Need new website, logo, and data entry?... Fiverr knows a guy. The “freelance marketplace for the lean entrepreneur” is a platform connecting growing companies with freelancers — Gig workers for 200 categories of services, from SEO to resumé reading/writing (picture Uber, but for graphic design instead of a ride). While shares surged 90% on its IPO, we side-hustled some Fiverr facts:
- It literally trademarked the word "gig."
- And it's catching this wave: The US gig economy is growing 3X as fast as the general US workforce.
Fiverr's got 1 career weakness... Benefits. Technically, the freelance writer who Fiverr connects to Startup X to write website copy is an "independent contractor." If new laws and regulations start requiring gig workers to earn full-time employee-style benefits, that could hurt freelance hiring. And Fiverr knows it.
The gig economy is two economies — Not one... Fiverr has focused on creative and professional services, like similar freelance connector Upwork (it IPO'd last year). Uber and Lyft target more functional jobs, from driving cars to dropping off gyros. The existential question: Is there room for multiple middlemen to own these two separate gig economies?