Outsourcing: Ian Ippolito, Founder and CEO of vWorker (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: On the service provider side, are these largely solo freelancers, or do you also have companies operating on your platform? Ian Ippolito: They are both. Most of them in the United States are solo, although one of our largest ones is probably about 15 or 16 people. It’s called Gravity Jack. They’re about

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Outsourcing: Ian Ippolito, Founder and CEO of vWorker (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: That’s one of your differentiators, that you use crowdsourcing instead of the interview process, and then you let people hire based on the best crowdsourced project? Ian Ippolito: Yes. SM: What are the terms under which you work? It’s a commission on projects, yes?

Outsourcing: Ian Ippolito, Founder and CEO of vWorker (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: I think I’ve heard of Rent-A-Coder. Ian Ippolito: OK. That’s the way it started, and it was just programmers back then. The first month it probably made only $50 or $60, but it grew. Over the next couple of years, it started going faster and faster. We got some good publicity. We were

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Outsourcing: Ian Ippolito, Founder and CEO of vWorker (Part 1)

Outsourcing websites abound on the Internet, and each one has its own unique spin on the process. And vWorker, once known as Rent-A-Coder, does, too. A global outsourcing company, vWorker or “virtual worker” has nearly 175,000 employers hiring and managing close to 360,000 virtual workers every day. Sramana Mitra: Hi Ian. Let’s start with some

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Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What is the composition of your customers? You said you have 500 projects a month, right? Ignacio Galarraga: Yes, we handle 500 projects a month. SM: And over the course of the years, you’ve handled more than 5,000 projects? IG: We have done 15,000 projects.

Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You said you get invited to bid on a lot of projects. And that’s because you have a track record. What qualifies somebody to be invited to bid on projects? Igancio Galarraga: I there are a lot of things that interact there. First of all, your price. Elance has two options when you

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Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: I have a specific question about the bidding process on Elance. Do you have somebody monitoring requests for proposals as projects come online 24 hours a day? Ignacio Garraga: Not 24 hours. I work 10 hours a day. There are two types of processes when somebody posts a proposal. You can go into

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Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: How does that translate when you are working on Elance? You deliver customer satisfaction by having good discipline about when you deliver projects, and then you get your customers to review you on Elance, right? Ignacio Galarraga: Right. That’s correct. SM: Besides that, when it comes to bidding for projects and sending proposals,

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