Skillbridge isn’t your average job matching site
Offering an online platform for users to post, find, and finish short-term finance, strategy, and marketing projects, Skillbridge hopes to match qualified workers with businesses looking for professional services.
Co-Founder of Skillbridge, Brett Lewis, states, “United States’ freelancers have grown from six percent of the total workforce in 1990, to between twenty and thirty percent now.” That is quite a raise in freelancers. And the need for freelancing services necessitates the need for more freelance marketplaces.”
So, you might be thinking, this sounds similar to Elance, or Fiverr, or similar services, and while the freelance marketplace concept is similar, the services offered are different; instead of wiring and programming, you will find skills like strategy, finance, marketing, and business optimization, to name a few. Lewis claims, “companies that probably couldn’t afford to hire a traditional consulting firm can still pay for high-quality work.”
Avoiding outsourcing
This is important for companies looking for high-end services, but need to operate on a budget. Instead of outsourcing these skills, Skillbridge will be offering them at “revolutionarily low price points,” making otherwise too expensive services, affordable. This would allow your small business to take advantage of services previously only available to big businesses, simply because of the price point.
According to Skillbridge’s blog, “traditional recruiting activities at most business programs, including career fairs, are ‘waning.’” And instead of waiting to be recruited, “graduates are turning inward, searching their networks for direct referrals to those running smaller firms and startups.”
And because of this Skillbridge hope to continue to facilitate these connections by bringing together eager graduates of top MBA programs with the startup teams that want and need them most, which in turn allows you business access to some of the best and brightest that the MBA world has to offer, at a fraction of the cost you would pay to employ them full-time with your company.
All Skillbridge professionals are screened before they can join and most are sourced from the world’s top MBS programs, consulting firms, and investment banks. Clients will be provided with only “those consultants of the highest academic and professional pedigree.”
What does it cost?
Skillbridge costs are pretty mysterious – I could not find this information on their site, however, they do say that they hold fees that have been agreed upon by both parties in escrow. Once the task is complete, Skillbridge will deduct, “a small service fee” and then the remaining funds are released to the consultant/freelancer.
Depending on how much this small fee is, this could be a great resource to get high-end, professional services, cheaper.
