Fiverr – mostly low quality freelancers that are in my opinion scammy.
Toptal – vets its own talent, not creating a truly meritocratic environment for its freelancer community.
LinkedIn – most people have a LinkedIn account, but there is no way to truly identify top talent on the platform. Everyone looks good on LinkedIn.
Freelancer.com – nice domain name but completely inferior platform. Not easy to find talent.
As Peter Thiel always says, invest in monopolies.
With the successful IPO that landed Upwork an additional $90M in its coffers (which apparently were already deep), the company intends to throttle its advertising, bringing on more businesses and freelancers.
Labor is Undergoing A Revolution & Upwork is At The Forefront
Taken direct from the preliminary prospectus of Upwork:
“The online freelance economy represents a shift in how labor markets operate. We believe that we are still in the early stages of the online freelance economy, with a multi-industry and multi-decade global shift affecting how businesses find talent and how people want to work.
