Marketing 3 min read

PayPal Founders Fund "the World's Most Badass Recruitment Engine" Lystable (now Kalo)

MariaX / Shutterstock.com

MariaX / Shutterstock.com

In this article, Edgy Labs covers Lystable–now Kalo–a career networking platform that’s shaping up to outpace all other competitors.

What if it was possible to work on your own time, be your own boss, and set your own pay grade all while living anywhere across the globe? As it turns out, this isn’t an unachievable dream.

In fact, a recent study conducted by the McKinsey consulting firm shows that 20 to 30 percent of workers in the U.S. and Europe already do some kind of “independent work.”

Watch the pitch video courtesy of TechCrunch.

Peter Louis Johnston (founder of Lystable – now Kalo) believes that managing independent and contract-based workers will be vital as more workers transition away from more traditional job models.

Lystable, now Kalo, had a $11 million USD Series A round.Click To Tweet

In an interview with CNBC News, Johnston explains that “any company that tries to manage [contractual and independent contributors] like staff workers is going to run into [financial and organizational] problems” like those he witnessed first-hand during his time working in Google’s London office.

Johnston outlines his own business approach to the growing trend of freelance as a way to make it easy not only to “to accept and approve invoices from freelancers, but also to pay them on-time, wherever they are in the world, [so that they can]  ‘work without boundaries.’”

How Lystable’s Market View has Been Validated

Johnston’s ingenious focus centers around taking advantage of “back-office functions” that have been traditionally managed by software from companies like SAP, IBM, and Microsoft.

Following the debut of Lystable’s features last year, Microsoft acquired the professional social network LinkedIn for a whopping $26 billion USD. In statements, they suggested implementing similar strategies as the fledgling company.

If that wasn’t indicative enough, so far, Lystable (Kalo) has garnered $25.11M from investors like Peter Thiel (co-founder & CEO of Paypal), Andrew McCormack and James Fitzgerald of Valar Ventures.

Why the Name Change?

Lystable’s transition to Kalo began as an effort to clarify the open nature of the business and its practices. “Lystable” says CNBC News, “had an air of exclusivity — as in, you needed special qualifications to be “listable”—and Johnston wanted to move away from that”.

In a recent blog post, Johnston himself stated:

“The professional freelance economy is the future, and whether it’s breaking down red tape in the office or leaping over geographical boundaries, we hope Lystable’s new brand will reflect our vision for a workforce without limits.”

For now, Kalo appears to still be in its beginning stages. However, it’s currently based on a freemium model and offers a basic version of the product available for free.

To participate in the campaign and suggest your ideas, go to http://bit.ly/2q3nTvI

Do you participate in the independent contract market? What are the biggest changes you’d like to see existing sites like LinkedIn make?

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