Posts by Matthew Mottola

Why the Future of Talent Doesn't Need Staffing Firms

Quentin Cloarec on why the future of talent doesn't need staffing firms, how AI makes the resume match trivial, and why specialized talent platforms win.

Why Data Centers Need 400 Engineers a Day

Brett Riley explains how ITARMI deploys 4,000 engineers across 170 countries for data center builds as hardware refresh cycles compress to 18 months

Traditional Talent Isn't Working. You Are.

Layoffs are up 83%, staffing is shrinking, and specialized talent is booming. What the splitting talent market means for solutions this week.

The Business Case for Launching an RFP: Two Buyer Stories

How a consultancy founder cut three months of deliberation to 48 hours, and how a global enterprise turned a lost year into 13 right-fit partners — by launching an RFP on Human Cloud.

AI Recruiting That Works: Automate Below the Interview

Joaquin Titievsky explains how Talentum's AI recruiting platform helps HR consulting firms close 50% more deals by automating everything except human judgment

The Great Reset Has a Number. It's 80,000.

Q1 2026 layoff data, the rebuild opportunity, and the solutions powering it across AI-native services, security and compliance, and fractional executive leadership.

Software Is Going Headless. Your Workforce Is Too.

There are strong parallels between software and the workforce. Both are going through existential change. The ability to access the exact right individual is now more important than the tool or the process. 60% of contingent spend is now rogue.

The Shift Is In: What Companies Are Actually Searching For Right Now

Coinbase cut 14% and introduced one-person teams with AI agents. Amazon launched Connect Talent, a hiring solution. Then a16z says the AI job apocalypse is a myth. What's really happening is a shift. Here's where companies are shifting based on our search traffic.

You Can't Outsource Accountability

Jack Spencer explains why workforce accountability cannot be outsourced and what UK and EU regulatory shifts mean for every company using flexible talent

IDLance: The Instructional Design Freelance Agency Built on Community

How IDLance grew from a Slack group into a leading instructional design freelance agency that fills enterprise gigs in 24 hours through its 2,000-member community.

The Great Reset: Capabilities, Not Headcount

Layoffs get the headlines. AI optimized teams make the impact. Here are the exact capabilities you can add to your workforce today, with verified business cases across FMS, EOR, Marketing, Engineering, Finance, Strategy, and Product.

One Person Plus AI Now Replaces Teams of Five

Benjemen Elengovan shows how an agentic workforce of AI agents handles sales, ops, and engineering and why revenue per employee is the only metric left

What If Every Agent Is Just a Job Req

Mark Cuban says the biggest opportunity in AI is implementation. He's right, but he's missing the deeper point. The real opportunity is the human layer that makes implementation work.

Layoffs up. Marketing searches up. Coincidence?

Snap and Disney cut 2,000 roles combined. Marketing surged to the top search on Human Cloud this week, alongside a 133% increase in creative and design. Here is what it means for your positioning.

Fractional Talent APAC: Building Workforce Infrastructure

Fractional talent APAC is growing 15x in two years. Michelle Allbon shares how Fractional Directory is mapping the invisible workforce across Asia Pacific

Why Flexible Talent Adoption Stalls at Enterprise

Yurii Lazaruk contacted 1,000 plus HR leaders about flexible talent and got near-zero responses. The barrier is not awareness but friction, fear, and nobody willing to own the decision.

Winter 2026 Badges: The Complete Breakdown

The full breakdown of Human Cloud's Winter 2026 badge awards — 47 badge types, 739 awards, and 11 solutions that earned the Top 1% distinction. Every performance tier, focus area, category, and region.

Why A Skill-Validated Talent Platform Beats Traditional Staffing

João Lúcio explains why he left Accenture after 16 years to build beecrowd, a platform with 93% placement assertiveness and zero performance replacements in five years

ABC Test Laws Cut Employment 4.79% - Mercatus Study

New Mercatus Center study: ABC test worker classification laws reduced total employment 4.79% across 9 states. What this means for independent contractor compliance.

Top Talent Just Tripled Their ROI. This Makes Your Talent Strategy Equal, If Not More Important Than Your AI Strategy.

The strategy behind talent has always been an afterthought. Platform data and verified research show why that is a fast path to getting disrupted.

The 56% AI Wage Gap HR Leaders Cannot Ignore

PWC found a 56 percent pay gap between AI builders and dabblers across six billion job postings. Yuri Kruman explains why HR leaders must start building now

Fractional Leadership: Why Impact Beats Hours Every Time

Maggie Ruvoldt scaled an EdTech company to $1B revenue, then went fractional. Her take on why companies measure fractional leaders wrong and what to do instead

Amazon Now Requires Humans Behind Every AI. Why Don't You?

Amazon now mandates senior engineer approval for all AI-generated code after a major outage. The lesson for every company: AI makes humans more important, not less.

The secret to AI isn't AI. It's your talent strategy.

95% of AI pilots are failing. We automated 90% of our content without a single full-time hire. Here's how.

