oDesk
Changing how the world works
Guaranteed work. Guaranteed payment.
Hire, manage, and pay a distributed workteam as if everyone were in your office.
Interview with the CEO
See
Notes
Flexible bench of talent
Trying to change the way the world works
34 oDesk office employees (Tuesdays are work-at-home days with 3 office employees)
70 total employees (they eat their own steak, hiring half of their staff using oDesk)
You can see who is working right now, their latest screenshot, their activity log and can chat realtime
Hey, I see you are working on Bug 352, will it be ready to push to production tomorrow?
Can watch people as they work, check in with them 5 or 6 times a day - you manage by walking around "the office" even though they are remote
Can course-correct in realtime instead of waiting for them to throw the product over the wall
Great reporting, reatime and history (eg: you can see what the most expensive feature was last week)
eg: Someone needed an Arabic translator
oDesk has 100 Arabic translators; he found a woman in Dubai who was happy to work for $10 / hour
Can be any size project and you pay when you are satisfied
Some are just a couple hours of work at a fixed price
Most projects are at an hourly rate where specs may change and parties don't know how they will work together
The average job is $5,000
Trends are companies find talent they like and keep them on their "payroll"
oDesk takes the risk of collecting money from the buyer, guaranteeing payment to the worker
People double and triple their hourly rate as they discover what their skills are worth in the global economy
Takes all the hassle out of time tracking and billing
Their iPhone app was built from someone they found through oDesk
Side note: Citrix has Windows 7 running on the iPad
oDesk is moving to the cloud
One big SF client wanted integration with oDesk and their project management software
oDesk hired a Python and Django developer from oDesk and built it for them - they said, "Wow how did you do it?" they replied "Here are your guys for future improvements"
Some jobs, like CEO, still need that personal relationship and won't be on oDesk
Side note: Google App store! oDesk is not in it right now
Handles all US employment regulations and benefits (like health coverage) for full-time and part-time oDesk workers
Comment: Let is be a problem when it is a problem. Let is be an opportunity when it is an opportunity
Other reviews
http://www.thewebreviewer.com/outsourcing-odesk-review.htmThe system even evaluates the number of clicks and mouse movements they make (green bar above). This way, you KNOW that the time they are charging matches up with actually doing YOUR work (not checking email...or "other things!")
If you are a freelancer looking to GET jobs from oDesk, remember that you need to set up your computer to handle their monitoring system. It is rather simple, though. The checks and balances of oDesk make it seem scary to be a provider, but as long as you are doing your job, this should be a non-factor.