GigStart – The startup energy pack

At present, India has a pool of ~15 million Gig professionals staffed in projects across IT, HR, Marketing, Finance, and many more. As most of them are young millennials, they are showing an increasing preference for gig contracts. This trend is expected to significantly impact the gig economy in the near future.

The power of GigWork is to provide any company with the necessary options and capability to add to the resilience edge for their long-term sustainability, growth, and competitiveness. For startups and new-age companies on the steep, and unchartered growth paths, GigWork can provide – what I call “The GigStart energy pack”. Gig professionals can be your partners, advisor-on-call, and of course, the talent booster that your early-stage venture will crave. The challenge is to build, scale, grow and serve all at once.

What do startups need? Besides the entrepreneurial vision and ideas of the founding team, the company needs four areas of capabilities which are -

1. Access to a specialized high-end talent that is as expensive as it’s rare to attract and retain.
2. Ability to experiment, pilot, change course, and iterate quickly.
3. The execution ability – to scale and bring the diverse talent required, together.
4. Need to manage the spiraling costs prudently- managing short-term operating expenses with the elusive revenue streams that always seem right around the corner!

Remember, revenue streams do not equate to that wonderful, exciting order. It is often a grueling, painstaking process of order processing, vendor registration, contracting, team formation, execution, delivery, customer acceptance, relationship management, invoicing, payment cycles that seem so inordinately long, and finally, collections of 60-90 days. In the meanwhile, fixed costs of salaries and rentals seem spot-on.

You would be fortunate if you commenced your entrepreneurial journey with not just a great founding team with a similar vision but also a team with diverse strengths, skills, and networks – so rare and so difficult.

How do you wish you had access to a high-powered CFO to work through your business plans, early customer contracts, tax structures, or that exciting investment proposal that offers the cash that you need so much but comes at a high cost of dilution?

How do you wish you had access to that great Technical Product Architect you worked with for decades in your previous MNC employment? You do not need them full time though, you could do with their knowledge and support for a few days a week or a month. ‘GigStart’ could be your answer!

Now, your product or services is gaining early traction and customers in the market. The eternal and challenging question – where do you invest? Sales & Marketing that your energetic cofounder is pushing hard for or in Customer Services to ensure your early brand promises remain strong or in development resources that your business needs to build an MVP. This sounds familiar to most of the startup founding teams. Compelling demands and all-important.

Consider ‘GigStart’ to address your needs – it can be your strong early partner.