oDesk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| oDesk | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | Campbell, California 2003 |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park, California |
| Key people | Gary Swart, CEO Brian Goler, VP Product & Marketing Stratis Karamanlakis, VP of Development & Founder Ed Schaffer, VP Finance & Operations Odysseas Tsatalos, CTO & Founder Bin Xu, VP of Engineering |
| Industry | Internet Service Marketplace Workforce Management |
| Website | oDesk.com |
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oDesk is a company with a global job marketplace and a series of tools targeted at businesses that intend to hire and manage remote workers. Based in Menlo Park, CA, oDesk was founded by Odysseas Tsatalos and Stratis Karamanlakis. The name is a short version of "no desk"[1] which encapsulated the founders' vision of enabling anyone to work anywhere, anytime.
Established in 2003, oDesk relies upon proprietary tools to allow buyers real-time visibility into the ongoing activities of remote worker activities to facilitate collaboration and supervision. oDesk's system also includes payment, Intellectual property protection and other statutory requirements. For remote workers, the tools were designed to eliminate timekeeping and bookkeeping tasks, as well as ensure that these remote employees get paid for hourly work, even when working for a company in another country.
The marketplace has been adopted by programmers and other freelancers around the world. As of October 16, 2007, over 25,000 service providers had joined the site.
The specific areas of expertise supported by the site are:
- Web Development
- Audio / Video & Multimedia
- Software Development
- Networking & Information Systems
- Writing
- Graphic Arts & Design
- Administrative Support
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[edit] oDesk tools
The oDesk Team software was designed to allow project managers to verify the work of remote employees through screenshots, mouse clicks and keyboard activity.
oDesk also provides the following tools to aid the remote work experience:
- Desktop sharing through the oDesk Share client
- Bugzilla for integrated task tracking
- Subversion repository for source code management
- Team mailing lists
[edit] oDesk fees
oDesk charges companies a 10% fee for the wages paid to remote workers. oDesk remote workers establish their own rates within the oDesk market. oDesk supports hourly or fixed-rate projects.
[edit] Awards and coverage
- Finalist in PC Magazine’s 2006 Small Business Awards[2]
- One of 13 Launch Pad companies featured at the web 2.0 Summit on November 7, 2006, selected from over 250 applicants[3]
- Profiled in Business Week as a leader in homeshoring[4]
- oDesk providers used for case studies as part of Computer World series on the Global Talent Pool [5][6]
[edit] Other information
oDesk has raised 3 rounds of financing. The first was by Globespan Capital and Sigma Partners.[7] The second round was raised in September 2006, led by Benchmark Capital and included the previous two investors.[8][9]. The third round was raised in May 2008, led by DAG Ventures and included the previous three investors.[10] The venture investors on oDesk's board include Greg Gretsch, Venky Ganesan and Kevin Harvey.
In November 2006, oDesk and O’Reilly launched a partnership to create global mashups for technical skills and rates.[11]
In February 2008, oDesk started providing detailed statistics about its economy, including hours worked, buyer and provider growth, hourly rates statistics, penetration by country and skill. According to these statistics during the first quarter of 2008, oDesk providers billed approximately 400,000 hours working online at an average rate of $13-$14/hr. [12]
[edit] References
- ^ Nodesk.com becomes oDesk.com (February 20th, 2007).
- ^ Quain, John (September 27, 2006). Small Business Awards by PC Magazine: Outsourcing Finalists. PC Magazine.
- ^ "Web 2.0 Summit - November 7-9, 2006 - San Francisco, CA: Launch Pad".
- ^ Lacy, Sarah. "Homeshoring: Beyond Call Centers", Business Week, May 2, 2006.
- ^ Brandel, Mary. "Swimming in the Global Talent Pool", ComputerWorld, January 15, 2007.
- ^ Brandel, Mary. "Fishing in the Global Talent Pool", ComputerWorld, November 20, 2006.
- ^ "Internet startup oDesk gets $6M funding", Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal, June 1, 2006.
- ^ "oDesk Announces $8 Million Series B Round Led by Benchmark Capital", Yahoo! Finance, September 27, 2006.
- ^ Marshall, Matt. "oDesk, marketplace for developers, raises $8 million", VentureBeat, September 27, 2006.
- ^ oDesk Secures $15 Million In Series C Funding. oDesk Press Releases. oDesk (June 4, 2008).
- ^ oDesk/O'Reilly Tech Visualizations.
- ^ oDesk launches the oConomy. oDesk Monthly Feature Timeline. oDesk (February 7, 2008).
