Marketing isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s really hard when it comes to startups. While there’s always an option to hire an in-house marketing team, it’s not always feasible as it costs a lot.
Hiring agencies to handle marketing is a great workaround. But they do charge a lot as well.
Freelancers get the work done for a lesser price. But they’re slow.
This created a repressed demand to get marketing services that are not as pricey as agencies and not as slow as freelancers.
And this led to 150Birds – a freelancer aggregator that provides fast marketing services to businesses at a lesser price.
150Birds – Startup Review By Feedough
150Birds is a freelancer-aggregator-cum-SAAS-platform that provides professional marketing services with a flexible team made up of freelancers.
In the words of the company’s top associate –
Our technology joins your existing company data with a flexible team that evolves as your company goes through the various stages of its lifecycle.
The Concept
150Birds can be referred to as Uber for freelance marketing services. That is, even though the services are provided under the name of 150Birds, they’re actually provided by partner freelancers.
The company, on the other hand, makes sure that the work done is up to the standards, and the clients remain happy with the services.
The platform is built to solve the problems for both parties:
Freelancers
150Birds help freelancers to:
- Find work easily,
- Get the most value for the work,
- Remain flexible, and
- Learn from others in the team
Clients
150Birds help startups and small businesses to:
- Get guidance to develop suitable marketing strategies,
- Get professional marketing services on-demand on a simple fixed monthly price, and
- Pay expert’s charges only when experts work.
The Offering
150Birds is a platform that provides–
- Strategic guidance: The experts help clients develop the most profitable marketing strategies. Â
- End to end execution:Â It further helps the client find the best team to fulfil its objectives. Moreover, it makes sure that the work is done on time and as decided.
- Ongoing management:Â Everything is managed on a cloud platform where the client interacts with the partners and get the work done.
The SAAS works on a simple revenue model. It charges $99 for its services of strategic guidance and mediator and $65/hr for every expert that gets on board.
It also provides specially customised plans for small businesses and enterprises with dedicated expert project hours.
The Value Proposition
150Birds stands out where most other players lack – fulfilling the needs of businesses with less budget and more expectations.
In their words –
We tailor each marketing plan and a team around the business’s needs, and we do this algorithmically. While our platform provides consistent, higher-paying work for creative freelancers on teams that they have an affinity toward, our algorithm lets us scale operations. Most businesses don’t have an idea of where to start with marketing. Any holistic marketing strategy requires a variety of specialists to execute. In-house hiring is way too expensive, especially considering you only need a portion of each specialist’s time. Marketing agencies are not scalable, which drives up their price – making them inaccessible to most small businesses. While generic marketplaces may seem cheap and quick, they require a vast time commitment and are a hassle to work with. The market needs an all in one solution that provides both strategy and execution.
The Interview
We discussed the concept, vision, and the future prospects of the startup with Rick Koletavitoglu, the CEO of 150Birds. Here are his thoughts on his startup –
How is your offering disrupting the industry?
We make expert-level marketing accessible to the smallest of businesses – starting at the lower end of the spectrum and gradually gliding upstream by building more sophisticated functionality that fits into larger marketing teams’ needs.
What about the competition? How are you better than others?
We are better than our competitors, such as Upwork, Fiverr, and Wethos. We take the hassle out of the hustle through our all in one solution that understands business needs, creates marketing plans, and curates the right team to execute the strategy and help grow the client’s business.
The history of your startup (how it all started)?
150birds CEO and founder Rick Koletavitoglu was a marketing consultant curating and managing marketing teams for high-growth startups in Silicon Valley. During this time, he noticed the market needed a shakeup. When we first started, we thought the key would be to have an in-house strategist. As we progressed in our journey, we noticed that as long as we can create a program where we teach our freelancer workforce how to execute our services, the steps taken to ensure service delivery quality can scale.
Tell us about your team.
Our team leader Rick Koletavitoglu is the CEO and founder of 150birds. He leads a team of creative and hardworking individuals who are dedicated to the development of 150birds.
Our team consists of Steven Schmidt, the Chief Technology Officer; Albert Jose, the Head of Operations; Eli Arbreton, the Chief of Staff; Khang Phan, the Art Director; Kajal Shah, the Product Manager; Chris Lin, Backend Developer; Lauren Chau, Frontend Developer; Jeff Alexander, Product Marketing and PR; and Anushka Verma and Kerrie Ngo, Social Media Managers.
Our team is special because we have team members who come from different backgrounds. When we are together, we collaborate and develop creative and innovative ideas to grow your business. We all have a unique perspective that allows us to develop creative and organic campaign ideas for the brand that fit seamlessly with our platform.
What’s the progress till now, and what are you expecting in the future?
Since starting the company earlier this year, we have:
- Grown the freelancer community to 150+ members
- Closed one contract $20K/$2K MRR
- Launching platform MVP in December 2020
Feedough’s Take On 150Birds
150Birds has chosen a rather innovative business model to cater to the repressed demand of small businesses and startups. This might prove to be a success in the near future.
However, the point that the company has to cater to both the freelancers and the clients could be overwhelming during the times of conflicts.
But, overall, the startup seems promising.
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A startup consultant, digital marketer, traveller, and philomath. Aashish has worked with over 20 startups and successfully helped them ideate, raise money, and succeed. When not working, he can be found hiking, camping, and stargazing.