A ‘managed’ model for hiring freelance tech talent catches on

Photo credit: Steven Zerlink / Flickr

Domino’s pizzas are as popular in urban India as anywhere else for a quick meal or a treat. And as Indians increasingly turn to their mobiles to order everything from furniture to food, the pizza-maker’s online orders are growing.

Jubilant FoodWorks, which operates Domino’s Pizza in India, reported (PDF) that online sales overtook offline sales for the first time last year. And more than two-thirds of the online orders were on mobile.

But it also noticed a high drop-off rate in the funnel to sign up and place orders on the Domino’s app. That’s not a trivial problem to fix for a traditionally offline pizza chain. Domino’s doesn’t employ so many techies like a Zomato or a Swiggy which are in the online food delivery business.

What came in handy was a freelance site, Indiez. It promises to help a client like Domino’s not only find relevant tech talent but also manage the project to ensure quality and on-time delivery.

Domino’s contract is with the site and not the freelancers who work on the project. Just as you don’t have to pay if the pizza doesn’t reach you in 30 minutes, Domino’s can hold Indiez to account for slippages.

Here’s how it works. Domino’s chooses a project manager on Indiez, who then puts together a team and ensures requirements are met. Indiez takes a 20 to 30 percent cut from what the client pays.

With 40 active clients currently, the two-year-old startup has an annualized run rate of US$2 million. It doesn’t disclose net income, but says it’s profitable.

Freelance sites are trying to serve the growing gig economy in different ways.

Traditional businesses are struggling to build quality digital products or take advantage of new technologies like AI, and their mobile apps are poorly designed, says Indiez co-founder and CEO Nitesh Agrawal. Good developers and designers are mostly at big tech companies and fast-growing startups, or work independently.

Freelance sites try to bridge the tech talent gap for businesses like Domino’s as well as mid-sized enterprises and early-stage startups. But it can get messy to find and manage a set of freelancers for a project. That’s where the Indiez model comes in.

Agrawal discloses that the eight-member team for the Domino’s project included a project manager, who led a team at travel portal Yatra, and a design director, who led the mobile push at ecommerce biggie Flipkart. They took charge of the project. The managed model also works out better for freelancers because Indiez can negotiate a price for the project, instead of each freelancer negotiating a rate.

Early adopters and teething troubles

Domino’s, Aditya Birla Finance, Jones Lang LaSalle, and MakeMyTrip are among big clients that Indiez has attracted. Startups like Upgrad and Cure.fit have also been early adopters. But increasingly, Indiez is targeting the US and European markets where mid-sized enterprises are looking to digitize and boost their online and mobile play, says Agrawal.

Businesses hire Indiez when they lack the tech capability to build something. Or they need it built superfast. For example, Aditya Birla Finance wanted a dashboard for its management team. “We executed the project in one week,” says Agrawal. “We handed over the code and product to them to build further.”

Moonlighting

Different models