The former MD of digital agency MullenLowe Profero, Dave Bentley (right in photo), has partnered with ex-Razorfish’s senior tech manager, Nick Stevens (left), to launch a new company designed to revolutionise freelancing in the creative and digital industries by streamlining the way organisations and freelancers find each other and work together.
Cavalry Freelancing is an online marketplace that intelligently matches projects with industry freelancers in minutes based on expertise, skills, availability, rates and reputation. However, it’s much more than just a traditional match-making service – Cavalry provides an end-to-end management system for both companies and freelancers by supporting all stages of an engagement; from sourcing to booking and invoicing, as well as enabling the ongoing relationships between freelancers and companies.
Cavalry was born from Bentley’s experience working in the industry for close to two decades and noticing that while freelancing was becoming more strategically important due to increased revenue volatility, finding quality freelancers was a legitimate business risk because of how difficult, costly and time consuming it was. Recognising there was a clear gap in the industry that needed a better solution to support the growing demand for freelancers, Bentley left MullenLowe Profero and joined forces with tech guru and veteran freelancer, Stevens, to develop Cavalry Freelancing.
“The pressure on agencies continues to intensify due to tighter budgets, talent shortages, requirements for greater diversity of skills, and a growing trend for flexible working environments. However, the current model for finding freelancers is broken! It’s fragmented, time consuming, costly and unreliable,” said Bentley. “Cavalry’s goal is to unlock the full potential of freelancing by delivering an easier, cheaper and more effective solution for companies and freelancers to find each other and work together.”
A number of major agencies have already signed on, including R/GA, Lavender, One Green Bean, Leo Burnett, 303 Mullen Lowe, ikon, Edelman Digital and Weber Shandwick. Cavalry has also formed a partnership with educational facility General Assembly.
Commenting on their experience with Cavalry, CEO of Lavender, Roy Capon said, “With freelancing being necessary at times to enable us to flex up to meet project demands, we see Cavalry as a strategic solution that can help create more reliability and stability in the way we find and work with quality industry freelancers.”
With a maximum commission fee of nine per cent for finding and booking a freelancer, Cavalry is almost half the cost of traditional recruiters.
“Because Cavalry is designed for the industry by the industry, the support and interest has been fantastic. We’re launching with over 500 members, including freelancers and top-tier companies ranging from ad agencies, digital agencies, start-ups, in house product teams and PR agencies,” said Bently. “Our goal is to have over 1,500 members by the end of the year and expand into other markets across Asia.”
