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It’s an exciting time for the freelance revolution despite the challenges of inflation and the potential recession.
Last week, led by Outvise.com, Spanish freelance platforms met for the first time to begin a collaboration to work together to build the Spanish freelance market. They’ve called themselves R-Evolution Spain. It’s a great name and an apt description of the freelance revolution. We are simultaneously evolving a global open talent philosophy, and bringing technology to bear while revolutionizing how, where, when and with whom work it done.
New innovations in the freelance economy are testimony to its potential for global growth. And, in particular, we see new themes developing.
One theme is regional expansion through M&A. For example, Malt.com recently acquired the German independent consulting platform Comatch.com. As the Malt team explained, they see real power in becoming the 800-kilo gorilla in the EU and UK. From their initial start in France, they have adopted a “glocal” approach, adding local presence in Spain, Benelux and the UK.
Another theme is the entry of traditional staffing firms into the freelance revolution, as a way they can expand the range of services they provide to corporate clients. A good example is the acquisition of BTG, also an independent consulting platform, by Heidrick. That’s enabled Heidrick to move deeper into adjacent areas of opportunity like interim management, an area of growth internationally as well as in the U.S. Odgers Berndtson, the UK based executive recruiting firm, offers another example. In this case, the traditional staffing player is increasingly involved in both interim and “on demand” expert networks.
Now, WorkGenius.com, a well-respected freelance platform has created a third wave, and has turned the tables by acquiring JBC, a significant employee staffing organization. In doing so, they’re creating a well-funded, highly profitable, future unicorn with the size, team, and potential to be a game-changer.
Here’s what CEO Marlon Rosenzweig explained. “The freelance economy is large and continues to grow quickly. But, we saw a large potential opportunity for growth that freelance- only platforms were missing. There will always be full-time employees and roles in-house, and we want to be part of that larger market. We don’t want to provide only some of the talent our clients need. We can offer more.”
The combination of WorkGenius and JBC makes this possible. Readers familiar with WorkGenius know the platform was created by Rosenzweig and his co-founder Daniel Barke in Germany and raised its initial seed round in 2015. Since that time the platform has grown significantly, first in Europe and is now operating globally. In 2019, the platform moved its headquarters from Germany to the US.
WorkGenius represents almost 350,000 vetted and credentialed freelancers operating in both business and technology areas, and provides both a wide range of business strategic and operational expertise along with a strong tech and project management capability to deliver full-on projects in digital transformation with all of the incremental skills required to execute and communicate a significant strategic or operational initiative, including interim management roles.
The tie-up with JBC provides WorkGenius with a significant additional population of talent, both freelance and those focused on full-time employment. It offers the enterprise and mid-market clients of the newly combined firms with the capability to more fully meet their talent needs, whether it is permanent, interim or project based. And, it provides WorkGenius with additional ways to support the careers of platform members.
Here is how Rosenzweig put it:
“Not only has staffing been transformed by the freelance movement, it’s also created new career possibilities that we want to support. Nowadays, a top freelance engineer in the US, Europe or Asia might leave freelancing to join a company full-time for a great project, then go back to freelancing or perhaps work as an interim CTO. Talented professionals have more options than ever before, and we are uniquely able now to support them more fully throughout their career.”
Rosenzweig mentioned a critical third advantage from bringing together the skills and experience of the two organizations. As he explained it, the long-term success of both freelancing and traditional staffing is expertise in meeting clients’ talent needs, whether that’s finding the right individual talent for a full-time position, matching a freelancer to an “on demand” project, or curating a development team for a FAST product development sprint. In each of these areas, JBC brings HR expertise to WorkGenius, providing a big assist in working with clients to establish the best profile matches that fit their need and budget, and the tools to put the right team members together when teams are required. As he described it: “Now with JBC we have a better recipe for curation. They bring unique capability we didn’t have, and its enabling faster, better, matches. When time is of the essence for clients, the ability to match right and fast makes a big difference.”
And there is a fourth benefit to bringing JBC into the WorkGenius fold: sharing opportunities. Enterprise companies increasingly rely on freelancers to supplement internal capability, in fact, over 90% say they will do more with freelancers in future. But often the question is whether the best staffing decision for a given project is freelance, interim, or full-time. By bringing together the ability to both advise on and deliver freelance, interim, and full-time talent options, its able to build more robust client relationships.
The new organization, named WorkGenius Holdings, will continue to operate from its headquarters in New York, but with an expanded geographic footprint. JBC brings to the combined company operations in the UK, Spain, France, Canada, and Hong Kong. Bryan Zaslow, the founder of JBC, will continue to be part of the new organization, leading the JBC team in offering both its current services and now also the WorkGenius technology suite.
We asked Zaslow for his view of the union. Here’s what he said, “JBC's new partnership with WorkGenius couldn’t have come at a better time. We’re not just in the business of making placements. JBC is always looking for new and more importantly cutting edge ways to bring together experience and technology to help companies transform their talent acquisition process and find themselves positioned more aggressively in their competitive landscape. This coming together of our two amazing teams enables JBC to take that reinvention one step further. The collaboration allows us to create a unique and progressive staffing model, innovating the future of staffing.”
Without doubt, the future for the freelance revolution remains bright. We continue to see innovation on multiple fronts, new forms of relationship bringing freelancers together and matching freelancers with client project staffing requirements. WorkGenius’ acquisition of JBC, like Heidrick’s purchase of BTG and Malt’s combination with Comatch, is yet another example of how the global freelance revolution is finding new ways to make it easier for organizations large and small to find the expertise they need.
Viva la revolution!
