The document summarizes an opportunity analysis project for a proposed online freelancing platform called Third Revolution. It analyzes the large and growing freelancing market, estimates the market size to be over $1 billion annually, and identifies key needs like locating partners and projects. Third Revolution would aggregate multiple freelancing sites, offer recommendation and collaboration tools, and generate revenue from referrals and advertising. The management team is led by Andrew Dennis with expertise across various roles. In summary, the document evaluates the opportunity for Third Revolution to enter the exploding online freelancing market.

1. Third Revolution
Opportunity Analysis Project
05/20/12

2. OAP Objective
● Test our value proposition with potential customers,
freelancers and startup founders
● Estimate the market size of online freelancing sector
● Gain more information about target customers
● Determine whether opportunity is worth pursuing

3. Third Revolution
● Web-based platform (website, mobile app)
● Incorporates features of Expedia, Match, and LinkedIn
● Captures new market that currently has exploding growth
● Five primary features:
1) Aggregator
2) Recommendation engine
3) Collaborator search
4) Team formation and development
5) Collaboration tools and resources

4. Freelancing Market: Large &
Growing
● Still in its infancy
● Potential market size
○ Billions of dollars/yr in US+UK alone (WhichLance)
○ Projected to increase from $250 million in 2009 to $2
billion dollar by 2015 (Evalueserve)
○ Total spending in 2010 by top 10 sites: $360.14
million (Whichlance)
○ Payment volume in top 5 sites doubling each year
(Andy Singleton)
● We estimate total market = $1.1 billion & 80%/yr

5. Market size: Number of
customers
● # of active service providers on top sites:
710K+ and growing
● # of buyers per quarter on Elance alone:
115K+ and growing
Number of hours
worked through
oDesk by month
since 2003

6. Increase in quarterly billings
during 2010
Freelancer, Elance, PeoplePerHour and oDesk

7. Our survey of 51 people
found

8. Our survey of 51 people
found

9. Our survey of 51 people
found

10. Third Revolution fills critical
market needs
● Market wants a site where one can locate partners /
collaborators for startup ventures
● Single site with aggregated freelancers
● Ability to locate projects of interest
● Intuitive platform will benefit those lacking in startup
experience

11. Compelling Value
Proposition
The ability to connect people, form and communicate
effectively with a team, support collaboration, and fund your
business venture, maintains momentum in your business
and allows you to move your ideas from conception to
value generation. Third Revolution is a paradigm changing
platform. From small, one-time tasks to the building and
running of large ventures, Third Revolution provides the
tools and resources while removing the obstacles in order
to get things done and move opportunities to value
generating processes.

12. Compelling Value
Proposition

13. Minimal Competition
● No other similar platforms on the market that
○ Aggregate online freelancing sites
○ Emphasize startup team building
● Not competing with aggregator sites
○ Mutual benefit through referrals
○ Many have affiliate programs already in place

14. Key Partners
Proportion of quarterly billings of leaders in online freelancing market in Q1 of
2010
● Elance and oDesk together accounted for ~75% of billings in Q1 of 2010

15. Business Model
● Free to register/browse jobs aggregated from 3rd party
sites
● Referring an...
○ active employer (i.e. startup founders looking to
hire):
$6.64 - $100 per referral (+ residuals*)
○ active worker:
$0.50 - $69.46 (+ residuals*)
○ ranges include oDesk, Elance, vWorker, Guru, Freelancer, Scriptlance, LivePerson affiliate
programs
● Additional income through advertisements and enabling
preferred placement job postings
* extra money we make every time that employer/worker does business through that site again

16. Sales & Marketing
● Majority of users from online marketing
○ Online advertising (Google Ads, Facebook ads
○ Social networking media, blogs
● Additional prospects through offline marketing
○ print media, radio sponsorship (tech events,
business seminars), etc.
● Effective platform to maximize ease-of-use and
customer retention

17. Management
● Team Leader:
○ Andrew Dennis
● Group leads:
○ Aliz Rao (UI / Frontend)
○ Olga Opojevici (Business)
○ Sotee Loey (Backend)
○ Don Voltz (Recommendation Engine / Aggregator)
● Active team of 30 members
○ Ph.D.s, M.D.s, programmers, developers, marketers,
scientists, and other professionals

18. Thank you