One of the buzziest Silicon Valley startups today is Toptal, a business that connects companies with freelance software engineers. The company has reportedly grown fast, doing $200 million in revenue last year after only raising a small seed round in 2012.
Raaja Nemani, the co-founder of Chicago shoe startup Bucketfeet, believes there's an even larger opportunity around freelance marketing---connecting brands with digital marketers who can help with things like growth marketing, social media and email marketing. To provide companies with a marketplace for freelance marketers, Nemani and co-founder Chris Toy launched MarketerHire, a hiring platform for marketing talent.
"Marketing, as a freelance economy, is a much larger industry than development," Nemani said. "We want to be the platform where the best marketers want to come to freelance."
The startup announced this week that it raised more than $1 million from a group of angel investors, almost all of which are founders of startups. Backers in the round include Nick Green, the co-founder of Thrive Market; Dan Arriola, the founder of iD Commerce and Logistics; and Greg Kaplan, the founder of Remote Year.
Nemani said MarketerHire has grown quickly since it launched in October 2018, having helped hundreds of brands find marketing talent. The startup has grown revenue 115% in the last 90 days, the company said.
MarketerHire has thus far worked mostly with direct-to-consumer e-commerce companies, including Allbirds, The Chive, Thrive Market and Koala. Nemani said brands have used MarketerHire to find temporary talent when someone on staff goes on maternity leave, for example, or to replace an entire in-house marketing team all together. MarketerHire also gives brands an alternative to traditional marketing agencies, which can be pricey.
The startup charges clients for using its platform, connecting them to marketing talent in less than 48 hours.
MarketerHire is profitable, Nemani said, and the funding will be used to continue growing the product.
"This is truly growth capital for a company that's achieving hockey-stick growth," he said.
Nemani's startup resume includes co-founding Bucketfeet, a Chicago footwear startup that raised more than $30 million in funding and sold to fellow Chicago company Threadless. He's also the co-founder of Rogue Advising, a strategy firm focused on online retail.
Nemani said he struggled to hire marketers throughout his tenure at Bucketfeeet, and noted that having the right marketing talent in place can have a major impact on the success of a business---even more than tech talent.
"I would actually argue today, digital marketers drive a greater impact to your business on an individual basis than an individual developer," he said. "We think we can be No. 1 in this space."
