At Cocomore, we see ourselves as co-entrepreneurs of our clients. This attitude commands long-term and close client relationships. It takes long-standing teams of diverse competencies and deep knowledge of clients and their business.
So, what could we do about an attractive potential client asking for an isolated, however interesting project? What can we do for independent and smaller projects?
This is when Vicoland comes into play. But what exactly does Vicoland mean, and what is the connection with Cocomore?
Meet Niklas Lieb, Managing Director at Vicoland to learn more about virtual companies and international expansions.
1. What is Vicoland?
Vicoland is a marketplace on which clients can buy more cost-efficient and higher quality professional services projects. This is possible because suppliers on Vicoland are freelance teams, or “Vicos” (Virtual Companies). Vicos have 0% overhead and 100% flexibility to staff best experts compared to traditional professional services providers.
2. What connection does Vicoland have with Cocomore?
Cocomore is the incubator of Vicoland, however, both are separate entities. The founder of Vicoland and Cocomore, Hans Freyberg, had the idea to enable freelancers to work in virtual companies by looking at his own agency’s business. Increasingly complex client requirements asked for faster recruiting and staffing at the project level. The idea of freelance teams was born. Over the first two years, many Cocomore employees supported in making the idea tangible – and continue to do so today. There is a strong collaboration between both companies given the nature of their businesses, as well as the shared office locations. This provides learning opportunities for employees in adjacent but still different client service and contextual areas.
3. What is Vicoland’s ambition?
We are the global leader in helping enterprise clients work with freelance teams.
Freelancing is not a new concept. There are multiple freelance marketplaces today. But the industry has traditionally been built to help companies find individual freelancers through marketplace mechanics. The result is that digital transformation projects that require multiple freelancers are usually costlier, more expensive, and slower through freelancer channels than traditional sourcing channels.
We are the first to use technology to match and manage freelance teams at scale. We do this by helping creatives form virtual companies called Vico's, then matching clients with Vico's. The result is that clients can use freelance teams for strategic work while staying on time, on budget, all while building sustainable talent pipelines to source form.
4. How come you are now expanding to the US?
If we look at the revenue that runs via freelance platforms, approximately 60% of this currently comes from US companies. This shows the openness of companies over here to work with alternative sourcing models – not only on an individual basis, but also for more complex projects.
The second reason is our intensifying partnership with SAP and KellyOCG. Many of their clients are US-based and require a business partner to have US operations.
5. What is your plan for the US organization?
We clearly see the US market as the driving revenue stream for Vicoland. We came with an ambition, and we are here to transform the freelance and professional services market.
We want to run marketing as a global function from the US and build up specific US sales and project delivery organizations. Meaning that, we will within the coming months heavily invest in building up marketing talent as well as experienced digital project managers taking care of supporting the scoping, staffing, and execution of US client projects with Vicos.
Therefore, we are looking for leaders with a hands-on mentality, the right technical skills, and team-building experience who are open to working with an international team in the States and Germany.
6. Sounds very good, but what can new joiners expect to get next to work?
Lots of things. First, flexibility to work from wherever want with regular team weeks, events, and local gatherings. We have our “moonshots” every year at which the whole company gets together, and we conceptualize new product features, GTM strategies, and processes – and we have fun team dinners every night. We bring our common vision to life. Second, a highly international work environment with people from Europe, USA, India and a freelance community to learn from.
Our offices are in coworking spaces, so you can travel and always have a place to work in your favourite location.
If you're interested in learning more about Vicoland and use their services, check their website: www.vicoland.com and get in touch with Niklas here: linkedin.com/in/niklas-lieb
