Mediaboss Marketing

Our mission is to democratize access to marketing talent and create economic opportunityon both Operator and Publicist, say Lara Vandenberg Operator founder and CEO.

Not a day goes by when Kieran Hannon isnt asked for marketing advice or mentorship on LinkedIn. The 58-year-old CMO of Belkin, OpenPath and WellAir rarely responds, not because hes opposed to helping strangers, but because doing so has added little value to his life. If anything, time spent discerning legitimate queries from scams has taken away from the time he needs to manage teams in the thousands. But he will lend his expert advice on Operator, a platform that enables people to hire marketing executives for an hour.

Its like MasterClass meets Cameo, says Operator founder and CEO Lara Vandenberg. Its about providing never-before access to marketing talent.

The platform, which launched Tuesday, features marketing leaders including Hanon, as well as Anisha Raghavan, CMO of Walgreens Boots Alliance; Wen Zhou, cofounder and president of Philip Lim; and Eric Toda, global head of social marketing at Facebook and 96 others. The talent sets their own rates, which ranges from $200 to $1,000 per hour.

Vandenberg, 29, came up with the idea while working at her marketing and public relations freelancer marketplace, Publicist. Since founding the company in December 2019, many of its 100-plus clients, including Amazon, FedEx and Grail, have asked Vandenbergs six-person team to provide mentorship on marketing, product development, market outlook and operations. Meanwhile, executives have asked to offer their services on a freelance basis. Until now, the answer to both groups has been no. Operator, Vandenberg says, is meant to meet that demand in a way thats complementary to Publicist.

Everyone weve spoken to has this pain point: they get inundated with requestswhether it's LinkedIn or email, says Vandenberg. There hasnt been a way to consolidate the serious buyers versus people who just want to pick their brain.

Originally from the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, Vandenberg first moved to the U.S. in 2014 for a consulting gig with the Westfield World Trade Center in New York City. From there, she moved into senior marketing roles at Archetypes and Knotch before raising funds to start Publicist in 2019 from Shannon Brayton CMO of Bessemer, Outcast Agency founder Margit Wennmachers and former Forbes CEO Mike Perlis, among others. She has used these funds and cash from profitable Publicist to launch Operator.

Not just anyone can brand themselves as an executive-for-hire on Operator. Experts must be nominated to join the network before being vetted by the Operator team. Once on the platform, they can choose what projects they work on and when. On the other hand, anyone can join Operator as a prospective customer at no cost. They only pay after an expert accepts their project.

I love knowledge sharing. As a marketer, youre a perpetual student, says Hannon. This is a way of giving back.

Vandenberg, who relocated from New York City to Puerto Rico during Covid-19, says Publicist has grown its revenue by 15% every month, as its 4,000-plus users increasingly seek out short-term gig workers. So, why start a second company?

Covid has really accelerated the move to contract work. These leaders have become a lot more available and open-minded to being flexible and accessible, the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 Marketing & Advertising alumna says. And were really trying to keep Publicist and Operator as complementary platforms.

According to Statista, 57 million people work as freelancers in the United States. If the gig economy continues to grow at its current pace, freelance laborers will make up the majority of the American workforce by 2027. Gig platforms like Fiverr and Upwork have grown in lockstep, their revenues increasing by over 100% and by 37% in the first quarter of 2021.

Vandenberg has seen similar growth, noting a handful of gig workers have made $100,000 on Publicist and consider the work they do through the platform as their full-time jobs. Our mission is to democratize access to marketing talent and create economic opportunityon both Operator and Publicist, she says.

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Execs For Hire: The CMOs Of GoFundMe, Mansur Gavriel And Madison Reed Will Give You Advice On This New Platform - Forbes