Founder Profile: Upending The Gig Economy With Moonlighting Founder And CEO, Jeff Tennery

I was born into the mobile business in the mid 80’s and have grown with the industry since its inception.  I climbed some of the first cell towers and tested the first brick phones on the lawn of the Whitehouse. In early 2000’s I saw that the business shift from a network carrier business to a media and content business.  I spent time working with venture backed companies that were ushering in the mobile internet through mobile apps and made the pivot with the industry.

Moonlighting is really a compilation of all I have done over my 30 year career. It’s a platform that allows people to connect via a mobile application to conduct business and be a part of a large global community. I am incredibly proud that Moonlighting allows me to utilize all that I have learned and achieved and the fact that we built a company that helps people makes it all the more rewarding.

We always wanted Moonlighting to be more inclusive than the other niche platforms to empower our users to use it as they needed.  We focus on tools that entrepreneurs and freelancers need to not only find clients but to engage them on an ongoing basis. SaaS features that enable our users to get discovered, get hired and get paid very quickly.  

We also feel very strongly that freelancers should keep 100% of the earnings.  Some of these platforms are taking 20%+ of a paycheck and we don’t think that’s fair.  We set up a very affordable monthly subscription model so freelancers can effectively budget and focus on using our tool set to engage their clients.

Our background is steep in mobile user acquisition and digital performance marketing so we have been able to acquire customers at a sub $5 level.  We also leverage our strategic partnerships with leading local news media companies Gannett, Tribune and McClatchy where you will find Moonlighting offers in such iconic news sites like the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald and USA TODAY.  

This gives us additional marketing exposure along with the partnership we have with Verizon where they market our services to their small business group and pre-load our app onto select Android devices

The results are still early as many of our users have opted to sign up for our 1 year membership.

We are expanding globally and have launched our platform in Canada and will enter the UK by year end. We are raising money from traditional venture funds, several of which are located in EU and Asia to help us expand the platform globally by end of 2019.

Blockchain technology allows companies to disrupt business models where a middle man takes a cut of a transaction. Our platform is already a P2P platform (peer to peer) and we have been disintermediating traditional staffing and recruitment companies since our inception in 2014.   

Blockchain and issuing our own cryptocurrency will eliminate expensive bank and foreign exchange fees as we expand the platform globally giving us a distinct competitive advantage over incumbents like UpWork and Fiverr who, along with recruiting firms and staffing agencies, will have a tough time shifting their model.  

We have retained top counsel and advisors who come with a wealth of knowledge and experience and they advised us to postpone our ICO.   We were preparing to conduct an ICO in Q1 but refrained as we felt like the longer we wait the better off we will be.

Our goal is to expand the platform globally, and build our audience up into the millions so that our token will have true utility.  We are not concerned with a future acquisition being hindered by an ICO as we believe that many leading companies like Apple, Amazon and Facebook will eventually tokenize their user base.  

I think companies that conducted legitimate ICO’s that have a scaled customer base, real revenue and usage like Moonlighting, will always be attractive to acquirers especially those who don’t have a credible blockchain plan

In today’s start up world, it’s important that companies consider multiple options when raising money.  At Moonlighting, we have raised $6.3M to date using equity and debt financing and now a Reg CF campaign with Republic.  We also have a token strategy, both security and utility coins, and will look to deploy those in 2019.

The industry is evolving as the gig economy is becoming more credible by the day.  Moonlighting is well positioned to take full advantage of the tailwinds of freelancing and blockchain technology.  We have been approached about acquisition but feel like its early given the headroom in the freelance industry.

UpWork announced their IPO intentions with their S1 and Fiverr has been rumored to be considering a public offering as well. These are all good signs for the industry and will cause traditional recruitment and staffing companies to consider M&A as a way to get into the space.  

The gig economy is still very nascent and early and its also very fragmented.  Our goal has been to build a company that could bring the gig economy mainstream. The press has called us Craiglist without the creepiness which is humorous and flattering in the same breath.  

Craigslist is probably the closest to a mainstream winner in the space but does lack tech features for many segments of the gig economy. We have addressed many of those gaps which is why we are so bullish on our position and ability to become the next mainstream winner and household name for employment.

We are backed by the largest news media companies in the US who led our last round.  They looked at our user base growth, engagement, business model, conversion metrics, CAC and customer LTV and came up with a post money from our last round.  

We placed a modest increase on that valuation and launched this round to get our users involved.  We want our user base to be owners which is why we are running this campaign with Republic. And in 2019, our goal is to conduct a token sale that will allow them to participate again.