This was a 2 minute pitch we made to Jason Calacanis’s accelerator LAUNCH.
Transcript
We are Outpost, and we’re redesigning the gig economy for technology professionals.
Michael has 10 years of professional experience in artificial intelligence research and software development.
His inbox is flooded with people around the world who want to connect with him.
He wants to make money off of these skills, and quickly.
If he wants to use his AI experience…
It might be months before finding a job, building a business, or making even $1. There’s huge friction in finding fast work in tech. If he really wants money quickly,
What’s he gonna do? Start driving Uber?
But then, Michael discovers an in mail from Outpost, a marketplace for asking experts anything
He clicks on the link: he already has $50 waiting for him.
His profile is automatically imported from LinkedIn.
Outpost helps Michael build his online presence, and auto-shares with his network.
From there, we navigate Michael to his inbox.
Behind the scenes, Outpost has matched Michael with users who are demanding his ML skills.
He clicks into the first message and sees that someone is looking for advice on their data science model, and attached a snippet of their code.
Michael sends back an audio message as feedback and earns $20.
Meanwhile, the user can select to continue the conversation depending on their purchase.
So far, 50 experts like Michael have been onboarded to Outpost. We have made $500. We launched 1 month ago.
Pros charge $20 for a guaranteed video reply, or $10 for a message. And we take 50%.
On competition, on the left, unvetted gig platforms. On the right expert networks. But there’s no middle ground.
We expect customers will spend on average $200 in a given year
And will spend $250 per year once we roll out subscriptions.
And by 2028, we’ll be focused on gig work for SMBs.
Our professionals market themselves on social media…
…attracting users who struggle with common challenges.
Our team is myself,
Don Scott,
and Michael Green.
We’re redesigning the gig economy for technology professionals.
Thank you for your time.
Questions (video omitted)
Bianca Veltri asked about the $50 professionals earned after onboarding. Customers pay to send inquiries to public profiles (built using publicly available LinkedIn data). Professionals claim their profile to access incoming requests. Once onboarded, they can respond to messages and earn cash.
Jacqui Deegan asked about competition and differentiation. Platforms today tend to fall into two categories:
Gig platforms (e.g. Fiverr, Upwork) provide access to a broad talent pool but lack vetting and involve slow, often cumbersome bid-and-contract processes.
Expert networks (e.g. GLG, Intro) feature vetted professionals but focus exclusively on advisement, not execution.
Outpost sits between the two, offering instant access to vetted professionals and an overhauled bid-and-contract process leveraging AI.
2 weeks after this pitch, we were offered $25,000 to invest from LAUNCH. If you’re interested in Outpost, please reach out to us at invest@outpost.chat.
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