I didn't care much for Ries' "The Lean Startup", but one thing that did stick with me about it was the example of just doing stuff 'by hand' to see if there's a market for it, without worrying about creating some super-cool highly automated and perfect system from the get go, as would be our inclination as hackers. The oDesk story seems to indicate that they did something similar - putting people in touch very much 'by hand' initially. It'd be interesting to hear about the transition, but I think it's a good concept to keep in mind, as long as you are reasonably sure that, at some point, things can be automated pretty well.
What happened in the early days of oDesk?
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Re: What happened in the early days of oDesk?
#22Build a global meritocracy - a person's geographic location should not inhibit the work that they can do. Great Quote!
It is amazing how little this is respected.
Re: What happened in the early days of oDesk?
#23Has anyone found work through oDesk and been satisfied with it?
I've hired about ten people through oDesk; it took about a year before I got good at it (and I wasted a lot of money in doing so) but there are good people there.
As ever, good communication is key (I insist on them being in a campfire room with me whilst working so problems can be dealt with immediately).
EDIT: sorry, just noticed you said "found work", so my answer isn't really relevant.
Re: What happened in the early days of oDesk?
#24I guess "People sharing things that matter" is very subjective. A nice story to be sure....but "really matters"? Is storylane curated or just a free for all?
Storylane is free for all (as in: NOT invite only but open to anyone). It is however community curated in that the best content surfaces to the top using the feedback users give.
Re: What happened in the early days of oDesk?
#25Great story about a startup just getting stuff done in it's infancy. Who are their major competitors now?
Re: What happened in the early days of oDesk?
#26Great story about a startup just getting stuff done in it's infancy. Who are their major competitors now?
We're just starting as a competitor (www.Staff.com) and kind of starting in the same way by helping companies to find staff with personal interaction. The competitive advantage that we are focussing on is:
1. Focus on full time hires with technology and staff that are oriented to working full time for one company. One of the issues with oDesk is that great freelancers are in high demand working for several clients and so are not focussed on your work. On the other side of the coin, most freelancers on the platform do not earn enough to make ends meet, because they only get a couple of jobs for $2 per hour to try and get started and they never get traction
2. More of a managed solution where we help companies to find the right staff member. This is possible because we are focussed only on full time hires.
Then as a second stage of the business build a platform that has some advantages over oDesk and other existing remote staffing platforms.
Re: What happened in the early days of oDesk?
#27Has anyone found work through oDesk and been satisfied with it?
I've used it extensively as an employer. I've found a few real gems that I would love to hire full-time someday, but lately I've been having a very hard time finding quality talent. I've had four hires in a row that accepted the job and then completely dropped off the face of the earth afterwards.
I've also run into quite a few contractors who lie about their skill set--hoping, I assume, to get ANY kind of work and then learn it as they go. It makes ramping someone up kind of frustrating... but once you find someone good to work with I've had nothing bad to say about it.
Re: What happened in the early days of oDesk?
#28Yeah, 3 middle men between third world and Oracle - the meta-model of current IT business,) and $5/h - $25/h is also telling.)
Self-proclaimed manager's dream.
Re: What happened in the early days of oDesk?
#29Has anyone found work through oDesk and been satisfied with it?
yes. started with $8/hr in 2008 just to get first feedback on a profile when I was back in Belarus and now charging $100/hr. While it is not full time now - I am really satified with the fact I am working on what I like and get paid really well for that.
and oDesk gave me ability to get in USA (found my future H-1b sponsor on oDesk.) so I have personal bias :)
Re: What happened in the early days of oDesk?
#30I wanted to here more detail about how they want from a curated marketplace to the free-for-all it is today. TopTal and Matchist have launched in the last few years, and are aiming to be curated jobs marketplaces (TopTal vets coders, Matchist vets clients). When I first saw them, I thought it was a great model, but this article suggests it's something oDesk tried back in the day and didn't work out. Anyone have any d…
Tim, co-founder of matchist here. Just to clarify, we vet both talent and clients.