Collective, is a French startup that wants to redefine what it means to work as a freelancer in development, product design, digital marketing, data strategy and more. The company has created a platform so that several freelancers can come together and work together on the same project.
In these teams, the freelancers remain independent. They don't work for the same company, they just work on the same project. Everyone gets their share of the bill when the job is done.
Originally backed by a startup study eFounders, Collective has raised an 8 million seed round led by Blossom Capital Many business angels are also investing in their startup. Some freelancers who use Collective for their freelance jobs they have also invested: they are placing their money where their income center is.
Platforms for freelancers are not new. Many developers based in France are probably already familiar with Malta o Cometa. But Collective does not want to confront each other in their markets. Instead, Collective only accept freelance teams: it can be a team, a studio, a flash team, a community...
“We are creating the first SaaS platform dedicated to independent collectives,” says co-founder and CEO Jean de Rauglaudre.
According to him, a team of freelancers is usually cheaper than an agency because there are fixed costs with the agency. While this is true, freelancers still have to pay for health insurance, pension contributions, etc. Essentially, it's a more individualistic way of thinking about a group of colleagues, since collectives don't share the same benefits.
On the other hand, there are some more obvious advantages with buses. For example, participating in a collective is a more flexible way of working, as you can work on multiple projects. You can also choose to participate in several groups at the same time.
The startup offers some much-needed tools. For example, if you manage a group on the platform, you can create a single invoice and send it to the customer. The customer only has to pay the invoice once. Collective It is in charge of dividing the payments and debiting the individual accounts.
As an intermediate mechanism, Collective uses a special state called 'portage administratif'. With this medium, Collective can legally issue invoices and represent equipment. On the other hand, freelancers can choose their own status to join teams or projects.
In addition to administrative issues, Collective you also want to provide some marketing tools. For example, the company wants to develop a lightweight content platform so that each group can create their own brand, display their portfolio of work and other valuable information.
The start up has a small margin on the bills. If customers come directly from Collective, the company requests a higher margin. And it seems to be working well, as hundreds of companies have already worked with a collective.
Discovering the governance system of these collectives or groups will also be interesting. Unlike traditional private companies, no one “owns” the collective, which means that everyone has a say in choosing the next job or the compensation system.
Many DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) rely on tokens on a blockchain to make important decisions. With Collective, there is no blockchain involved. And the startup proves that you don't always need a blockchain to reach a consensus.