Why Agentic AI Solutions Still Need Human Talent to Scale

AI agents are transforming how work gets done — but the companies winning with agentic AI aren't going it alone. Here's why flexible human talent is the missing layer between AI potential and real-world impact.

Resiliency Starts With Flexibility: Top Solutions Across CX, Sales, Legal, LATAM, Events, Manufacturing, and Asia

Your competitors are cutting costs 60% with flexible talent. See who's leading across 7 categories, real business cases, and our new automated RFP feature.

The Agentic Future Has a Human Problem

The future is agentic. But who owns the agents, who builds them, and who makes sure they align with what each organization actually needs? Human Cloud is the human layer.

Why Enterprises Still Can't Scale Flexible Talent

Jeff Nugent reveals why IC compliance is the 900-pound gorilla preventing enterprises from scaling flexible talent — and what finally changes in 2026

The Great Transition: From Full Time to Flex

Block cut 4,000 employees. Accenture cut 11,000. 30,700+ tech jobs gone in 6 weeks. The transition from full-time to flex is here — and the infrastructure already exists.

Five Things to Know About Block's 4,000 Layoffs — And What It Means for the Future of Work

Jack Dorsey laid off nearly half of Block's workforce. Here are five takeaways for business leaders navigating AI-driven workforce transformation.

Staffing Agency Markup Rates in 2026: What Companies Actually Pay

A data-driven breakdown of staffing agency markup rates across industries and roles in 2026, with strategies to negotiate better rates and benchmark your contingent workforce costs.

The Rise of Fractional Executives: Why Companies Are Ditching Full-Time C-Suite

Fractional executives—part-time CFOs, CMOs, and CTOs—are reshaping how companies access leadership. Here is why the model is surging, what it costs, and who is hiring them.

Hiring LATAM Engineers: What 45 Million Code Profiles Reveal

Jose De Cabo analyzed every line of open-source code to find the top 2% of LATAM engineers — here's what most companies get wrong about remote talent

How We Built a Recommendation Algorithm That Actually Works

Most workforce platforms blend relevance with popularity into one meaningless score. We rebuilt ours from scratch around three independent axes — and made the whole thing transparent.

Your Human Cloud Is Yours

Every time you search for a workforce solution, you start from zero. The Workspace changes that — a persistent, memory-powered environment that gets smarter every time you use it.

Your AIQ Is Too Low — Here's What to Do About It

Bob Pulver draws on 22 years at IBM — including seven years at IBM Research where Watson was born — to explain why every organization needs to elevate its AIQ before deploying AI at scale.

How Much Do Fractional Executives Actually Cost? A Data Breakdown

A breakdown of fractional executive pricing — hourly rates by seniority, monthly retainers, and how they compare to full-time hires.

Interim Talent Is No Longer a Stopgap. It's How Companies Win.

The 2026 Talent Lens Survey from Heidrick & Struggles reveals a fundamental shift in how organizations deploy on-demand leadership.

Required Reading: The Godfather of Freelancing on Why the Revolution Continues

Jon Younger has been at the forefront of the freelance economy for over a decade. His latest piece on where we've been — and where we're going — is essential reading for every talent leader.

Human Cloud Joins Work Defined: What's Next for the Podcast

After 221 episodes, Human Cloud podcast joins William Tincup's Work Defined network. Here's what it means for our listeners and the future of flexible work content.

From Education to Scale: The Flexible Talent Market Just Hit Its Inflection Point

The flexible talent market has crossed from education to scale. 72.9 million Americans work independently, companies are rebuilding workforce models, and the market needs infrastructure.

The $1.3 Trillion Market Without a G2

Every major enterprise buying category gets its intelligence layer. The flexible workforce market—$1.3 trillion and growing—never got one. Until now.

HC Executive Dinner, Nashville

Join Tony Buffum, former public company CHRO and Upwork VP, and Andrew Honeybone, Chief People Officer at Unlock Health, for an intimate, closed-door dinner with senior HR and Talent leaders to explore workforce innovation at the intersection of talent, technology, and business strategy. In an incre

What Makes Flexible Talent Work?

Three fundamental principles for successfully engaging flexible talent: keep it simple, make it seamless, and don't ignore security.

Time To Flex: Why Every Leader Needs the Flexible Workforce

Companies don't need teams of 500 anymore—they need teams of 5 employees, 5 AI tools, and 5,000+ contractors in their elastic network.

December 2025 Monthly Recap

A look back at Human Cloud's highlights, milestones, and insights from December.

December, Human Cloud Monthly Recap

🚨 Human Cloud Acquires PeopleGPT to Build the Premier AI-Driven HR Community 🚨 Read the full scoop >> Log In HC Network Monthly Debrief, December

Jack Spencer, Partnerships Lead, UK and Europe

Jack leads EMEA partnerships and ecosystem development.

HC Monthly, December

Join us as we look back at what we got right—and wrong—in 2025 and share our boldest predictions for 2026. We’ll explore how AI, flexible talent models, and the Human Cloud ecosystem are reshaping workforce decisions for the year ahead.

October 2025 Monthly Recap

Meet the Top 20 Solutions and more highlights from October.

