A New Way To Hire Contractors?

A mobile app is attempting to attempting to solve the classic business-trying-to-find-contractor problem, through what it dubs “a selective vetting process” of those contractors. But it’s unclear from its site what kind of vetting process it offers and how it evaluates the talent it tries to clear.

The problem with other sites that have tried to connect these two groups is precisely that lack of evaluation, on both sides. “When it comes to online platforms like Elance, there are limitations on both the type of work independent workers can find and the quality of talent that companies can find,” reports Tech Cocktail. “There’s often a mismatch, with jobs that offer demeaning rates and contract workers that don’t live up to expectations.”

The story said that one possible answer is a mobile company called LiquidTalent. “Through a selective vetting process, the company is able to assure hiring companies that the freelance professionals on LiquidTalent are all highly-skilled, as well as secure much higher rates for freelancers on the platform akin to the high quality of their work,” the story said.

But the company’s Web site doesn’t seem—at least not yet—to deliver on that promise. Contractors signing up are merely asked to link to a LinkedIn account and to then answer questions about years of experience and areas of focus, as well as given the chance to post a video. If the company has a mechanism to actually determine if the applicant has such skills—and, much more critically, how good those skills are—it’s not referencing it. Without any such evaluation, it’s not clear what the site’s differentiator is.

Co-Founder/CEO Alex Abelin, who spent seven years working at Google, saw the need for a different way for contractors to secure jobs. “We built LiquidTalent using this premise: that the 9-to-5 model is changing,” Abelin told the site. “The thesis is that people want to work for themselves and basically live the lifestyle they want while still have the means to live financially stable.”

His pitch is that B2B operations rarely “have all the human capital to achieve their business objectives and instead of having to hire a full time employee, they can turn to LiquidTalent and hopefully find higher quality work. Hiring someone full-time takes a lot of time and money and we’re hoping to help companies achieve their business goals through much more approachable project experience,” Abelin said.

Current talent is heavily weighted toward developers and designers.