Gravitas WINS Radio

In 2014, I wrote an article saying future of jobs is partnership of experts. In it I argued, that experts will come together much like actors, musicians, and directors come together to make a movie. So when I came across Sresth, who has founded a company in this domain, I couldn't resist inviting him to the conversation.

Hope today's conversation gives you some perspective about this trend and also help you play along in this domain.

## What is BeGig?

We first started off as a marketplace. Then we realized that by just being a marketplace, we're not doing justice to it. So we see ourselves as an ecosystem of gig workers right.

There's a difference between a marketplace and an ecosystem. We're not first freelancing marketplace per se, but we want to be the first freelancing ecosystem. When everybody else is interested in connecting enterprises with freelancers, we want to take it to the next level.

Every platform out there is offering freelancers exciting gigs to make money on the side. We realized that there is an unmet need in the market, which nobody was really looking at. And that unmet need was **so many things that corporate or full-time employees get, as opposed to freelancers**. So we set out with a mission that we will get these, freelancers or gig workers, the same benefits, and therefore have to create an entire ecosystem.

BeGig in a nutshell is a freelancing ecosystem, which connects freelancers with enterprise.

## What benefits will BeGig offer?

The most obvious one today is insurance. When you sign up as a full-time employee, your organization offers, medical insurance, dental and accident insurance, and all of these other wonderful parks. But when you sign up as a freelancer, you miss out.

Insurance was really the most low hanging fruit, but there are other needs beyond insurance. When I was a employee, some of the things that were offered to me included advisory on how to file my income tax. I was eligible for, perks like family vacations, certain other allowances, and discounts and so on and so forth.

The second part is that we also realize that beyond these materialistic needs that are some psychological needs.

The respect that comes with the word freelancer today is, is not where it needs to be. Freelancers can probably outrun a lot of us. But the word still comes with that stigma that you're probably not doing so well in life and therefore you decided to do freelancing.

We want to challenge and change the perception as well. Gig workers today are rockstars who choose when they want to work and who they want to work for.

The entire world has embraced work from anywhere as a culture. So that is definitely giving that push as well, but more and more people realize that I don't necessarily have to fall into that nine to six frame of mind.

We are trying to project freelancing as their primary choice rather than a option to fall back upon.

A friend of mine used to work in the US. He was part of FANG/MANG companies and was doing pretty well. He always wanted to come back to India but didn't have the opportunity to do so. During the pandemic, he came back. He is a nature lover. So he bought a small piece of land in Ranikhet. Now he does remote assignments for startups and enjoying his life.

## What shifts in society is needed to accept this trend in a positive way

Early nineties belonged to government jobs. And then after that, there was a transition towards working in a tech company. And now there is a transition towards even people accepting startups. There is a natural progression here and society will change at the rate at it is supposed to.

Lot of our freelancers get together in small groups, do a project and they have a lot of fun. When they realize that it can also pay their bills then they think it's not such a bad option.

If I have to talk about myself, it is not in my DNA anymore to have a boss who tells me what to do. The goal that I set out to do in my firm, I could get that accomplished in, let's say, two days out of the five days. Then I'm just sitting around doing nothing, twiddling my thumbs. That's not how I function. So those three days I would invest in trying to learn something new and pick up a new skill. Or network and catch up with friends.

Younger people are rejecting the nine to six culture. When I hear Gen Z and the millennial folks speak the same language, it it gives me a lot of joy and it gives me a lot of pride. They want to believe in a cause, a mission.

If you, as a company, don't adapt to them you are going to lose out.

People in the US calls it as great resignation, but more and more people are realizing that they don't have to go to office to get work done. They can do the same amount of work sitting at home. Probably I can get lot more sitting at home. And enjoy the quality of life. Rather than living in front of a computer in a restricted environment where I'm told what to do and somebody else judges, whether I have met their expectations or not.

We're seeing the shift happen and I'm sure it will exponentially increase.

## What type of people thrive in freelancing kind of role?

Let me answer you with I'm seeing on the ground right now, and then something which I foresee maybe in the next three or four years.

People are okay to get up to a manager level as a freelancer, because they're still experimenting with the concept. So traditionally, what people used to call as a, KRA in the development team is now being outsourced as a work package.

They define the outcome and say I need these two roles to deliver that for me. I don't necessarily have to take them on my payroll. Once those work packages start accumulating, is when you start getting into a solution level discussion.

You could essentially say that I don't need the architect on my pay role. I can hire an expert who comes in, who just does the solutioning for me, tells me that, you will need these two roles or you need these five skills to get this work done. And you'll probably need a project manager to get this done.

Take that concept a step further. At an executive level, you don't need an expert full time. You just need them to bring in the right expertise when you need it.

Right now, companies are comfortable upto manager level for freelancing. Very few people are experimenting it at a CXO level.

Recently, I was on a CII panel where we were discussing the topic - will the role of a CIO or a CTO become a gig?

The interesting conclusion that everybody reached on the panel was not right now. But they see it happening in the next three, four years. You and I both know that there are examples of CTOs who are fractional. But the mindset still prevails.

There is nothing which is going to stop a CXO, a CTO, or CIO, CFO becoming gig, but people aren't used to that model now. But if we create secure environments where the intellectual property of the organization stays within that company, I don't see a challenge in CXO role becoming a gig role in the future.

## How to deal with concerns about leakage on intellectual property leakage

One of the ways you can do that is with secure virtual desktop environments. Another is may be to start leveraging smart contracts to do your transactions.

To be honest with you, I don't know the answer right now because it's something that even I am trying to figure out. If we know the answer for that question, there is nothing more left to discuss.

The other part is accountability. Let's say if I'm working for five different organizations, how can you confirm or how can you be sure that I am giving my a hundred percent to your project? Are you getting what was promised? And that's where that mindset needs to change from monitoring the number of hours I'm dedicating to you to the outcome that I'm delivering. If you are clear on the goal that you want me to deliver on, then easier it gets for the delivery of the project.

Given the scenario that we're in, where there is a major talent crunch, people are willing to experiment right now. And they're realizing that the new path, which is hiring solopreneurs is actually more rewarding in some cases than waiting for the full-time employee to join, because you're not sure. The offer-to-joining ratio is 50%.

The guy who you hired might just call you on the day of joining and say, I got a better offer. That doesn't happen with solopreneurs so far.

## What are the skills that will help me to thrive in this kind of a new environment?

Mastering technical skills is good. But there are a lot of soft skills that actually help you cross the line.

One thing that is really important is your previous customer feedback. It builds the trust that this person can deliver the work they say they can do.

Other skills are:
- being able to network with your client
- build a relationship
- having your portfolio so people can see the kind of work that you've done in the past

The concept of boundaries is gone. So I could get a next opportunity from Eastern Europe. So being aware of the culture where I'm going to work helps.

It never hurts to pay it forward. Since this industry works on referrals, the concept of paying it forward actually helps a lot.

Finally certifications. When enterprises interview they ask for certifications. If it's a skill that you can get a certificate for, definitely get it because third-party validation of your skillset really helps.

The core message being, this entire economy works on trust. Whatever you can do to increase the trust in your profile works.