Startup Veteran turned VC, Josh Breinlinger shares Marketplace Secrets gained from early days of powerhouse oDesk.com
Today we are pleased to chat with startup entrepreneur Josh Breinlinger, who quickly learned the ropes when he joined the oDesk team as employee number four. Although he came from a mechanical engineering background at MIT, he dove right into marketing.
Early days in oDesk were just as you would expect. Josh was on the phone with customers more than anything else. To jump start his sales experience, he says that he went to a bunch of used car lots and time share meetings. Used car lots are every automobile driver’s worst nightmare, but then again, an extreme number of used cars are sold every day. Josh is undoubtedly one education hacker.
Josh explains how oDesk started by targeting the market of open source PHP development and when he joined they had about eighty freelance programmers. With half of the chicken and egg problem solved, he was able to focus on getting projects and jobs into the pipeline.
Although oDesk was such a different sort of hiring process, it's obvious now that their unique approach has attracted millions of contractors and over 500,000 businesses hiring on the platform.
Josh speaks about oDesk's advantage as one of the first hiring systems that didn't limit you to a fixed price per project. Instead of just setting a value on your project completion, you could now build a virtual team of specialists to develop your project. It really broke through any glass ceiling that internet start-up companies were afraid of.
The "work diary" feature of oDesk was one of the core innovations. It is a tool for companies to track time & work done, and for employees to track payment for their time. It is very much like an old fashioned punch card for logging hours and work. Companies can see screen shots of what their employee is doing, and being that this is all online; the employee could be hundreds of miles away. This ensures the company can see the task is being completed in a timely matter, and the employee is guaranteed payment on the work they have logged. oDesk essentially ensures employee's, “you do the work you are hired for, and we will make sure that you're paid for the hours you log”, and people trust it when they see it working.
Being the fourth employee at oDesk, and then moving on to Sigma West, Josh Breinlinger really understands what can come of the World Wide Web and people being involved in change. When asked about what he wants to see be put to the test next, he says a few different things. First, he wants to see more recurring business or usage in the marketplace in question. A business or company where there is a one-time need, he says is not as interesting to him, such as wedding photographer. So unless you plan on getting married more than once, it just isn’t worth the funding. He also says, he wants to see markets having the ability to standardize the offer. This means simply, it can be something anyone can do. You need the extra buck, but you don’t know how to create a web based server… however you can write an email to a potential recruit. That is the kind of simple task he wants to see more of on these markets.
Josh also says it needs to be irregular. He explains how a housekeeping job is not what he wants to see; in that instance he does not need the middle man (like oDesk) to hire a house cleaner. He wants to see more irregular needs, such as, not knowing when you will need that house keeper, or a taxi ride to the airport. The irregularity is something that drives the diversity of this sort of marketing, and without it, there is just no need for it to be as huge as it has become.
When Josh was asked about how to get a start-up business off the ground, he had some great advice. You need a great team and marketing skills at your fingertips. When looking for some great team members, he says you need to look for someone with an in-depth sense of what is wrong and how this product or service will fix it. Product features alone aren't enough. The core team should have a deep understanding of the problem they are set out to solve.
Josh is also a big believer in reaching for a high net promoter score. The net promoter score is, is a single customer question akin to, "how likely are you to suggest this product/company to friends or family on a scale of one to ten". A promoter is those scored nine to ten and a detractor is anyone with a zero to six ratings. The net score are the promoters minus the detractors. Aiming for a very high score is something that makes your company or product stands out among the rest because of strong word of mouth and customer satisfaction.
We look at Josh's latest project that he's cofounded, Rev.com. They offer audio transcription, business translation, and certified translations at a fixed rate per minute, word and page respectively. We're anticipating additional services Rev might offer, but unlike oDesk, they're an interface for completing the task, and not a direct marketplace for workers.
Being on board so early in the start-up internet process makes Josh Breinlinger one of the best people to take advice from when it comes to making a start-up business. Trends change all the time, as he mentions, and keeping up with them and sometimes ahead of them can make or break an internet business. Being an early employee at oDesk has established Josh as a thought leader in the world of internet marketplaces. He is truly an inspiration to those who want to gain a lead in the world of web.
