EJ: It sounds like you're creating a category. There are people who start their own law practices, but it seems like something people do later on after they have a few decades of experience. You're building awareness for lawyers that this is something they can do and then helping to create social proof and education about how to do that. Then a community to support?
Raad: That's pretty spot on. It is a different category. It's building into this internet economy around delivering services online. It's around building your online profile reputation versus your offline, in-person reputation.
I think we're doing a good job of signing up lawyers that never really considered this a real possibility. People look at us and question how big the market is for lawyers that are actually freelancers. We have no idea how many lawyers in full-time jobs right now are looking at us and considering that to be a real possibility.
If anything, after COVID, it taught a lot of professionals that just because you have a full-time salary doesn't mean you're guaranteed a job. You can get fired at any point in any time and everything can be gone. Post pandemic, it’s viewed as a more riskier bet trying than diversifying, or trying to build out a book of customers.
It’s less risky than someone saying-
I'm going to not just be with one company for 10 years. I'm going to work with five or six companies at once. I'm going to build up my reputation so that can speak for itself. And I'll get hired in the future instead of just working under one brand and one law firm.
By doing more than one practice area, you can diversify your skillset and be more marketable. We already know the future is going to be moving everything to digital, and to the internet.
We hear about all this stuff happening with web3 and the metaverse, and that's all great- but who's innovating around work? What does that look like in a web3 world? We're already changing that as it is. When you join Lawtrades and your profile is approved, you can get hired within the same day. We've seen people get hired within minutes.
That's a very different process than going on LinkedIn and browsing through jobs and submitting your resume and waiting around for days, and talking with a recruiter- or going through a couple of rounds of interviews. It's really old school. Vertical marketplaces bring hiring into the future. It creates opportunities for independent professionals, way faster, in a way more predictable way.
Now payments are seamless. Now there's a dashboard. Now there's spend predictability. They're not wasting time sifting through resumes and posting jobs and going through recruiters, it's a direct connection. It'll be interesting to see that grow and play out. It's a peek into the future of work.
I know everyone throws around the word, future of work, but we're actually doing it.
Marketplaces bring hiring into the future