Mark Cuban Bets on the Future Workforce

In 2013, Harvard Business School students Rob Biederman, Peter Maglathlin, Patrick Petitti, and Joe Miller set up a website to help businesses hire MBA students as part-time consultants. In search of funding, they emailed Shark Tank investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Fifteen minutes later, Cuban answered with a proposed investment of $450,000. “HourlyNerd fills a need every entrepreneurial company faces,” Cuban explained. “I’m excited to be part of it and expect to use it heavily for all my portfolio companies.”

Distributed teams are increasingly the way people want to work. A recent Elance.com survey found that 83% of Millennials between the ages of 18 and 30 indicate that freelancing is the cornerstone of their career. Sixty three percent of freelancers have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and 42% prefer freelancing to traditional full time work.

To that end, QuadJobs just launched to connect college students with local businesses and individuals to help with office work, computer and tech support, tutoring, babysitting, errands, and other jobs. With a platform that connects college students eager to make money and build their resumes with employers looking for reliable help, cofounders Bridie Clark Lovero, Andra Newman, and Betsy O’Reilly created “the educated way to get things done.”

Just a few days ago, I experienced QuadJobs first-hand. As a debut author, I sought to spread the word out about my book The Creator’s Code. I needed local help but wasn’t sure what I needed exactly. That’s when QuadJobs swung into action. With QuadJobers on the task, logistics became a breeze. From sending out emails, to managing an RSVPlist for an event, to taking photos of guests, and selling books, these young workers went above and beyond to complete tasks that I was not even aware of.

QuadJobs cofounders Bridie, Andra, and Betsy had taught piano, tutored, and babysat as jobs during college. Today as business owners and mothers, they experience the other side of the equation—the need for flexible and reliable help. It is this understanding of both vantage points that became the genesis for their startup.

“Work is going to be more gig-like and short-term,” Freelancers Union founder Sarah Horowitz explained when I interviewed her for my book. “Today some 42 million people, about a third of the United States work force, do not have jobs in the traditional sense.” Businesses such as HourlyNerd and QuadJobs are quickly springing up to capitalize on this phenomenon. If Mark Cuban is right, the future of the economy may look even more like job-to-job projects.

Wilkinson is a strategic adviser, entrepreneur, and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She frequently addresses corporate, association, and university audiences on entrepreneurial leadership. She also advises startups and large corporations on innovation and business strategy.

Learn more about her work at AmyWilkinson.com.