Startup-Circle: How PickMyWork is assisting digital companies to acquire end customers

PickMyWork, as a gig platform, assists digital businesses in acquiring end customers, including shops, for their products through a pay-per-acquisition model at a remarkably low CAC. PickMyWork leverages technology to source, train, and manage agents for digital companies in order to help them scale and gain business traction. Internet products that need to be sold to end customers (individual users/shop owners) are listed on the PickMyWork mobile app.

Incepted by three friends who are now its co-founders, Kajal Malik, Vidyarthi Badireddy, and Utsav Bhattacharjee, PickMyWork was founded in 2019.

Speaking to CIOL,  Vidyarthi Baddireddy, Co-Founder & CEO at PickMyWork has shared his views on the growing significance of the gig economy. He talked about his startup journey and also, and he speaks about the growth plans he has for PickMyWork.

Tell us about PickMyWork and your offerings. Tell us about the team.

PickMyWork, as a gig platform, assists digital businesses in acquiring end customers, including shops, for their products through a pay-per-acquisition model at a remarkably low CAC. PickMyWork leverages technology to source, train, and manage agents for digital companies in order to help them scale and gain business traction. Internet products that need to be sold to end customers (individual users/shop owners) are listed on the PickMyWork mobile app. Youth interested in earning extra income install the PickMyWork mobile app from the Google play store and start earning as per the successful completion of a sale/customer acquisition. In the hyper-competitive tech world, speed to market is critical to success, which PickMyWork is able to deliver through its extensive network of 3 lakh sales gig workers or agents.

PickMyWork currently has a strength of 50 employees, led by co-founders Kajal Malik, Vidyarthi Baddireddy, and Utsav Bhattacharjee. The company plans to hire another 50 in the next two quarters across multiple departments, including technology, business development, marketing, alliances, and partnerships.

With what mission and objectives, the company was set up?

The founders identified that even after developing high-quality products, internet companies struggle to scale and acquire customers. The two channels available do not serve the purpose. Online channels are expensive and do not generate transactional users. Managing in-house sales teams on the ground to sell the product to transacting end users is a major hassle that does not yield rapid results. It is more expensive, slower to gain momentum, and is not designed for hyperscaling.

To address the issue, the founders launched PickMyWork in August 2019 to boost the growth of internet companies and assist them in reaching a wider audience, faster and cheaper. The goal is to provide a model that is one-tenth the cost of having in-house sales teams. In addition, PickMyWork provides a platform for gig workers that promises 3X earnings per hour of effort when compared to delivery gigs.

What as per you, are the five important things that PickMyWork should be looking at today?

PickMyWork is always up to date on market trends affecting the gig workforce and gig economy. PickMyWork aims to meet the requirements and aspirations of all segments of society, from Generation Z to Millennials- looking for a chance to embrace alternative ways of working and bringing forth their entrepreneurial skills to use. PickMyWork is also interested in deeper tech integration, thereby leading to greater usage of work for tech platforms. Apart from these PickMyWork is constantly looking to upskill its workers, offer flexibility and increase productivity and efficiency for companies that conventional full-time employment lacked.

Any changes for PickMyWork?

PickMyWork has an agent network of 3 lakh gig workers and merchants in 210 cities, providing them with supplemental livelihood opportunities. PMW’s focus is to impact more gig workers in the cities where it is currently active, while also targeting the North and West Indian states in the coming six months.

How has your revenue grown with the brand evolving during the pandemic?

The gig economy had already been surging even before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it transformed during COVID-19 in ways that will likely continue for a long time. Organisations that initially believed in traditional models being the only methods of growing the business had to change direction and become more open-minded and dynamic in how they interacted with customers—and employees. PickMyWork’s business traction has indeed accelerated as the demand for gig-based work has increased, on both supply and demand verticals. PickMyWork’s client base continues to grow at an exponential rate of 50% month on month.

What has 2021 changed for you? How are things now?

While many businesses stagnated during these unprecedented times of Covid-19, the gig economy expanded exponentially, owing to a massive need for solutions and a rising pool of new workers looking for alternative sources of income in the face of limited job opportunities. Also, digital businesses and brands used to emphasise long-term goals, such as meeting yearly milestones, but the emphasis has shifted to the short term. The need for shorter-term goals is fuelling the gig economy, which is driven chiefly by on-demand talent. With such strong tailwinds,  PickMyWork has received a lot of interest and inquiries about its app from various states across the country in the year 2021, which has led PickMyWork to expand its footprint by hiring ambitious and enthusiastic youth as gig workers. Continuing with their efforts, PickMyWork recently announced to empower 1 million gig workers with earning opportunities in the upcoming six months.

What will be the strategy for expansion and growth in the coming years?

PickMyWork is aggressively expanding into new geographies, upskilling its base of gig workers and building a solid foundational network for its clients to scale up and acquire customers. As new-age startups emerge in the Fintech, D2C, and Social Commerce spaces, PickMyWork aims to be the preferred distribution channel for all emerging startups. PickMyWork has set itself a target to have 10 million agents on its digital distribution network by the end of 2023 and to build the largest plug-and-play network of its kind for hyperscaling internet companies.

Funding

The founders initially bootstrapped and were effective in scaling PickMyWork to 700K USD ARR in revenues, which was sufficient to keep the company operating in a competitive environment for another 18 months. The startup plans to raise growth capital to further boost its gig worker network.