October, Human Cloud Monthly Recap

🚨 Human Cloud Partners With SIA To Highlight This Year’s Top Talent Solutions 🚨 Meet the Top 20 Solutions >> Log In HC Network Monthly

Human Cloud Executive Dinner at Talent & TIARAs

Join Tony Buffum and your Talent Executive peers attending Talent & TIARAs for a closed door dinner to discuss key topics and trends at the intersection of talent and technology.

HC Monthly, October

This month’s theme 👇 AI, breaking into new accounts, what HC is hearing across our Executive Council Human Cloud Monthly, October 2025 Request Invite 📍

Add And Verify Customers

🚨 Human Cloud Acquires PeopleGPT to Build the Premier AI-Driven HR Community 🚨 Read the full scoop >> Log In Support Document Add And Verify

sia

HC LIVE at SIA CollaborationX Featuring 20 of the top executives using technology to transform talent at SIA’s CollaborationX: AI & Tech In Staffing And

SIA

🚨 Human Cloud Acquires PeopleGPT to Build the Premier AI-Driven HR Community 🚨 Read the full scoop >> HC LIVE at SIA CollaborationX Featuring 20

September 2025 Monthly Recap

Key updates and insights from the Human Cloud community in September.

September, Human Cloud Monthly Recap

🚨 Human Cloud Acquires PeopleGPT to Build the Premier AI-Driven HR Community 🚨 Read the full scoop >> Log In HC Network Monthly Debrief, september

How To Update Your Platform Profile

🚨 Human Cloud Acquires PeopleGPT to Build the Premier AI-Driven HR Community 🚨 Read the full scoop >> Log In Support Document How To Update

In Profile Calendar Link and Email Customer Connection

Your HC Profile now includes the ability for prospects to directly connect with you.

Build Your Social Proof Through Kudos, Reviews, and Business Cases

🚨 Human Cloud Acquires PeopleGPT to Build the Premier AI-Driven HR Community 🚨 Read the full scoop >> Log In Support Document Build Your Social

Fan Favorite Dave Dempsey

We’re bring back a fan favorite for this months episode! Welcome BACK Dave Dempsey, CEO of Hyer.

Support

🚨 Human Cloud Acquires PeopleGPT to Build the Premier AI-Driven HR Community 🚨 Read the full scoop >> HC Support All Support All Articles –>

HC Council

HC Council is a closed door group of non traditional talent executives that are leading their organizations talent transformation outside of traditional contingent or vendor approved channels.

Sundai Hack AI Agents Automating Workflows

Human Could + Sundai Hack AI Agents Automating Workflows 📍Boston University, 665 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, 17th floor of the CDS building 🗓️ Sunday, October 12th,

HC Dinners

Human Cloud Dinners bring executives together through closed door dinners where they can discuss their challenges embracing the intersection of talent and technology.

CRM Control Tower

Podcast Post Recording Post Live

SIA Recap: One For The Ages

Key takeaways from the Staffing Industry Analysts conference on the future of flexible talent.

Member Profile Intake Form

Member profile Update portal Fill out the information below at any time and changes will be reflected on your profile in under 72 hours. Most

HC Monthly, September

This month’s theme 👇 Planning For 2026: how enterprises can scale a flexible workforce Human Cloud Monthly, September 2025 Request Invite 📍 Human Cloud Virtual

The Science Behind Human Cloud’s Top 20%

How our data-driven approach unlocks Companies and Solutions to realize the $10 trillion dollar potential of the flexible workforce. ​

Meet With Matthew SG

matthew mottola ceo 10+ year leader in the global Enterprise adoption of flexible workforces, published author of The Human Cloud with HarperCollins, Venture Partner, Entrepeneur

August, Human Cloud Monthly Recap

Recap of the HC Network August Meeting.

HC Live at SIA

HC Pod LIVE will be at SIA’s Collaboration X, the largest global event bringing together talent solutions transforming the world of talent through technology.

Agentic AI Digital Workers

Market Map tracks the top solutions across the flexible workforce, including solutions across gig, freelance, fractional, and agentic AI workforce models. Solutions included in Market Map are in the 80th percentile of their segment.

Human Cloud Executive Dinner At SIA With Greenlight.AI

Human Cloud is hosting an exclusive executive dinner at SIA. Join Tony, Greenlight.AI, and your peers to discuss how talent is transforming through technologies like AI and flexible talent.

HC Pod Live Scheduler

Congrats! You’ve been accepted to be on HC LIVE. Use this page to schedule your time.

Meet With Stella

Stella Si Head of AI Yan (Stella) is a PhD student at Boston University’s Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, where she researches at the

HC Monthly, August, 2025

This month’s network call will explore consolidation. Specifically who’s next? What makes a good acquisition? What’s this mean for everyone else?

Hybrid Talent Platforms

Hybrid Talent Platforms use a wide range of flexible talent models to deliver a flexible talent experience.

Apply To Human Cloud

Apply To Human Cloud For questions, reach out to hello@humancloud.com subscribe to Human Cloud Insights

Human Cloud Podcast LIVE

HC Live is an in person podcast experience, with Human Cloud managing the end to end experience for event attendee’s, with episodes airing across Human Cloud’s global media channel, for select events.

