How Will the Investors of Upwork Get Their Exit?

A recent study on the Freelance industry in the US estimates that nearly 36% of the US workforce, or 57.3 million Americans, are freelancing. The research estimates that these freelance workers contribute approximately $1.4 trillion annually to the economy, an increase of almost 30% since last year. By 2027, researchers believe, that freelancers will account for majority of the US workforce. Growth like that should have been promising for freelance services provider Upwork. But the former Billion Dollar Unicorn club member is struggling to take advantage of these trends.

>>>

Featured Videos

Death By Overfunding: What Led to the Sinking of Shyp?

Last week, on-demand shipping startup Shyp Co-Founder and CEO Kevin Gibbon announced that the company is shutting down operations and laying off all employees. This comes after a five-year journey in which it had raised $62 million and had a valuation of $250 million. >>>

How will Docker Handle Competition?

Docker is the biggest startup in containers that made it to the Billion Dollar Club in 2015. It recently raised another round of funding that valued it at $1.3 billion. >>>

How will Intuit Improve its Growth Rate?

Last month, cloud-based accounting and tax giant Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) reported a strong second quarter that beat analyst estimates. However, its soft outlook is causing analysts to ponder the growth rate question. >>>

Why is the Symantec Stock Reacting Poorly?

The past couple of years have been transformational for Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) with two divestitures, several acquisitions, and new leadership. It has now refocused itself exclusively on cyber security and has undertaken several measures to reduce complexity and costs. >>>

2018 IPO Prospects: Will BarkBox Find Market Acceptance?

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course.

According to American Pet Products Association, Americans spent close to $70 billion in 2017. About $30 billion were spent on Food, $17 billon on Vet Care, $15 billion on medicines and supplies, $2 billion on animal purchases, and $6 billion on other services. BarkBox is a niche box-subscription service company that caters to dogs.   >>>

How Can Benefitfocus Handle Competition?

According to IBISWorld, the market for HR benefits administration in the United States was expected to grow 1% to $54 billion in 2017. Benefitfocus is a provider of cloud-based benefits software solutions that recently reported its fourth quarter results that were in line with estimates. >>>

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Will Medallia Help Consolidate?

According to a MarketsandMarkets report, the global customer experience management market is projected to grow from $5.98 billion in 2017 to $16.91 billion by 2022. That translates to an annualized growth rate of more than 23% over the five-year period. Palo Alto-based Medallia is a Billion Dollar Unicorn player in the space that many believe is ready to go public.

>>>

What is Oracle’s Counterpunch to Salesforce’s MuleSoft Move?

Oracle’s (NYSE: ORCL) recent quarterly results may have outpaced market expectations, but slowing cloud growth has caused a stir amongst analysts as they continue to downgrade the company. The market was very concerned and the stock fell 9% – the worst decline in the last five years.

>>>

Salesforce Buys MuleSoft for $6.5 Billion

According to a Zion Market Research report published last year, the global Applications Programming Interface (API) management market is estimated to grow from $609.32 million in 2016 to $ 3.44 billion by 2022. That translates to a healthy annual growth rate of more than 33% during the five year projection period. Billion Dollar Unicorn MuleSoft (NYSE: MULE) is a leading player in the market that is hopeful of delivering $1 billion in revenues in the sector by 2021.

>>>