What's On Demand?
Summer Schedule
We have had a good summer thus far with deal flow and summer interns and weddings. While none of us at Vestigo have gotten hitched, Mark’s daughter Mary had a fun time at Fenway Park marrying her beau Mark — confusing isn’t it? Loved the venue as it tied many of the Casady’s favorite activities of sports and time with family.
Frazer’s sister Tasha and her Husband Ollie celebrated their marriage on the slopes of Mount Monadnock at the Anderson family cottage. Frazer reports that it was quite a party!
On the summer intern front, Dave’s son Daniel did some fun programming projects. He and others in the Cogo Labs intern program created websites to learn how to grab peoples' attention. The website is eco-hawk.com if you would like to check it out.
We had our summer intern Eben extend his time with us into September as we have been able to get so much completed with his help. Our deal files are all up to date. His research has been so helpful in our work of discovering new technologies. Check out his interview in our July issue.
We are pleased to add Jobble to our growing list of portfolio companies. Jobble is an on-demand jobs marketplace and benefits solution for gig workers. They are making the "gig" lifestyle sustainable by helping their Jobblers (gigsters) maximize their income from shift work and deliver the benefits infrastructure that W-2 workers enjoy. Read more below.
We also had follow-ons for Digital Assets Data and Alloy. We are pleased to see the positive reception their solutions are getting from the marketplace. Mike Alfred, the CEO of Digital Assets Data has built an amazing team to tackle the information needs for professional crypto investors. Tommy Nicolas and Laura Spiekerman founded Alloy to help financial institutions better understand prospective clients from an acceptance process to do KYC and AML activities.
Thanks to these wonderful entrepreneurs and summer interns. Congratulations to the newlyweds!
—Mark & Dave
Envisions Interview
What's On Demand?
w/ Zack Smith, CEO and Co-Founder at Jobble
The Big Gig
The gig economy is nothing new. It’s just a great rebranding of the way life has been since the 18th Century, but now this historically disparate economy is technology-enabled and addressing the work/life balance that has stayed out of reach for too many people in the modern age of corporations.
People have always had “side jobs” or “gigs”, my own father is a perfect example of this. While spending 27 years as a firefighter with the FDNY he always had a landscaping gig to fill the downtime between his shifts at the station. Across urban, suburban and rural America you can find hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of stories just like this in fire stations, police departments, or any other employment opportunity that has material downtime outside the “on the job” hours.
This gig employment market is ginormous (maybe it should be characterized as gignormous) and it has been incredibly difficult for labor and taxation authorities to calculate just how big it is. There has been considerable research into the enormity of the gig economy with estimates ranging from 4% - 40% of the U.S. Labor Market, with consensus sitting at 25% - 30% of the total market. Let that sink in, at a minimum, one in four working people in the U.S. are earning their living either full-time or part-time from the gig economy. Many researches estimate that 50% of the U.S. Labor Market will participate in the gig economy over the next decade.
The big gig story of 2019 is the recent run of IPOs, including Fivrr, Lyft, and Uber. There are two interesting subplots within this IPO storyline: (1) Single Line Gig Companies (Lyft and Uber) and (2) Multi Line Gig Companies (Fivrr and Upwork - 2018 IPOs). Lyft and Uber are direct competitors and they are probably the two most well-known gig employers. The former have not been well received. Lyft was first to market with an IPO priced at $72 in March, and Uber went public at $45 in May. At the market close yesterday (2019.08.14) Lyft priced at $54.49 and Uber was $33.96; since their IPOs, their stocks are both down ~24%.
Fivrr is a very different story, the company priced its IPO in June at $21 per share (above the pre-market pricing range of $18 - $20) and traded up as much as 90% its first day of trading. Its shares closed at $21.41 last night; which is almost 2% higher than its IPO pricing. While a 2% gain over two months may not be eye popping, it is a lot better than being down 24%. Fiverr, much like Upwork, provides a platform for employers and gig workers to connect for freelance opportunities. They both offer a broad network of work opportunities and skill sets, but they are focused on digital services including digital marketing, graphics and design, video and animation, writing and translation, and music and audio.
Given the size of the gig economy, the positive market response to broad platform offerings and the fact that there is an enormous unaddressed market (everything but digital services) is why we are so bullish on Jobble, and co-led their series A. Let alone the fact that they have built an impressive list of employers and over a quarter-million gig workers (forever to be known as Jobblers in the Vestigo vernacular going forward) that have been underserved, underbanked and not understood by the financial services industry, who they are going to be bringing core financial products to in near future.
It makes me proud to be working with Zack and Corey, the Co-Founders of Jobble, to bring a new technology solution to help all those “firefighters/landscapers” supplement their income and have access to the financial products that everyone needs.
—Mike Nugent, Managing Director
New Portfolio Company
Vestigo is proud to announce it’s newest portfolio member: Jobble! Jobble provides a marketplace for the gig economy, linking employers and gigsters through an all-in-one platform. This platform allows gigsters to create a free profile, apply for gig work, receive notifications on new gigs, and get paid all through a single app. The platform gives the same functionality to employers offering gigs, which makes posting work easy. Jobble’s future looks bright, and Vestigo is privileged to partner with them in pioneering the future of the gig economy.
Portfolio Updates
LifeYield Forms an Allianz
LifeYield has the long-run in mind, designing tools meant to guide people through the important (and daunting) process of preparing for the future. One of their premier tools, Social Security Advantage, is gaining traction precisely because of its helpfulness in navigating the complicated world of Social Security benefits. Allianz Life recognizes the power of this tool, partnering with LifeYield to empower financial professionals in their wholesale network with its functionality.
LifeYield
Interesting Reads
Abdullahi Muhammed
John Callahan
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