 | |
| Company type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Internet Service Marketplace Workforce Management Crowdsourcing |
| Founded | 1998 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Founder | Inder Guglani |
| Headquarters | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Website | www |
Guru.com is a freelance marketplace. [1] It allows companies to find freelance workers for commissioned work. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Guru was initially known as eMoonlighter.com.
Guru Inc. was founded in 1998 [2] in San Francisco as an online clearing house for high tech workers seeking short-term contracts. The company, led by brothers Jon and James Slavet, raised $3M USD in angel funding and a further $16M USD in a full venture round led by Greylock Partners and August Capital. [2] In a May 2000 interview, Paul Saffo cited Guru.com as an example of a company using the Internet to provide new kinds of services where individuals negotiated directly with potential employers. [3] [4]
The company was acquired in December 2002 by Unicru, a human resources software company based in Portland, Oregon. [5] Guru's technology and staff remained with Unicru. At this point, Guru had received approximately $41 million USD in funding. [5]
In June 2003, small business consulting and creative design firm eMoonlighter bought Guru.com through the leadership of CEO Inderpal Guglani, who subsequently became CEO of Guru. [6] In February 2004, eMoonlighter officially changed its name to Guru.com. [6] The acquisition, which brought along several clients now relying on Guru for freelancing needs, boosted eMoonlighter's reputation of only offering the services of “moonlighting” freelancers, to one of full-time, reliable freelance workers able to meet the needs of any company–which has become what Guru is known for today. [7]
Guru connects employers and freelancers through their online platform. Employers post job descriptions, including payment offered. Freelancers post profiles highlighting their skills and services. [6] Employers can search for and invite specific freelancers to submit quotes for jobs, and freelancers who are interested in jobs can submit bids. Employers review the quotes received along with freelancers’ profiles, portfolios, feedback reviews, and earnings statistics before selecting freelancers to hire. Employers and freelancers form an agreement on the scope of work, payment terms, and timeline. [6]
Guru's WorkRoom feature is an assigned online working space. Its purpose is to help employers to manage one or more freelancers, assign roles, and keep interactions, time tracking, and payments in one place. [8]
Guru's SafePay payment system ensures secure payment for employers and freelancers. Employers and freelancers choose from various payment methods. Employers can deposit funds so freelancers see that funds are available before starting work, and employers release funds after reviewing the work. [8]
In 2020, Guru claimed to have around three million online users, with nearly one million visits to the site every month. [9]
Unicru sold the Guru.com domain name and logo to eMoonlighter.com, and eMoonlighter was renamed Guru.com. [10]
Freelance, freelancer, or freelance worker, are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance workers are sometimes represented by a company or a temporary agency that resells freelance labor to clients; others work independently or use professional associations or websites to get work.
LinkedIn is a business and employment-focused social media platform that works through websites and mobile apps. It was launched on May 5, 2003. Since December 2016, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. The platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows jobseekers to post their CVs and employers to post jobs. From 2015 most of the company's revenue came from selling access to information about its members to recruiters and sales professionals. LinkedIn has more than 970 million registered members from over 200 countries and territories.
Unum Group is an American insurance company headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Founded as Union Mutual in 1848 and known as UnumProvident from 1999-2007. The company is part of the Fortune 500. Unum Group was created by the 1999 merger of Unum Corporation and The Provident Companies and comprises four distinct businesses – Unum US, Unum UK, Unum Poland and Colonial Life. Its underwriting insurers include The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company and Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company.
Redfin Corporation, based in Seattle, provides residential real estate brokerage and mortgage origination services. The company operates in more than 100 markets in the United States and Canada. The company has a 0.80% market share in the United States by number of units sold and has approximately 2,000 lead agents.
An employment website is a website that deals specifically with employment or careers. Many employment websites are designed to allow employers to post job requirements for a position to be filled and are commonly known as job boards. Other employment sites offer employer reviews, career and job-search advice, and describe different job descriptions or employers. Through a job website, a prospective employee can locate and fill out a job application or submit resumes over the Internet for the advertised position.
