This case study was prepared for the Mercato Sales Summit in Salt Lake City on February 5, 2010. The presentation describes oDesk's rapid sales growth and several tips that might be helpful for increasing sales at your company.

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Brian Goler
www.odesk.com
brian@odesk.com
Mercato Sales Summit
February 2010

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What is oDesk?
oDesk is the marketplace for online work teams with the best
business model for both buyers and providers
– For buyers: Guaranteed work
Every hour billed is an hour worked
– For providers: Guaranteed payment
Every hour worked is an hour paid
Background
• 28 Employees, 80 remote
oDesk consultants
• HQ in Menlo Park, CA
• Funded by Benchmark,
DAG, Globespan, & Sigma;
raised $29MM to date
($15MM in the bank)
• Started in 2002
Where are we today?
 Over 450,000 tested and rated knowledge workers
representing hundreds of technical disciplines & skills
 Both individual freelancers and development
companies from 150+ countries
 Buyers post both Time-Based assignments and
Fixed Price Jobs
 Buyers pay for verified hours worked or for
milestones delivered
 Avg. time to hire is <4 days; Avg. # candidates per job
is >20
Over $121MM in gross services performed….Over $121MM in gross services performed….

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Demo
“oDesk is a great way to make it feel like an employee who is across
an ocean is working inside your local office”
Guaranteed Work = Guaranteed Payment
Activity Logging shows
keyboard and mouse
events in each screen
shot interval
See work as it
is being done
Unprecedented
Real-time access
and collaboration
with team
Pay only for
verified work
done

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Rapid and accelerating growth
Hours Worked by Week
10/06 – Eliminated
sales team of 4
 +450% over
last 2 years
 YoY marketing
spend +30%
2007 - 2009

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 Online acquisition marketing
– Paid search
– SEO
– Retargeting
 Word-of-Mouth
– Social media & promotions
– Viral features
– Referral programs
 Partnerships / Third-party integrations
How do we acquire Buyers?
Sales Force

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Direct (WOM) channels driving growth
BSUs by Channel
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
12/0911/0910/0903/0902/0901/0912/0811/0810/0809/08
Other
Ref. Sites
CPC
Organic
Direct
06/09 07/09 08/09 09/0904/09 05/09

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5 Tips to Sell More

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1. Make your product easy to buy
 Turn-offs
– Long-term contracts
– Up-front payments
– Complexity
 Turn-ons
– Free trials
– Easy-to-use, self-service options
– Insight

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2. Price it right
Hours Worked by Week
Initial Pricing ~30% of
Hourly Total Charge
5/05 – Fees
reduced to 23%
11/06 – Fees
reduced to 10%

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3. Leverage your extended community
 Who?
– Users, partners, investors, team members,
other influencers
 How?
– Referral and affiliate programs
– Social applications and social marketing
– Platform extensions (APIs)
Create positive experiences that people want to talk
about and give them tools to do it
Create positive experiences that people want to talk
about and give them tools to do it

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4. Harvest demand before generating it
111111
Events
SEM
Viral Features & SMM
SEO
Referral Program
PR
Affiliate Program
Radio
Email
Direct Sales
Higher
Lower
Intent
Products and services
are increasingly
bought and not sold
Lower
Higher
CPA

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5. Take care of existing customers
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
NPS
1/1/107/1/091/1/097/1/081/1/087/1/071/1/07
# Promoters - # Detractors
# Responses
NPS =
Score
9 or 10 = Promoter
7 or 8 = Passive
0 to 6 = Detractor
Where…
“It's like winning the lottery
on your birthday.”
“It sure would be helpful to have 24-7
chat service when I have problems.”
“I wish you offered Paypal. I almost
didn't try your service. But
otherwise I like the experience..”

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Thank you!
 Questions?
 More questions? brian@odesk.com
 Want to try oDesk? Visit www.odesk.com