Upwork's Hayden Brown has had a trial by fire, starting as CEO in January and navigating the freelancer marketplace through the pandemic.Just 66 days into her tenure as the CEO of Upwork, Hayden Brown was forced to shutter and decide whether to sublease the freelancing platform’s physical offices and comfort many of her 600 newly remote employees—all while fulfilling her promise to complete a company-wide listening tour and a report on the state of the business within her first 100 days.
Amid millions of layoffs and turbulent markets, the 22-year-old company has rarely seen as much success as it has in the aftermath of the pandemic. With a market cap of $3 billion, Upwork is now the world’s largest, public online freelance marketplace, primarily providing remote job listings. Its stock has surged, up roughly 70% year-to-date. In the last six months, the platform’s number of freelancer and corporate registrants has increased by 50%. of the U.S.
Brown attributes this success to pandemic-related trends. “People have shifted not just their notions about remote work in this moment of crisis, but also their long term views of how remote work will fit into their organizations,” she says. “The spend is actually going to projects that are long-term in nature. It's large, complex work,” she says. “That's where our customers are finding success. It's not about these like small transactions or fly-by-night engagements.”
Upwork KristinStoller Maybe use all the freelancers on your site to fix all the bugs on your site.
KristinStoller Good Luck
KristinStoller Quite a good job from Brown and her team.
KristinStoller Makes perfect sense Upwork would be at an advantage in a locked down world. Glad they brought a solid culture to the experience. We have worked with remote staff for a decade.
KristinStoller dll