By Ben Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Data Literacy
I’ve been in the data world for a quarter of a century now (yikes!), and I believe I see some stars aligning.
After years running Tableau Public and then Data Literacy, I keep having the same conversations with brilliant data folks who are frustrated, clients who can’t find good help, and everyone wondering why the current freelance landscape is such a mess. So let me break down what I think is going on.
A Perfect Storm Brewing
First, let’s address the elephant in the room: layoffs. Tech companies and public sector organizations have been shedding talented people left and right. Meanwhile, these same organizations are supposedly “investing heavily in AI,” cutting human intelligence while chasing artificial intelligence.
The people getting hit hardest are early-career data professionals. Unlike most people in my generation, these young people actually received an education in modern ML frameworks, and they aren’t afraid of a Jupyter notebook. They’ve got the skills, but finding that first real opportunity has become brutal. I know because I teach some incredibly bright, upcoming data talent at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.
The Gig Economy Has Lost its Way
Remember when Upwork and Fiverr were going to revolutionize freelancing? Yeah, well, that didn’t age too well, did it? These platforms have basically become digital yard sales where everyone’s racing to the bottom on price while dodging fake profiles, outright fraud, and questionable “experts.”
I’ve talked to clients who’ve been burned by overseas BI analysts who leave them with a bunch of dashboards that are pretty much unusable. I’ve talked to legitimate freelancers who gave up because they couldn’t compete with people offering to build entire ML pipelines for a song.
Square Peg, Round Hole
One major issue with these general freelance platforms is that they’re built for a very wide variety of projects, from logo design to blog writing. They’re not built specifically for data projects. Try explaining the nuances of feature engineering or statistical significance in a 200-character project description. Good luck with that.
Data work is messy. It’s iterative. It requires actual conversations about business context and methodological trade-offs. You can’t just throw requirements over the fence and expect magic to happen. But that’s exactly what these platforms encourage.
Going Solo is Hard
Even if you’re an “Microsoft MVP,” a “Tableau Visionary,” or a best-selling author, with awards and accolades galore, getting started on your own is tough. Marketing yourself costs time and money, navigating Master Service Agreements (MSAs) and Statements of Work (SOWs) can be dizzying, chasing unpaid invoices can be demoralizing, and many interesting data projects need more than one person anyway.
For example, I talked to a client earlier this year who was looking for a single person for a project that required the expertise of a data engineer, an ML expert, and someone who can actually make the results understandable to humans. Good luck assembling that dream team via today’s generic platforms.
The Network Advantage
Here’s where my journey gets relevant. Through Tableau and Data Literacy, and at UW, I’ve been lucky enough to build relationships with some genuinely amazing people in this space. I’m talking about the folks who literally wrote the books you’re reading, who win awards for their work, who teach the next generation of data professionals.
And you know what they all tell me? “This is a fantastic idea, Ben. And it comes at a good moment, when connecting prospective clients with experts has become crucial.” That’s a direct quote from an incredibly brilliant contact of mine.
Our Solution: Common Sense, Finally
So here’s what we’re doing. We’re building a freelance marketplace that actually makes sense for data people. No more pretending that finding a data scientist is like finding a graphic designer. No more racing to the bottom on price. No more wondering if the person you’re hiring actually knows what they’re talking about.
We’re starting with our network—people we know, trust, and have worked with. People whose expertise we can vouch for. And we’re building the platform around how data projects actually work.
Why Now?
The timing is perfect. Organizations need data expertise more than ever, but they’re tired of getting burned by the current options. Talented professionals are available and looking for good opportunities, but they need a platform that doesn’t treat them like commodity workers.
The data world is too important and too complex for the current broken system. We can do better. And frankly, it’s about time someone did.
So, we’re building something that actually works for the people who understand data. If you want to join as a freelancer, I will warn you – the bar is high. But by all means, apply to become one.
If your company needs to tap into these experts we’re pulling together, fill out this short form and we’ll be in touch to get the ball rolling!