CEO Today Magazine July 2018 Edition

executive insight 39 www.ceotodaymagazine.com What was the idea about ExpertLead born out of? Tell us about the process of establishing the company. There were two main causes that lead to the creation of this business: a lack of a premium tech freelance marketplace and the significant growth of the freelance lifestyle adoption in Europe. When working in consulting, we both saw the market need for IT strategy implementation of various companies. After consulting clients on how to implement an IT strategy, finding the right talent to implement tech projects was often difficult, time-consuming and not always successful. At the same time, there was a significant growth in the independent freelancers market. Nevertheless, one could observe a strong market intransparency regarding the quality of freelancers: The ones making the decisions on hiring freelancers are often not able to judge their skill level, especially when it comes to complex projects or tech stacks. Hence, there is a significant need for a neutral mediator between freelancers and businesses which goes beyond simply matching supply with demand, but instead for a party that takes on the detailed skill assessment to identify leading talent. It was clear that freelancers would play a fundamental role in fueling growth for tech start- ups and in equipping corporates for the digital opportunities and challenges ahead. Thus, we decided to explore this market opportunity and so far, it has been proven to be very successful. How do you select freelance talent? ExpertLead identifies leading tech freelance talent in the market by having each person undergo a thorough quality testing assessment before they can become part of the ExpertLead network. Simultaneously, ExpertLead offers companies access to our network of leading tech freelancers on a project basis, usually within less than 48 hours after a request comes in. What do you hope to accomplish with the company? By founding ExpertLead, we hope to contribute to fuel the digital implementation and transformation of European companies within the next few years and beyond. We want to help companies to identify and gain access to truly leading tech talent. And we want to achieve this by saving these companies time and money that they would otherwise have to invest into finding and assessing talents. Our key objective is to become Europe’s leading B2B platform for deep tech expertise. What do you see as the key challenges for ExpertLead in the medium term? As ExpertLead is growing rapidly, two of the biggest challenges will be maintaining a rigorous approach to quality testing and achieving a consumer top-of-mind awareness. Today, ExpertLead officially approves only freelancers that are among the best in their respective field of expertise. These freelancers are evaluated based on the quality assessment process implemented by our company. Going forward, as the company and the variety of sectors grows, ExpertLead aims to maintain this rigorous approach to quality, which means that we will continue to build expertise in-house and ensure the quality of freelancers when growing our network. Another challenge that comes along with growth is the capacity to build a top-of-mind awareness among consumers. Every time a consumer thinks of complex project-based/ freelancing projects, we want them to instantly think of ExpertLead. In order to achieve this and get to this stage, we need a smart marketing strategy and a constant quality delivery. What type of leader are you? Since the beginning, we promote a culture in which all employees believe in ExertLead and work together to achieve a common goal in order to contribute to the company’s success in the long run. As Managing Directors, we believe that leading is more than just guiding the team and building the company’s business strategy. At ExpertLead, leadership is about inspiring, motivating and creating a strong team that can solve any challenge together. As ExpertLead is a young company, many challenges and decisions are new to us and mistakes are to be expected along the way - we promote a culture in which making mistakes is not a problem as long as that mistake is seen as an opportunity to learn from. What are some qualities you look for in people hoping to join ExpertLead? As a start-up, above all, ExpertLead is looking for smart and motivated people who have the ability to work in a dynamic and demanding team environment. Similarly to our freelancer selection, we’re interested in hiring top=quality talent only. At ExpertLead, each team member has their own responsibilities and manages their time accordingly. Therefore, we’re looking for proactive and organised people to join our internal team. We have a culture of great trust among our employees, which means that independence is a very important skill. As we are growing significantly fast and the business is always evolving and changing, we also value flexibility and adaptability. Today, ExpertLead officially approves only freelancers that are among the best in their respective field of expertise.

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