Partnerships

🚨 Human Cloud Acquires PeopleGPT to Build the Premier AI-Driven HR Community 🚨 Read the full scoop >> Human Cloud Partnerships Unique perks in the

Market Map Segments

There are over 14 segments in the Human Cloud. Market Map highlights solutions in the 80th percentile of their segment.

Go To Market

Go To Market flexible talent platforms provide the full stack expertise of what you need to ideate, design, prototype, and prove that a product, feature or service is worth pursuing. These platforms also work with you to find the right talent, scope the work, support the process, potentially contrac

Consulting

Consulting flexible talent platforms have a wide range of how they can help their clients. They can find talent quickly for an expert call. Or they can organize big consulting projects with teams of consultants working as independent experts rather than full time employees. No matter the scale, cons

Customer Experience and IT

Customer Experience and IT Flexible Talent Platforms combine both the best of flexible talent with the best of a CX and IT agency. Rather than a marketplace that expects you to manage the end to end process, they can help find the right people, manage the end to end experience, support the replaceme

AI and Tech

AI and Tech Flexible Talent Platforms help find the right talent, interview and credential the right talent, support you with scoping, building project plans, and even managing talent, along with any contract related needs like an employer of record, payroll, or additional administrative needs.

Fractional Talent Platforms

Fractional flexible talent platforms help you find the right fractional flexible talent, structure the right contracts, triage any problems, potentially be the employer of the record, and help you build out your fractional talent strategy.

Business To Individual

Business To Individual solutions help with everything from taxes, to finance, to accounting, to book keeping, to benefits, to insurance, to all in one solutions.

EOR, COR, And Classification Solutions

These solutions take the risk off of their clients hands by employing individuals, owning the risk, and leading risk mitigation policies and processes.

Freelance Management Systems

Freelance Management Systems help organizations scale their external, independent contractor workforce, with a focus on the self employed workforce. They typically manage processes, such as onboarding, compliance, and time tracking, rather than the sourcing, interviewing, or scoping support like tal

Payments

Flexible talent payment solutions help you pay global, remote, self employed individuals at scale.

Vertical Talent Platforms

Vertical Talent Platforms help companies find the right talent, scope problems into the right plans, support the full experience, and manage a companies flexible workforce specific to their niche, specifically within region, industry, or skill set.

Gig Marketplaces

Gig Marketplaces are large, freelancer marketplaces, that have all skills, average 500,000+ freelancers, and typically focus on self service functionality.

Recommend

Recommend a flexible talent solution

Request Recommendation

subscribe to Human Cloud Insights

Human Cloud Monthly, July, 2025

Join Human Cloud for a monthly community call.

SHRM25 Recap

Tony Buffum recaps a successful week at SHRM Annual meeting with 75+ executives at the forefront of technology and talent.

Subscribe

Human Cloud is the intelligence layer connecting companies to their future workforce. Subscribe to receive daily, weekly, and monthly insights.

Human Cloud Cocktail Hour At SHRM

Join Tony Buffum and your HR executive peers attending SHRM Annual for a cocktail hour to discuss key topics and trends in HR and the intersection of talent and technology.

Quantifying The Business Case Of Flexible Talent

Getting a flexible talent strategy off the ground takes more than just leadership buy-in—it takes support from across the business. This session shows you how to connect the dots between talent management and real business value, so you can build a case that lands with finance, legal, marketing, and

The State of Flexible Talent

Flexible talent didn’t just survive in 2024—it evolved. Yet, many freelancers faced uncertainty, declining demand, and shifting opportunities. While the global landscape was challenging, freelancers still fared better than their full-time counterparts.

Market Map All Solutions

Market Map is the largest database of flexible talent solutions. It includes 2,000+ solutions and 14+ segments across gig, freelance, fractional, and increasingly digital workers.

Work Summit

Log In Getting Started With Flexible Talent Workshop Step 1: Take the Talent Innovator Assessment Step 2: Match where you fit with your treatment plan

Talent Innovator Index

Talent Innovator Index: Are You A Leader Or Lagger? We developed a quick way to measure you or your clients level of talent innovation. Each leader gets a score, and that score determines which persona you fit in below.

Pricing

Pricing for Human Cloud

Knowledge Hub Enterprises

Knowledge Hub Enterprise leaders use Knowledge Hub to future proof their talent strategy. Easily find flexible talent solutions, access relevant data, and build off the

Human Cloud Membership

The Human Cloud Network is the top 10% of leaders building at the intersection of talent and technology. It comprises both the executives leading internal transformation, and the entrepreneurs building the most valuable flexible talent solutions. Apply for membership today!

Access Knowledge Graph

To access Knowledge Graph, please fill out this quick information. subscribe to Human Cloud Insights

info-from-search-that-leads-to-knowledge-graph-market-map

Almost there! To see your results, please fill out this quick information. subscribe to Human Cloud Insights

Market Map

Human Cloud’s Market Map is a global snapshot of the B2B Flexible Talent Industry. The Flexible Talent Industry encompasses fractional, freelance, and gig talent platforms, along with the increasing agentic AI applications to digital workers.

