1. Kindly brief our audience about yourself and your journey as the Co-founder and CEO of Workgenuis.
We started WorkGenius as a freelance platform in our hometown Hamburg, Germany. Since our bootstrapped beginning, we expanded to the US and acquired two staffing companies there. The acquisitions create tremendous network effects, creating more opportunities for freelancers and more talented freelancers for clients.
2. Please share with us your source of inspiration for venturing into the talent management niche.
As a philosophy and economics major, my understanding of friction in the labor market was mostly theoretical. Our understanding was that labor shortages will be worse in the future because people have fewer children, fewer immigrants, and a mismatch between education and labor market requirements. We thus wanted to build something so the human capital we have can be deployed more efficiently. That naivete was instrumental in us contemplating removing that friction with a simple online marketplace.
3. Brief our audience about WorkGenius.
WorkGenius is a technology platform making it easy for companies to find qualified freelancers, manage them and pay them compliantly. We place thousands of highly qualified freelancers in the software engineering, data, creative, digital, and marketing domains.
4. Can you share with us how the organization empowers people to work through its standout software product?
When you are a freelancer you don’t want to waste time on finding your next project and getting paid. The same is true for hiring managers at companies. You just want the work to get done. Our technology removes friction and creates liquidity for freelancers and companies to efficiently work together and focus on the project, nothing else.
5. What is your opinion on integrating technological advancements like AI and ML with talent management solutions?
AI/ML can analyze data faster and make decisions that previously required a human. This is helpful in the freelance space.
We, however, learned, that there are many aspects that require a human touch and we do not expect AI/ML to make humans redundant in the process of defining freelance projects and finding the perfect freelancer or freelance team.
6. As you proactively leverage next-gen technology, can you tell our audience about the emerging trends of the new generation and how do you plan to fulfill the ever-evolving needs of the talent management and recruitment world?
We split the challenge into three core areas: sourcing, managing, and payment. Many companies leverage disintegrated solutions which have different levels of automation. The one that is the least tech-enabled, due to inherent complexities, is sourcing. We tackled this first and then developed state-of-the-art Freelance Management Solutions and Global Payment Solutions. As our database has grown significantly, our technology improves significantly when it comes to matching as ML ensures better matches.
This reduces friction and waiting time for freelancers and clients alike.
7. Being the CEO and CO-founder of Workgenuis, what was the biggest challenge you faced, and how did you overcome it?
Marketplaces struggle with the Chicken-Egg Problem. You need to have enough jobs and you need to have enough freelancers but what comes first? Once you reach a certain size, network effects set in and growth is self-perpetuating. We found a way to overcome this challenge through acquisitions. We are not the first to have had this idea.
8. How do you envision scaling both–Workgenius’ and your growth curve in the year 2023?
Labor shortages will persist. I don’t see this changing any time soon, despite monetary policy tightening. This will increase demand for highly specialized freelancers and we are in a great position to capitalize on that heightened demand. Our technology is providing real value in measurable ROI and we see more and more companies realizing this in times of both labor shortages and cost-cutting.
9. Being an established leader, what would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs and leaders?
Listen to your clients, and to your team. Then start thinking. If you have a preconceived notion of what is the way to go, you may become subject to confirmation bias and you will limit your success.
10. Can you share with our audience your new year resolution for the year 2023 and how do you plan to work it out?
Empowering those around me and letting them own their success.
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Marlon Rosenzweig, Co-Founder and CEO at WorkGenius
Marlon Rosenzweig had an early start into entrepreneurship, cleaning the interior of cars and later also dabbled in part-time jobs, folding t-shirts. A Philosophy, Politics, and Economics major, Marlon has an eye for the big picture and build a conviction that demographic change, lacklustre immigration trends, and an insufficient number of STEM graduates, will lead to persistently tight labor markets in the future, requiring more efficient ways to leverage human capital in the Western world. Marlon co-founded a technology company connecting freelancers and companies via a marketplace to reduce friction and gain efficiencies. The company added a freelance management solution and compliance modules to connect talent globally. The platform went through consecutive years of high growth driven by the labor market and is increasing the preference for freelance work engagements. To fuel the expansion and to trigger network effects in more and more geographies, WorkGenius acquired two staffing companies with more than $100m in annual revenues in the US.
As the CEO of the WorkGenius Group, with HQs in New York City, Marlon is in charge of overall strategy and has more than 250 employees in offices across the US, London, Paris, and Hamburg.
