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Growing The Global Freelance Pie | CEO of Human Cloud, Venture Partner, Published Author, Forbes Contributor
I'll never forget when Mike McGinley asked me a question about the freelance economy when we first met - "is this industry new, or new to you". I think it so perfectly encapsulates the state of the freelance economy, in that while it's been a 20+ year transformation of work from full time to self employment, the original value propositions still hold true, and talent scarcity is one of those core value propositions. Paul Falcone puts it perfectly, in that a talent scarcity isn't going anywhere, it will only increase across developed nations. A deeper point that freelance leaders understand is that the talent scarcity is more than a demographic shift, it's a technology shift that unlocks more individuals to choose self employment. Which back to the "new to you" statement...self employment isn't new, but it's easier than ever, and has led to over 33% of the US workforce working as self employed freelancers today and over 50% of the US workforce will be working this way by 2027. Some players like MBO Partners ("my business office") and Gene Zaino saw this as early as the late 1990's. This includes the early Elance and oDesk. Others like Patrick Petitti and Rob Biederman of Catalant Technologies, Rishon Blumberg and Michael Solomon of 10x Management, Maari Casey of Uncompany, Toptal, Gigster, saw it as early as the early 2010's. Then the dam broke with the wave of acceptance and acceleration from Covid-19 and leaders like David Küpper and Christian Moldenhauer of EPH - expertpowerhouse, Hooman Radfar of Collective, Rachel Renock of Wethos, Cesar A. Jimenez and Angela Alberty, CCWP of myBasePay, Karina Rehavia of ollo.is, Ricky Willianto of Ravenry, Peter McPartlin and Úna Herlihy of The Indie List, Abeer Qumsieh and Caroline Ayoub of Khibraty, Gabe Greenberg of G2i Inc. and many, many others. What can't be understated is how robust the industry became with the leaders above. Freelance went from a singular, marketplace industry, to an industry serving every region, every industry, every skillset, and 9+ segments under the umbrella term "freelance", including talent platforms, compliance providers, freelancer solutions, and many more. --------------- Need help wrapping your head around the freelance economy? Check out Human Cloud, the advisory firm growing the global freelance pie. Then check the comments for some great links to the #HumanCloudPodcast and our Industry Landscape.
"When it comes to talent scarcity, this is all the industrialized nations, for the rest of the century, we're all going to be suffering from talent scarcity" - Paul Falcone, bestselling author and former CHRO of Nickelodeon Guess where there isn't a talent scarcity? The freelance workforce.