Doing Good with Gig Economy
I concluded my last post by advocating for more transparency within the startup community.? The continued success of the private sector is immensely important; shouting our wins from the rooftops will have an outsized impact.
With that in mind, I wanted to share a quick story and a shout-out for an incredibly worthy effort going on right now in Israel.
The outpouring of support and worldwide Jewish unity that I have witnessed over these last few weeks is simply staggering.? When Israel and its people found themselves on the back foot, communities from every corner jumped to find ways to contribute - charitable giving, materials donated to the IDF, missions to Israel, and more.? All of these things are as essential as they are appreciated beyond words.
A few days after the attacks of October 7th, L Marks London, a consultancy that connects businesses with innovation and tech startups, recognized the challenge ScrubChart and others were facing and quickly put a plan in action.? On October 17th, they launched iL-help.com (pronounced I’ll help!), a website that connects companies in need with volunteers from around the globe who are looking for ways to put their skills to work for Israeli companies.? ScrubChart was lucky enough to connect with one such eager volunteer, and he is now filling in for Libby as our interim Director of Communications.? His willingness to dedicate his free time to our business, and to dive in as a full-fledged member of our team is emblematic of the support shown to my Israeli brethren around the world during our time of national crisis.????
It turns out, however, that iL-help was but one of a few similar job boards that popped up in the days and weeks following October 7th.? These sites were created with the same goal in mind - connecting companies and workers - and have been successful.? The new challenge is that there are tasks that need completion that are not always tied to a specific job posting.? Further, while a company may be looking to replace one or many of its reservist employees, asking a volunteer to fulfill that role, what would otherwise be a full-time job, may not be realistic.? Thus, I would like to suggest a slightly different model moving forward.
What we need is an open market of tasks - some straightforward, others more complex or requiring specific skills or experience - such that volunteers can raise their hand and complete any one of these project-based tasks when they have the time to do so.?
We need a gig economy approach to support, one that affords the volunteer workers the ability to nominate themselves for a project-based posting from the marketplace, and, when approved, complete it within the allotted deadline, but without any further commitments beyond that request.
These postings could be stripped down, and include only the most essential information:
By creating this system we can eliminate the duplicative job boards, decrease the time spent by companies posting and vetting prospective “hires,” and enable volunteers to contribute as much as they are able.??
It turns out, we’re not too far from this system, as our friends at The Good Company have created an “AI-powered tool that matches investors to the right startups, helps startups find the right business opportunities, and ensures the Israeli ecosystem will [continue to] thrive and deliver - NO MATTER WHAT!”? Expanding on this tool to include tasks and projects would be immensely beneficial to the Israeli companies currently working overtime to keep their businesses afloat.