#Angels Prefer Balanced Marketplaces

Technology is rapidly and profoundly changing how we work. Platforms — from Uber to Handy to Glamsquad — impact not only how we get around and find services, but are also creating a powerful new labor market infrastructure, one that determines how and when workers earn money, find work and clients, all while collecting huge amounts of valuable data.

The changes these technologies enable are both gratifying and important. For consumers, being able to get food, transportation or services with just a few clicks can be delightful, or even a life-saver given work and family demands. For workers, the control over scheduling that platforms can provide is profound, giving them the ability to determine how to balance family, school or other commitments against earnings.

But the downsides of this sea change are also apparent: workers are being disintermediated, losing power and the ability to organize; net earnings are extremely difficult to predict, calculate and retain; and sourcing work via promotion and advertising in a social media driven world is ever more complex and time-consuming.

It’s rare to find a platform committed to serving both the consumer as well as the worker.

That’s why we are excited to announce that #Angels are investors in Prefer, a platform that makes it easier to find trusted service professionals (babysitters, dog walkers, accountants, personal trainers, etc.) but also aims to help independent service professionals thrive.

Nothing trumps the power of a trusted referral — I’d love to use my friend’s favorite babysitter or that lawyer they swear by — but discovery has been full of friction. Prefer aims to surface and nurture the power of those trusted referrals. The team also seeks to solve the many challenges of independent service professionals: the commoditization of on-demand platforms, the randomness of online reviews, and the cost and challenge of finding new clients.

The team at Prefer believe that “human relationships triumph over commoditized labor marketplaces”:

“We’re on a mission to empower service professionals and clients to find each other and work together, enabling both professionals and clients to thrive. We aim to celebrate the people behind the services and the relationship above the transaction.”

In all of our investments, we look for exceptional teams tackling meaningful problems. Scott Belsky and Julio Vasconcellos are passionate innovators and experienced leaders, and we are honored to be supporting them as investors in this journey. We look forward to learning from them as they try to balance the needs of consumers and service professionals, and seek to bring the complexity of human relationships to the forefront of their product.