Add My Solution To Market Map

Fill out below, and within 5 days your data will be reflected on Market Map.

Meet With Tony

Tony Buffum, Head of Enterprise Strategy

Human Cloud Acquires PeopleGPT to Build the Premier AI-Driven HR Community

Today, global workforce advisory firm Human Cloud acquired PeopleGPT, the leading community for AI-focused People Leaders and Founders, creating the new Human Cloud HR Community.

Human Cloud HR Community

The worldwide nexus for visionary people leaders, using AI, talent platforms, and digital workers to transform every organization on the planet.

Human Cloud Verification

Log In Human Cloud Verification Verification verifies data claims across the platform. It is used across kudos, customers, and business cases. Think about it like a

Exclusive For Knowledge Hub Members: GigEagle

Log In Exclusive to Knowledge Hub Members Wecome GigEagle Human Cloud welcomes GigEagle – the US Department of Defense’s AI-driven talent platform that revolutionizes how

Gig Eagle – Revolutionizing National Defense Through AI and Flexible Workforce Platforms

GigEagle is the US Department of Defense’s AI-driven talent platform that revolutionizes how the nation connects talent with national security needs. Each week we’ll be dropping new highlight videos until the final release.

Beyond the Hype: Real-World AI Applications and the Future of the Flexible Workforce

Human Cloud led a panel with AI experts to explore the latest advancements and their impact on businesses and the workforce. The conversation covered everything from Gen AI, Agentic AI, and how cutting-edge AI models are leading to real-world applications transforming industries. Also included is th

Flexible Talent comes for Consulting and Front Line Workers, AI freakout is probably real, and top enterprise challenge right now

17.7% CAGR for talent platforms, an increase from 2024, learn why and how you can use flexible talent to transform your industry.

Daily Briefing Enrollment

Daily Intelligence options for Knowledge Hub Customers.

EMERGENCY POD – AI, DeepSeek, Stargate, WTH is going on?!

Join Human Cloud’s Emergency Live Podcast with AI experts Matt Coatney, Cory Hymel, Noah Gale, Nuri Demirci Lopez, and Matthew Mottola.

Quarterly Update Q1’25

Human Cloud Quarterly Update, made for executives at the edge of the flexible workforce, including HR, Talent Acquisition, Procurement, Platform, and Business Executives. Includes Hiring Trends, External Talent Trends, Government/Policy Trends, and Technology Trends.

Challenge: How to turn $10,000 into $100,000 with flexible talent

Client Access How To Turn $10,000 Into $100,000 With Flexible Talent? Share this! LinkedIn Email Twitter Print Apply Overview YC has demo day. Startups have

The State and Future of HR in 2025

Tony Buffum breaks down Technology and Talent Disruptions, The Growing Shift to Independent Work, The Lag in HR’s Digital Transformation, 2025 Trends and Policy Shifts, and Actionable Steps for HR Leaders.

Matthew Mottola

Matthew Mottola is on the forefront of helping leaders use flexible work models to drive disruption. For 10+ years, he has captivated Fortune 500 executive teams, investors, entrepreneurs, and even policy leaders across 50+ stages and 10+ countries. From Saudi Arabia, to San Francisco, to Singapore,

Freelance Forward Panel, Munich, 2024

Matthew Mottola leads the Freelance Forward panel.

Invite Only Keynote, Why Freelance, Executive Briefing From Freelance Forward

Invite only access to Matthew Mottola’s keynote to 150+ German Executives at Freelance Forward Executive Summit.

Why Freelance, Executive Keynote From Malt’s Freelance Forward

Matthew Mottola presented this keynote to 150+ German Executives at Malt’s Freelance Forward Executive Summit.

Public, Q3, ’24, Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker

Sentiments of global freelance economy leaders in Q3, 2024. The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the global sentiment of freelance platforms, providers, and applications. If the supply side or customer is a freelancer, Trend Tracker tracks the performance and provides prescriptive guidance

Randstad and Torc Acquisition Wrap Up: A Shift in Companies Perception of Talent And A Platform Centric Future Of Work

Access Portal Randstad and Torc Acquisition Wrap Up A Shift in Companies Perception of Talent And A Platform Centric Future

Why Leading Hospitality Brands Embrace Freelance

Client Access Why Leading Hospitality Brands Embrace Freelance Open doors and drive buy-in with this presentation Share this! LinkedIn Email Twitter Print Overview The freelance

Meet With Paul

paul polo director, strategic partnerships Paul is an 8 year NAVY Intelligence Veteran, serving in Asia, Latin America, and the US. Paul leads Human Cloud’s

Freelance Hiring: How to get hiring managers and employees started hiring freelancers

This article is for leaders evangelizing freelance across your company, or platform leaders scaling freelance experiences that convert and expand across accounts.

