By Andrew Lindsay, VP of Corporate and Business Development at HubSpot
Imagine navigating the myriad of software platforms your team uses each day with an expert for each product by your side.
Any time you ran into a roadblock that would normally have you cursing your computer, you could simply turn to your handy sidekick for guidance. Any time you wondered — “Am I using this feature correctly? Are there ways for me to get more value out of this software?” — there’d be someone right there to help you assess those questions.
Sounds pretty great, right?
To date, the closest you could get to this experience was an online freelance marketplace. But, the process on these sites can be high friction for both parties, often involving a days-long self-service vetting process for the client and a race-to-the-bottom bidding war for freelancers.
These marketplaces are great for larger, non-urgent jobs, but they weren’t designed to be your on-demand companion for immediate, pointed guidance.
Yet, there are millions of freelancers at the ready, if only you could quickly connect to the right one at the right time. In fact, over 30% of the US workforce does freelancing work — a trend that’s expected to continue to climb to include over 50% of the workforce within the next ten years.
In a world where we can increasingly get what we want when we want it (thank you Uber, Amazon, and Postmates), on-demand freelance doesn’t seem so crazy.
Introducing Lorem
Enter Sam and Charlie: two former freelancers.
After working on their own freelancing gigs for years, Sam and Charlie felt that there had to be a better way to sell their services efficiently to the right people.
So, they founded Lorem.
Lorem is a two-sided platform that enables pre-vetted technical freelancers to connect with customers looking for immediate support with a short-term project. Once the customer submits a request, Lorem’s proprietary algorithm matches the request with an available expert who is best suited for the job, all within a few minutes.
The result is an efficient, convenient solution for customers and a stable, equitable income stream for freelancers.
When HubSpot Met Lorem
We first met Sam and Charlie when they were graduating from TechStars in Boston in 2016. Our Chief Strategy Officer, Brad Coffey, saw their pitch for Lorem and was immediately intrigued. They kept in touch over the past two years, and when Sam and Charlie started raising their most recent round, we knew we wanted to get involved.
Lorem is still in the early days of growth, but we’re optimistic about the potential for it to help us expand the breadth of our support resources. Our internal support team, our agency partners, and freelance marketplace partners, such as On The Bench, already do amazing work every day for customers, and we’re always looking for ways to further extend the range of support options. Lorem presents yet another vehicle to bring the HubSpot community together for mutual benefit.
Lorem presents another vehicle to bring the HubSpot community together for mutual benefit.
Users benefit from having their issues solved quickly. Product experts, whether independent or with an agency partner, benefit from having a way to complete short-term, on-demand projects.
As a HubSpot product expert, you can sign up to become an expert with Lorem here.
As a HubSpot customer, support via Lorem is coming soon. Sign up here to be among the first to receive access.
As an agency partner, depending on your size, there’s a place for you on either side of Lorem’s platform:
- For smaller agencies — Sign up your agency as a HubSpot expert and access new revenue streams for quick, on-demand projects, helping to smooth out lumpy workflows and better use team capacity.
- For larger agencies — Sign up as a customer and outsource small, ad hoc requests that pop up, allowing your team to focus on its biggest priorities without distraction.
That’s why we’re so excited to be participating in Lorem’s $2.5M round, led by Flybridge Capital.
Congratulations Sam, Charlie, and the entire Lorem team on the latest round. We can’t wait to be a part of the journey ahead.
