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The Crowdsourcing Disruption: Airbnb and Reflik

February 3, 2016 By Ashish Vachhani

Crowdsourcing is the process of acquiring services or information by seeking contributions from communities, particularly from those that are online. Some of the most successful new companies on the market are currently using this process to make people’s lives easier and better. Reflik will regularly be releasing blog posts from a number of authors on the Crowdsourcing Revolution, where we will be comparing the origins and strategies of the exciting new companies that are utilizing crowdsourcing at the core of their business.

Airbnb’s rise from a San Francisco startup to a global success with 1,500,000 listings and a valuation at $20 billion certainly did not occur overnight. Co-founders of Airbnb, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia began their entrepreneurial journey humbly in a small apartment trying to get by while working on a completely different venture. With barely enough money on hand to eat, they rented out a room of their apartment with the promise of breakfast in the morning. They created a simple website and quickly had three renters sign up for a cost much lower than the average hotel. Soon after, ‘Airbed & Breakfast” was born just in time for the 2008 Democratic National Convention held in Denver, Colorado, where hotels were filled to the brink and passionate politicos needed places to stay.

As Airbed & Breakfast rapidly scaled its operation, the founders found a brilliant set of products to take advantage of the 2008 presidential election. They bought generic cereal in bulk and designed new boxes named Obama O’s after Senator Barack Obama and Cap’n McCains after Senator John McCain. This terrific idea raised $30,000 for the venture and the team was quickly proving that their creativity could be highly profitable. Soon after in 2009, Airbed & Breakfast joined Y Combinator and earned an additional $20,000 in funding. Seeking a catchier name, Airbed & Breakfast was renamed Airbnb and the team began the hunt for more funding, eventually receiving an offer of $600,000 from Y Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

Airbnb’s overnight success became a headache for the growing company as new policies needed to be added to support a wider customer base. With increased transactions and the obvious problems that arose with them, Airbnb was quick to remedy problems and install new policies. For example, Airbnb began providing insurance for those renting out homes and apartments to ensure vandalism or theft didn’t deter hosts. Partnerships with travel companies like Concur and buyouts of competitors like CrashPad and LocalMind have propelled Airbnb into global markets, spurring on the growth of users and hosts. With new features like Price Tips, a price recommendation tool for hosts, regularly being added to Airbnb, it is clear that the future is bright for this young company that seeks to revolutionize the hotel industry.

Just as Airbnb gained success crowdsourcing for the hotel industry, Reflik is gaining popularity by crowdsourcing for the recruiting industry. Homeowners now can rent out their empty spaces to individuals seeking an affordable alternative to hotels with Airbnb. In the same way, the recruiting community on Reflik.com leverages their existing database of candidates, social and professional connections, and social networks to fill open positions more efficiently for less money. The crowdsourcing phenomenon is successful because it provides platforms for individuals to market goods and services to each other without the formalities normally required of businesses. Uber, Airbnb, and Reflik are all leading the charge in providing opportunities for everyone to leverage their goods and abilities to a wider community, creating a virtual revolution that is disrupting the taxi, hotel, and recruiting industries.

By Ashish Vachhani

Source: TechCrunch

 All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

Filed Under: Crowdsourcing, The Recruiting Industry Tagged With: AirBnB, crowdsourcing, Crowdsourcing Revolution, uber

The Crowdsourcing Disruption: Uber and Reflik

August 7, 2015 By Ashish Vachhani

Crowdsourcing is the process of acquiring services or information by seeking contributions from communities, particularly from those that are online. Some of the most successful new companies on the market are currently using this process to make people’s lives easier and better. Reflik will regularly be releasing blog posts from a number of authors on the Crowdsourcing Revolution, where we will be comparing the origins and strategies of the exciting new companies that are utilizing crowdsourcing at the core of their business.

Prior to becoming a global success worth tens of billions of dollars, Uber was merely an idea in the mind of StumbleUpon founder, Garrett Camp, and entrepreneur, Travis Kalanick. While hanging out one day, they realized that taxis ran an inefficient monopoly on transportation in San Francisco and that this system could be made more streamlined and cost-effective. They discovered that by connecting drivers directly to customers through a phone application, customers would pay less for rides and drivers could find customers more quickly.

Unknowingly, one of the First modern Crowdsourcing Ideas was Born

Camp and Kalanick had unknowingly just fathered one of the first crowdsourcing ideas, one where taxi services are crowdsourced to a wider range of riders and drivers, not just licensed taxi drivers and customers on the street. Their first prototype revolved around splitting the cost of a Mercedes and a garage, as well as creating a mobile application called Ubercab.

Three employees of the new company tested out Camp’s and Kalanick’s idea by driving through New York City to deliver customers found from the application to their destinations quickly and for less money than normal means. The test proved successful and Uber first went live in San Francisco in the summer of 2010. Despite legal issues, Uber became wildly successful and has expanded into 58 countries. This fascinating company will undoubtedly continue to innovate to make ride-sharing more cost-effective and exciting.

Uber Brings Drivers to Travelers Just as  Reflik Connects Employers with Independent Recruiters and Jobseekers

Just as Uber disrupted the unimaginative and expensive world of taxi services, Reflik has made the disruption of the traditional world of recruiting one of its primary goals. A foremost cause of Uber is to increase efficiency, which it accomplishes for both the driver and customer. The driver has the ability to create their own schedule and use the car of their choosing, not just a mandatory yellow cab.

The customer has the ability to use their mobile phone to quickly hail a private car instead of waiting in the street for a taxi to come around the corner. In the same manner, Reflik increases the efficiency of the recruiting industry by directly connecting employers with third party recruiters and individuals to fill positions more quickly with better candidates. The slow moving recruiting industry of the past has experienced small improvements from online job boards but nothing can beat the speed of a referral-driven platform.

Reflik Drives More Hires for Less Money than Traditional Recruiting  Avenues

Taxi services can also be incredibly expensive while Uber’s overall cost is usually lower than the cost of a taxi. In the same way, traditional recruiting methods can cost up to 20% of the hire’s salary, while a typical hire with Reflik’s crowdsourced recruiting can be accomplished with a referral reward of only $5000!

Reflik replaces the need for typical recruiting methods by exposing open positions to third party recruiters and individuals who can then refer their qualified social and professional contacts to those positions at no cost to the employer. If the employer finds a perfect hire then a referral reward is paid to the referring party. Ultimately, Reflik drives more hires for less money than traditional recruiting avenues just as Uber gets passengers to their destinations more efficiently than traditional taxi cabs.

Posting jobs is free, quick & easy! Get started today!

By Ashish Vachhani

 

Filed Under: Crowdsourcing, Sourcing Employees Tagged With: crowdsourced, crowdsourcing, recruiting, recruitment, uber

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