Portal Aggregate of Freelance Economy Statistics

Aggregate of Freelance Economy Statistics MOST COMMONLY USED STATS The freelance economy is a $5.4 trillion dollar market (SIA) – “The global gig economy posted

Test Portal Pages

testing portal pages

How HR Leaders Can Build A Sustainable Tech Talent Sourcing Strategy

Join us Tuesday, May 28th at 11 am EST as we welcome Maulik Sailor, CEO of Codemonk and Innovify, Tony Buffum, Ex CHRO and Talent Strategist, Jon Younger, Godfather of the Freelance Revolution, and Matthew Mottola, CEO of Human Cloud.

What Enterprise Leaders Need To Know About Freelance

Nuri Demirci Lopez of Microsoft, Akhil Seth of UST, and Jeff Fenigstein dig deep into why leading brands like Microsoft, Airbus, and NASA are embracing freelance as a growth and innovation investment.

Freelance Market Pulse

Human Cloud continuously polls over 200 companies and freelancers, across 50 countries, to benchmark how the industry is doing, what’s working, what’s not, and other industry factors to keep your roadmaps, funding, and strategy informed.

How To Choose Your Talent Platform Guide

Choosing the right freelance talent platform is a very important decision that can have long term consequences if not chosen properly. Most important, is that you are looking for a partner, not just a vendor. This guide will give you the important questions, that will help you get started to find th

Quantifying the Value of Freelance

Open doors and drive buy-in with this presentation that quantifies the ROI of a freelance program.

Freelance Unlocked, Opening Keynote, Freelance 2.0

Matthew Mottola presented this keynote to 600+ Leaders at Germany’s first ever Freelance conference, Freelance Unlocked.

Partnership Agreement

Foundational partnership agreement for freelance talent platforms to partner with fellow platforms.

Risk Factor Assessment and Planning

While freelancers yield transformational benefits, they yield high risk. In this template are 10 of the most common risks, with a framework and worksheets to help you manage, measure, and solve for each risk.

Chili Pepper Process

This download includes a 6 step process, along with worksheets and a framework to balance risk and freelance adoption. It breaks risk into 6 risk conditions, IP, Systems Access, Remote or Onsite, Location, Permanence, and Time.

Key Learnings From SXSW, We’re Finally More Than Freelance

Human Cloud CEO Matthew Mottola spoke at SXSW on the panel The Great Reshuffle: Talent Wars and A Gig Economy. Here are his key takeaways.

Human Cloud highlighted in Refresh for building digital bridges to connect freelancers and small businesses, from Miami to the world

Access Portal Paul Polo Awarded Miami Tech Talent Coalition’s Career Connection Champion Share this! LinkedIn Email Twitter Print Subscribe to Human Cloud Insights Human Cloud was highlighted by Refresh Miami for bringing the freelance economy to Miami. “We’ve captured the wave of the freelance econ

Polo Awarded Miami Tech Talent Coalition’s Career Connection Champion

Head of Partnerships Paul Polo was recently awarded Miami Tech Talent Coalition’s Career Connection Champion.

Drivers of business impact, Brand is #1, Client Relationships #2, Our Speed is #3, Our Tech is Last

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

62% of talent platforms are neutral or not prepared for the event of a recession

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

80% of talent platforms aren’t prioritizing funding

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

57% of platforms are confident about their internal team

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

56% of talent platforms haven’t been successful at attracting clients

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

54% of Platforms find partnership with other, similar platforms, important

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

Business Performance, 62% are okay or neutral, while 29% are frustrated

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

62% of leaders don’t find their govt supportive of the freelance economy

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

4% Drop In Confidence, Overall 85% of leaders are confident about the freelance economy.

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

All Trend Charts

Q1, ’24, Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker

Sentiments of global freelance economy leaders in Q1, 2024. Brand recognition takes over as leading driver of business impact, while platform partnerships prove promising, and is consolidation coming? The signals are here.​

Paid Subscribers and Panelists, Q1, ’24, Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker​

Full access to Q1, 2024 Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker.

All Results, Q1, ’24, Freelance Trend Tracker

Access Portal For Paid Subscribers, Q1, ’24, Freelance Trend Tracker Download PDF PPT Key highlights All Data subscribe to Human Cloud Insights

SXSW – The Great Reshuffle: Talent Wars in the Gig Economy

Human Cloud CEO Matthew Mottola was invited to SXSW to speak on how the US Department of Defense can embrace the freelance economy.

Business Performance over the last 12 months: 48% are neutral or unsatisfied. 38% are moderately satisfied.

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

AI, Data, Strategy are freelance skills in highest demand​

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

Keynote, How The Human Cloud Is A Winning Talent And Growth Strategy

Matthew Mottola presented this keynote to 150+ Executive Leaders in Fall of ‘23. He presented on how leaders can embrace the freelance economy to drive growth, innovation, and profitability​

Executive Briefing, When Nations Embrace The Freelance Economy

How nations can embrace the freelance economy to unlock transformation across their population, their economy, and their society​. Matthew Mottola presented this in partnership with Khibraty at Saudi Arabia’s leading Ecommerce Conference in Fall of ‘23.

