Hiring freelancers for startups and scale-ups: A key to growth

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From a Startup to a Scale-Up

A startup is a company designed to grow quickly, even on a weekly basis.

A scale-up is a company, which was born as a startup, with the intention of expanding its offer and activity based on innovation.

Both in more advanced phases of the startup and in the scale-ups, the incorporation of freelancers should be constant.

Fundamental reasons for hiring freelancers for startups and scale-ups

1. High speed of growth: The need to grow quickly does not allow the training and development of employees as in a traditional company, so it will be necessary to search for external talent in those techniques and disciplines not covered by the organization.
2. Limited financial resources: It is very difficult for a startup to have specialists on staff on all fronts and in all matters. For this reason, it will be beneficial to develop a hybrid organization in which external specialists are temporarily part of or direct some of the company’s projects.
3. Locations with knowledge deficit: Companies may be located in geographical areas with little specialized labour supply that must be replaced by hiring freelancers for startups.
4. Internal Know How gap: Freelancers will be able to contribute knowledge in areas in which the company does not have specialists, transferring their knowledge to the organization at the same time
5. Reduction of occupational risk: Hiring permanent staff always implies a risk that can be reduced by hiring freelancers

Digital and telecom talent, the most requested for startups and scale-ups

Most startups, if not all, are based on innovative and disruptive business models, based on new digital and communication technologies.

They need to grow fast and to control said growth also implies the management of data and metrics to be managed digitally.

The marketing and commercialization of the company must be managed digitally, sometimes with advanced telecommunication skills.

All this leads us to confirm the need for highly specialized digital and telecom talent both in the core business operation itself and in the control of startups in the growth phase and in scale-ups.

In addition, it will be necessary to take into account the limitations, gaps, deficits and risks mentioned above that we must minimize with the hiring of highly skilled digital and telecom freelancers. Read the post about freelance roles to incorporate at the launch of a startup.

The areas in which the contribution of freelancers will be most necessary and useful will be: 

Digital Transformation	Digital Process Design	Data Architecture
Data Engineer	Data Scientist	Data Governance
Artificial Intelligence	Scrum Management	Agile Coaching
E-Commerce	UX / UI Design	Marketing Performance

The technologies where the contribution of freelancers will be most important are:

Cloud	IoT	Cybersecurity
Blockchain	BSS / OSS	Salesforce/SAP

Highly skilled digital freelancers can also occupy positions as diverse as:

Solution Architect	Market Analyst	Product Manager
Project Manager	Strategist	Digital Business Development Mgr
IT Consultant	Knowledge Expert	Marketing Automation Mgr

Sourcing the right talent

Outvise is a platform specifically for digital and TMT professionals to provide quick access to the growing startups and scale-ups to the certified experience they needed. Explore the profile you need here.