PeoplePerHour, legally People Per Hour Limited, is a
UK-based company whose function is as an online platform giving businesses access to
freelance
''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''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 w ...
workers.
History
Founded in 2007 by Xenios Thrasyvoulou and Simos Kitiris,
the company has offices in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
.
Businesses opting to use the
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...
are often start-ups or SMEs looking to grow flexibly by hiring freelancers to handle projects rather than hiring in-house or via agencies. Jobs start from little as an hour (“Offers”) and can be ramped up as needed to build whole teams online, meaning the model is scalable all the way up to global enterprises. They operate as part of what has become part of the “talent cloud” with thousands of freelancers, offerings a range of skills on a flexible and efficient basis.
As the leading marketplace for freelance talent in the UK, PeoplePerHour hold a powerful insight into the self-employed segment of the labour market and have created and collaborated on numerous research projects on SMEs, freelancing and the gig economy and provide resources for new and growing businesses and those looking to pursue a freelance career.
There is some debate as to whether the emergence of this type of freelance marketplace is part of a longer-term structural change in the way that companies across the world manage their human resources.
[ ]
Reception
In August 2012, PeoplePerHour was named by the science and technology magazine,
Wired UK
''Wired UK'' is a bimonthly magazine that reports on the effects of science and technology. It covers a broad range of topics including design, architecture, culture, the economy, politics and philosophy. Owned by Condé Nast Publications, it is ...
as one of "Europe's 100 Hottest Startups of 2012".
["Europe's 100 hottest startups 2012", Hugo Cox, Wired Magazine, 15 August 2012](_blank)
/ref>
In 2012 its 50-person engineering department relocated to Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
.[Index Ventures Raises $442 Million in New Fund](_blank)
by Mark Scott, New York Times
One of the major investors in PeoplePerHour's is Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/ AI, and security. Since its ...
, which gave the company £2M (3.2M dollars) in 2012. Mike Volpi
Michelangelo "Mike" Volpi (born 13 December 1966) is an Italian-American businessman and venture capitalist.
He worked as an engineer, eventually becoming chief strategy officer at Cisco Systems during the company’s growth era, acquiring over ...
has named PeoplePerHour among the three "most underrated companies" in the Index's portfolio. In its previous seed round
Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' su ...
, the company had raised approximately £425k.Index Ventures invests in PeoplePerHour as business flows East to West
/ref>
See also
* Guru.com
Guru.com is a freelance marketplace. It allows companies to find freelance workers for commissioned work. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Guru was initially known as ''eMoonlighter.com''.
History
Guru Inc. was founded in 1999 in ...
* Freelancer.com
*
* Fiverr
* Upwork
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 merg ...
References
External links
* {{Official website, www.peopleperhour.com
Employment websites
Freelance marketplace websites
Service companies of England
Internet properties established in 2007
British companies established in 2007