Human Cloud: 82% of Freelance leaders feel their governments are unsupportive or neutral

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

Human Cloud: 67% of leaders don’t see funding as important

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

Introducing the HumanCloud.Work Freelance Trend Tracker

A quarterly database of freelance sentiment that freelance leaders are using to make informed business decisions

Human Cloud: 89% of Freelance leaders are confident in the growth of the freelance economy

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

Human Cloud: Monthly Insights Newsletter

Each month we send you the data you need to know, companies you need to meet, and collateral you can use across your content.

Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker: Client relationships have the greatest impact on business performance. Speed is 2nd, Talent is 3rd.

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

Human Cloud Trend Freelance Tracker: 78% of Freelance Leaders are positive about their expectations for the next 12 months

The Human Cloud Freelance Trend Tracker tracks the views and sentiments of global freelance economy leaders, clients hiring freelancers, and investors. By accessing the most up to date data, leaders can make informed decisions across their budgets, roadmaps, and strategy.

Human Cloud: Q4, ’23, Freelance Trend Tracker

Sentiments of global freelance economy leaders in Q4, 2023.

2023 Observations To Help Freelance Leaders Plan For 2024

Freelance Leaders, where should you be investing your time, energy, and resources in 2024? We have consolidated Human Cloud data spanning 350+ freelance leaders across Freelance Trend Tracker, the Human Cloud Podcast, Freelance First Study Groups, and Human Cloud Advisory. ​

December Freelance Insights

2023 Observations For Freelance Leaders To Lead 2024, UK Sentiment, Industry Landscape, and much more to start 2024!

2024 Freelance Events Calendar

Download Your 2024 Freelance Events Calendar Today. Knowing where to show up in the freelance economy is tough. Do you go to HR conferences? Tech conferences? The answer is complicated, yet we’ve reduced the complexity by open sourcing an event database.

Public 2024 Predictions for Freelance Economy Leaders

Access Portal 2024 Predictions for Freelance Economy Leaders Freelance leaders, where should you be investing your time and resources in 2024? Human Cloud CEO Matthew

November Freelance Insights

89% growth in freelancers, why every enterprise needs a freelance strategy, LATAM showing potential, 10 marketplaces you need to know, and more!

October Freelance Insights

16.5% CAGR for Freelance Platforms, Steve Rader of NASA, Investment Advisory Growth Learnings, Congrats Indie List, Catalant, Wethos, and many more!

Breaking Down John Garvey, Global Financial Services Leader at PwC

Human Cloud insights Breaking Down John Garvey, Global Financial Services Leader at PwC Never miss an insight! Leaders, John wrote “The biggest cost reduction opportunity in

Freelance Trend Tracker Beta Results

We launched our beta Freelance Trend Tracker, and in two weeks, we generated a database of over 100 responses, across 30 countries. But most important, we helped our leaders make more confident decisions about where to invest their time, resources, and strategy.​

Subscribe To Trend Tracker

Trend Tracker is a quarterly tracker of the views and sentiment of global freelance economy leaders, ecosystem partners, and investors. Subscribers receive access to ongoing analysis of trends in how freelance leaders see the opportunities, obstacles, constraints, and key drivers of freelance econom

Freelance Hiring Manager Scoping Input Template

Average freelance hiring manager conversion from interest to hire is less than 10%. The key reason is hiring managers don’t care or don’t know how to scope. Use this template to get them started and increase to 50%+. This template can be physically printed out, used as a form, or used as the foundat

Freelance 2.0, How The Freelance Economy Is Transitioning From A Gig Economy To A Strategic Sourcing Channel

The freelance economy is at an inflection point. This presentation will cover the 4 key transformations, a pyramid of relief from today’s market conditions, and definition, what should we be calling ‘this’ industry.

Gale Wilkinson, Managing Partner at VITALIZE

Gale Wilkinson, Managing Partner at VITALIZE, discussing the freelance economy from a venture capital ​point of view.

Brooks Lockett, SaaS & B2B Freelancer

Brooks Lockett, SaaS & B2B Freelancer​

Flexible Talent Industry Landscape

Find every piece of data you need to understand the flexible talent industry. Powered by Human Cloud data, the flexible talent landscape includes 450+ companies, 200+ stats, 50+ definitions, and top enterprise challenges.

Industry Brief

Industry brief aggregates every sticky note, every stat, and every slide we always have readily available.

Human Cloud: Industry Insights

Human Cloud Industry Insights is the largest global database of freelance economy insights. Access everything you need to know about the freelance economy so you can drive your strategy, position your unique opportunity, and inform your content.

Ben Ross, Product Leader

Ben Ross is a Product SME building freelance technologies for over 10 years.

Kelvin Wetherill, Founder & CEO, Supportwave

NerdApp best personifies the freelance economies transformation away from broad marketplaces and towards niche, skill specific platforms. Learn how Kelvin used his personal experience in the IT services industry for 15+ years to create a marketplace that can deliver IT experts in under 30 seconds.

Client Booking Page

Clients, feel free to book a time directly. We’re more than happy to go through your calendar or send times as well.

Database of companies leaning into the freelance economy

Over 25 examples of companies leaning into the freelance economy.

