THE ENTREPRENEUR

When one mentions the word “outsourcing,” what images come to mind? Large IT companies passing their programming tasks to the legions of Indian computer science graduates in gigantic working stations? Product-oriented businesses redirecting their service calls to foreign call centers to lower their customer service costs? All these scenarios of what outsourcing is in today’s globalized work world. However, Matt Barrie’s vision for Freelancer has been to make both the ability to outsource work and the process of finding employers for freelancers streamlined and easily accessible to all.

Matt Barrie dived straight into the world of technology after completing his graduate studies. A graduate of the University of Sydney (computer science, electrical engineering) and Stanford University (electrical engineering), Barrie began his career in the field of network and system security, starting as a security consultant for a network firm and moving on to start his own network security firm. Experience as a venture capitalist prior to his first entrepreneurial endeavor gave Barrie much-needed background in obtaining the capital required to start a new business.

In 2009, Barrie started Freelancer.com, an outsourcing marketplace open to all individuals and/or companies. As of September 2013, Freelancer.com claims to have hosted almost 5 million projects, served almost 9 million professionals, and resulted in $1.2 billion dollars in project fees exchanged. Company profits have been reported to top $75 million. Just recently, Barrie turned down a $430 million dollar acquisition offer and is positioning to go public with the company in the near future. At age 40, Barrie has collected a plethora of engineering and entrepreneurship awards, including the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, the New South Wales Pearcy Award for engineering, top 10 entrepreneurs to watch status by Smart Company, and selection as one of the 150 LinkedIn influencers.

What exactly is Freelancer.com? It is a middleman service that connects individuals or businesses that need services done (usually in the programming, design, or creative writing fields) and freelancers who have those skills and would like to monetize those skills through freelance employment. The marketplace allows the employers to skirt employment regulation/taxation and outsource their jobs; many employers are entrepreneurs or small business owners who need these services to create their website, develop their product, or advertise their company. Freelancer collects fees based on project size and the payout for freelancers, and offers a profile/social networking interface that features reviews, completion rate history statistics, and paid exams that allow freelancers to prove their proficiency at certain skills and earn a badge that they can display on their bids. Employers post projects onto the site that are bidded on by the freelancer community. Essentially, the site is much like Ebay but for services.

Freelancer.com marshals the strengths of cloud computing by storing all employer-freelancer communication, documents, payments, and agreements in the cloud, using their customized user interface to make it easy for both parties to communicate and complete their projects. Freelancer currently hosts 25 marketplaces in 25 different regions, with dedicated staffing and user support for each of these markets. They have also acquired many of their competitors, an acquisition strategy Barrie has pursued relentlessly in working towards solidifying his market share and eventually taking his company public.