Why 2021 Was The Catalyst For The Human Cloud

INSIGHTS

Why 2021 Was The Catalyst For The Human Cloud

Pre-Covid, remote and the freelance economy was driving the shift from the office to the human cloud. Then came Covid. And with Covid, the overnight acceptance of remote.

The Human Cloud Didn’t Just ‘Poof’ Out Of Thin Air. To a tee, it followed the commonly quoted Ernest Hemingway novel The Sun Also Rises.

The Human Cloud isn’t unique. Most technology transformations happen in alignment with Ernest Hemingway’s great quote.

For the past 30 years work has been transitioning to remote-first and freelance-first.

Personally…

• In 2013 I started freelancing. My friends thought this meant driving for Uber. Most leaders thought it was because I couldn’t get a job. Or it was a stepping stone to a job.

• In 2016 we started writing The Human Cloud (we delivered the completed manuscript January, 2020, a couple months before Covid).

• In 2017 I started seeing million dollar software projects run 100% through remote freelancers at Gigster. My favorite was a large motorcycle manufacturer building their rider digital experience through over 25 remote developers, designers, product managers, and data scientists. But still, freelancing felt like a fringe ‘thing’ that was kept hidden behind corporate PR walls.

• In 2018 I started seeing enterprises spend up to $100 million on freelancers when building the Microsoft 365 freelance toolkit.

Now almost 90% of companies plan to hire freelancers, over 50 million Americans freelance, and freelancers contribute over a trillion dollars to the US economy.

What accelerated our little industry from being the ‘future’ of work to just work?

What Exactly Did Covid Do?

Covid awakened 3 forces 👇👇👇

1. Covid forced remote to become acceptable, expected, and permanently adopted.

   • According to FlexJobs, 58% of workers will “absolutely” look for a new job if they cannot continue remote work.

   • In The Human Cloud we called this trend the shift from the traditional office going from bad to unbearable.

2. Covid catalyzed top talent to question their relationship with current employers. Some call this the Great Awakening, Great Realization, Great Resignation. Whatever your buzzword, 👇👇👇 are the stats.

   • 55% of American Workers plan to look for a new job

   • 41% of Workers across the globe are considering leaving their jobs

     • 74% of participants in a LinkedIn study said time spent at home during the pandemic caused them to reevaluate their current work situation

   • In the book we call this the rise of Changemakers. Changemakers are leaders who take meaning in the positive impact of their work, opposed to the traditional corporate drone focused on climbing the ladder.

3. Covid increased the overall pie of the freelance economy.

   • On the freelancer side…

     • The number of Freelancers grew 34%, from 38.2 million to 51.1 million (68% of newcomers were Gen Z or millennials, and 55% of newcomers were female).

     • Freelancers contributed $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy in annual earnings.

     • The perception of freelancing changed as 66% of full time freelancers believe they are more secure than traditional workers, and 78% say they are healthier working independently.

   • On the freelancer platform and solutions side…

     • Paro, finance/accounting freelance platform, raised $25m.

     • Stoke Talent was acquired in under 2 years by Fiverr for $95m.

     • Braintrust, freelance platform that brands itself a ‘web 3 job board’ raised $100 million through it’s own tokens.

     • Superside, the closest thing to Uber for freelance design services, raised $30 million.

     • We Are Rosie, marketing freelance platform, raised at a $100m valuation after growing by 556% in the last year.

     • There are many more we left out for lack of space. Email back for questions.

Covid enabled remote acceptance, the Great Realization, and growth in the amount freelancers.

What’s Next?

Recently we released our 2022 Predictions for the Human Cloud.

The TL;DR is this: yesterday was Covid, tomorrow it’s the labor shortage, inflation, and Great Resignation that will continue accelerating the shift from the office to the Human Cloud.