Unicru was a United States computer software company which produced a human resources software line built to aid companies in evaluating job applicants and their suitability for particular positions by giving them personality tests. Many of their customers were large retailers such as Big Y, Lowe's, Hollywood Video, Hastings Entertainment, Albertsons, Toys R Us, PetSmart, Best Buy, and Blockbuster Video. According to its vendor, Unicru was used in 16% of major retail hiring in the United States as of early 2009.
Upwork Global Inc., formerly Elance-oDesk, is an American freelancing platform headquartered in Santa Clara and San Francisco, California. The company was formed in 2013 as Elance-oDesk, after the merger of Elance Inc. and oDesk Corp. The merged company was subsequently rebranded to Upwork in 2015.
Freelancer is an Australian freelance marketplace website, which allows potential employers to post jobs that freelancers can then bid to complete. Founded in 2009, its headquarters is located in Sydney, Australia, though it also has offices in Vancouver, London, Buenos Aires, Manila, and Jakarta.
Block Inc. is an American public company founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey. Initially named Square Inc., the company comprises various businesses within the financial technology sector. Block’s service network reportedly includes nearly 4 million merchants and 51 million users, as of 2023.
E-lancing, also known as e-labour, is the practice of taking freelancing work through online job-offers. E-lancing websites or platforms operate as hubs where employers place tasks, which freelancers from around the world bid for. Some e-lancing websites act as intermediaries for payment, paying the freelancer directly after work is completed, to mitigate the risk of non-payment. Employers posting work on these websites set the price they are willing to pay for the task proposed.
vWorker was an employment website that enabled companies to outsource projects and independent contractors to find work. Together with Elance, Freelancer.com, Guru.com, and Upwork, it was one of the largest global freelance marketplaces of its kind. It organized and streamlined the management of outsourced employees.
Payoneer Global Inc. is an American financial services company that provides online money transfer, digital payment services and provides customers with working capital.
Fiverr is an Israeli multinational online marketplace for freelance services. Fiverr's platform connects freelancers (sellers) to people or businesses looking to hire (buyers), encouraging a wide range of services in a free market. Fiverr takes its name from the $5 asking price attached to all tasks when the company was founded in 2010 in Tel Aviv, though many sellers now charge more.
Microwork is a series of many small tasks which together comprise a large unified project, and it is completed by many people over the Internet. Microwork is considered the smallest unit of work in a virtual assembly line. It is most often used to describe tasks for which no efficient algorithm has been devised, and require human intelligence to complete reliably. The term was developed in 2008 by Leila Chirayath Janah of Samasource.
Glassdoor is an American website where current and former employees anonymously review companies. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, it has additional offices in Chicago, Dublin, London, and São Paulo.
WorkMarket is a New York City-based company that provides an online platform and marketplace for businesses to manage contingent workers and IT talent. The company was founded in May 2010 by Jeffrey Leventhal.
Ian Ippolito is an American serial entrepreneur and the founder of numerous tech companies. He is best known as the founder of vWorker, an online portal for outsourcing computer virtual work projects. vWorker was purchased by Freelancer.com in 2013 for an undisclosed price in the millions of dollars. Ippolito is also the founder of the first open-source website and a financial investment site called The Real Estate Crowdfunding Review. As an entrepreneur, he has been featured in and provided commentary for numerous publications and media outlets including Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Wall Street Journal, as well as Fox and CBS News.
Careem is a Dubai-based super app with operations in over 100 cities, covering 12 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia regions. The company, which was valued at over US$2 billion in 2018, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber after being acquired for $3.1 billion in January 2020. Careem expanded into the food delivery business with Careem Now in November 2018 and launched a digital payment platform, Careem Pay in April 2022. In April 2023, Careem's Super App business was spun out into a new legal entity, which e& acquired a 50.03% stake in, while Uber maintains full ownership of Careem's ride-hailing business.
Ureed is a web-based platform that links businesses and employers with freelance workers. Its headquarters is located in Dubai, UAE.
Airwallex is a multinational financial technology company offering financial services and software as a service (SaaS). Founded in 2015 in Melbourne, Australia and currently based in Singapore, the company is a financial technology platform providing cross-border payments and financial services to businesses through a proprietary banking network and its API. It also provides services and products such as business accounts, expense cards, and payroll, among others. It was Australia's third technology unicorn company overall. With a valuation of US$5.5 billion, as of 2022, the company processed $50 billion in annualized transactions.
