything and introduces a distorting profit motive. There are enough middlemen in the business (online and off) already.
When we do start charging it will be on a SAAS model with the marketplace being just part of the platform. I agree, that this can limit the available revenue, but then so does limiting the company and freelance accounts approved (about 28% and 23% respectively).
@eriktorenberg I'd like to think it's a vast improvement for both sides.
- The talent and hiring companies are both curated. No timewasters, fakes or poorly qualified freelancers.
- All profiles have to be complete and up-to-date before freelancers are visible (no half finished bio's and long dead accounts).
- Matching is based on skill, availability and location only (cost can be used as a guide by hiring companies but never filters their results and jobs posted do not display a rate - removing any incentive for a race to the bottom on cost).
- We don't take a percentage (or get involved in your business in any way, beyond introducing you to world class freelance talent).
Cheers.
@chriskedzierski Whilst I agree the escrow thing can be useful for ensuring freelancers are paid on-time (and we do definitely want to improve things for freelancers) it would require us tracking jobs, tying both parties up in contracts and probably taking a percentage for our trouble. This isn't really where we want to be.
We would rather make the introductions and allow people to build their own relationships from there.
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I've successfully recruited a Senior UI Designer for London based Design Studio. Great UX, Well considered UI and probably the best source of Freelance Design talent.
FWIW (I know the space a little bit), I think you're really on to something. And given that disintermediation is much more problematic for local marketplaces than for remote marketplaces, I think you're completely right to go for a SaaS model rather than a commission model. Well done!
Also, in addition to the examples of local work marketplaces everyone always thinks about (TaskRabbit, Postmates, etc), you might want to look at WorkMarket and OnForce. While they're focused more on traditional staffing jobs rather than developers, my guess is that there are similarities for you to think about...
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Should I Build a Bot?
Should I Build a Bot?
I've successfully recruited a Senior UI Designer for London based Design Studio. Great UX, Well considered UI and probably the best source of Freelance Design talent.
Pros:Great User Experience
Cons:Be great if you'd broaden the pool beyond London
Should I Build a Bot?
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Novi by Facebook
Should I Build a Bot?