Thank Josh for sharing his story with us by checking out Rev.com and following his great blog. We look forward to following up with Rev's future announcements and Sigma West's wise investments.
Rev http://www.rev.com/
Early days in oDesk were just as you would expect. Josh was on the phone with customers more than anything else. To jump start his sales experience, he says that he went to a bunch of used car lots and time share meetings. Used car lots are every automobile driver’s worst nightmare, but then again, an extreme number of used cars are sold every day. Josh is undoubtedly one education hacker.
Josh explains how oDesk started by targeting the market of open source PHP development and when he joined they had about eighty freelance programmers. With half of the chicken and egg problem solved, he was able to focus on getting projects and jobs into the pipeline.
Although oDesk was such a different sort of hiring process, it's obvious now that their unique approach has attracted millions of contractors and over 500,000 businesses hiring on the platform.
Josh speaks about oDesk's advantage as one of the first hiring systems that didn't limit you to a fixed price per project. Instead of just setting a value on your project completion, you could now build a virtual team of specialists to develop your project. It really broke through any glass ceiling that internet start-up companies were afraid of.
The "work diary" feature of oDesk was one of the core innovations. It is a tool for companies to track time & work done, and for employees to track payment for their time. It is very much like an old fashioned punch card for logging hours and work. Companies can see screen shots of what their employee is doing, and being that this is all online; the employee could be hundreds of miles away. This ensures the company can see the task is being completed in a timely matter, and the employee is guaranteed payment on the work they have logged. oDesk essentially ensures employee's, “you do the work you are hired for, and we will make sure that you're paid for the hours you log”, and people trust it when they see it working.
Being the fourth employee at oDesk, and then moving on to Sigma West, Josh Breinlinger really understands what can come of the World Wide Web and people being involved in change. When asked about what he wants to see be put to the test next, he says a few different things. First, he wants to see more recurring business or usage in the marketplace in question. A business or company where there is a one-time need, he says is not as interesting to him, such as wedding photographer. So unless you plan on getting married more than once, it just isn’t worth the funding. He also says, he wants to see markets having the ability to standardize the offer. This means simply, it can be something anyone can do. You need the extra buck, but you don’t know how to create a web based server… however you can write an email to a potential recruit. That is the kind of simple task he wants to see more of on these markets.
Josh also says it needs to be irregular. He explains how a housekeeping job is not what he wants to see; in that instance he does not need the middle man (like oDesk) to hire a house cleaner. He wants to see more irregular needs, such as, not knowing when you will need that house keeper, or a taxi ride to the airport. The irregularity is something that drives the diversity of this sort of marketing, and without it, there is just no need for it to be as huge as it has become.
When Josh was asked about how to get a start-up business off the ground, he had some great advice. You need a great team and marketing skills at your fingertips. When looking for some great team members, he says you need to look for someone with an in-depth sense of what is wrong and how this product or service will fix it. Product features alone aren't enough. The core team should have a deep understanding of the problem they are set out to solve.
Josh is also a big believer in reaching for a high net promoter score. The net promoter score is, is a single customer question akin to, "how likely are you to suggest this product/company to friends or family on a scale of one to ten". A promoter is those scored nine to ten and a detractor is anyone with a zero to six ratings. The net score are the promoters minus the detractors. Aiming for a very high score is something that makes your company or product stands out among the rest because of strong word of mouth and customer satisfaction.
We look at Josh's latest project that he's cofounded, Rev.com. They offer audio transcription, business translation, and certified translations at a fixed rate per minute, word and page respectively. We're anticipating additional services Rev might offer, but unlike oDesk, they're an interface for completing the task, and not a direct marketplace for workers.
Being on board so early in the start-up internet process makes Josh Breinlinger one of the best people to take advice from when it comes to making a start-up business. Trends change all the time, as he mentions, and keeping up with them and sometimes ahead of them can make or break an internet business. Being an early employee at oDesk has established Josh as a thought leader in the world of internet marketplaces. He is truly an inspiration to those who want to gain a lead in the world of web.
Thank Josh for sharing his story with us by checking out Rev.com and following his great blog. We look forward to following up with Rev's future announcements and Sigma West's wise investments.
Rev http://www.rev.com/