Maari Casey, 10+ Year Freelancer, Founder of Uncompany

Expert Insights Maari Casey 10+ Year Freelancer Founder of Uncompany Leaders, our industry is in a really unique position. For the past 10 years we’ve

Adrian Tan, Singaporean Fractional CMO

Adrian Tan is our freelancer of the month, providing insights on innovative ways companies can use the fractional model to transform traditional roles including marketing.

Abby Forman, Director of Communications at Fiverr

Expert Insights Abby Forman Director of Communications Fiverr Leaders, Fiverr took the baton at productizing freelance services so hiring a freelancer is as easy as

Mina Bastawros, VP Creative & Digital Marketing

Mina teaches us why enterprises like Airbus embrace freelancers.

Aggregate of Freelance Economy Statistics

Aggregated data on the freelance economy. Sources include Harvard Business Review, SIA, MBO Partners, Upwork, McKinsey, to name a few.

Freelancer Classification Checklist

For companies hiring more than 100 freelancers, misclassification is a mistake that can bankrupt you. This checklist is a quick guide to make sure you have the right foundation.

Freelance Workforce Maturity Assessment

How does your freelance workforce or freelance strategy compare to your peers? Through 5 quick questions, we’ll segment where you stand in relation to your industry, company size, and type of work.

What The Human Cloud Means For The Future Of Work

Learn how leading brands like Airbus, Microsoft, and GE have embraced freelancers to access the talent that will invent their brand’s future.

Vinod Kartha, VP, Strategic Initiatives at UST

Vinod is the ideal leader and ideal champion for Open Talent. Vinod leads strategic initiatives at UST, a global digital transformation consultancy (UST is like that quiet kid that doesn’t need to insert themselves into every convo yet is the valedictorian, sports star, and just a great human). Vino

What Is The Freelance Economy Report

We can finally just say ‘freelance’ for the $5.4 trillion dollar industry that encompasses over 100 million independent experts globally and over half the United States workforce in the next 5 years.

Australia’s Mash Shows The Value Of Bootstrapping

Jon Younger talks with Mash, an Australian based creative freelance platform, about the power of bootstrapping in today’s uncertain venture capital climate.

The New Social Contract

Social Contact, Human Cloud Edition. How do we want to work? Rather than letting politicians, thought leaders, and marketplaces tell us, let’s define it for ourselves.

2021 Recap and 2022 Predictions

66% of full time freelancers believe they are more secure than FTE’s…78% say they are healthier…let’s analyze what happened in 2021 and what will happen in 2022.

Freelancer Checklist: What Clients Need To Work With You ASAP

8 requirements to win clients and scale your B2B service business.

Jacki Roach

DAO and Blockchain SME

Azariah Lehman

How can Changemakers that can help navigate the legal landscape so we can educate and empower our teams and companies to work compliantly with independent contractors?

Iman Fadaei, Founder at TalentPools, EmployUkraine

Leaders, Iman is a hero for our industry. We’ve been fortunate to call him a good friend for years now, and what he did for RemoteUkraine is nothing short of heroic.

Jon Younger

Jon recently led the most comprehensive global study on freelancers with the University of Toronto.

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.

Elizabeth MacBride, Founder, Times of Entrepreneurship

What’s the future of entrepreneurship and how does remote work, the freelance economy, and the Human Cloud help small businesses?

8 Work Predictions You Need To Know

Remote-first, freelance-first, and a whole lot of choice for top talent. It’s been one hell of a year for us leaders in the Human Cloud, and fueled by the great resignation, the labor shortage, and inflation 2022 shows no signs of the Human Cloud slowing down.

Stephanie Nadi Olson, Founder of We Are Rosie

Stephanie Nadi Olson, Founder of We Are Rosie, joins The Human Cloud Leader Portal to discuss why she built We Are Rosie, where the freelance economy is headed, and how leaders can get started hiring freelancers.

Service Level Agreement Template

Ready to win large projects and scale your business today? A proposal is the foundation for every good project. It doesn’t need to be long, but it needs to clearly communicate deliverables and align expectations. STEP 1: DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE STEP 2: FILE > MAKE A COPY STEP 3: CUSTOMIZE IT FOR YOUR

Invoice Template

Download this invoice template to send to a client today. Sometimes Stripe, Payoneer, or your go to invoicing software is the way. But more times than not a PDF of this template works good enough.

Client Onboarding Template

Start a project off right with this onboarding and kickoff template using Google Docs or Microsoft Word.

CRM, Sales and Operations Dashboard

Manage all of your opportunities, clients, and existing projects through this spreadsheet. Whether a founder or freelancer this dashboard can handle up to $1 million in pipeline before you should upgrade to Salesforce, Hubspot, or a higher level CRM solution.

Proposal and Statement of Work Template

Download a proposal and statement of work template you can use in your B2B service business immediately. Why this template? It’s optimized to unlock long and larger freelance projects, set up each project for success, and scale the amount of clients you can take on.

Micro-Internships Through The Human Cloud

Hire students on a project basis through micro internships in the Human Cloud. We partner with select Universities to prepare their students for working with employers on a project basis.