Hourly Hive | Vetted Experts Hired Hourly.

Apr 11, 2024

This is the first product out of Byte’s product studio portfolio. We’re launching it in private beta on April 20th.

Hourly Hive is your on-demand tactical partner. Our experts do the work that advisors won’t do, and ChatGPT is erratic.

Mission Statement: To increase business velocity by matching functional experts in tech with startups and SMBs. We match the supply and demand of knowledge through transparent engagements that companies trust.
Vision Statement: To lower the barrier of knowledge and execution for businesses around the world.
The Problem: Speed is the biggest advantage startups and SMBs have in the race to create value in the economy. When entrepreneurs need help, they have options, but talking to an Hourly Hive expert is faster and more accurate. Advisors are great at sharing knowledge, but they don’t usually get in the weeds. ChatGPT, Claude, and internet forums have good content but typically lack the context and tool permissions to do the work.
The Solution: Hourly Hive is a vetted marketplace where founders, functional leaders, and business owners can book hourly sessions with experts from the tech world. We connect supply and demand through “atomic units of work,” meaning doing work that takes one hour or less, which is critical to keeping the momentum of a team or business. Our experts are vetted and required to share their screens when working, creating trust during the engagement. The price is fixed, so no one on the platform can compete for the price. The only way for experts to increase their bookings is through more availability and client reviews.

Description: a marketplace to connect supply and demand for business knowledge.
Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Our experts must share their screens while executing work for companies, and the price is fixed. This builds transparency from day one and will keep the demand returning for more.
Development Stage: early beta, currently seeding the supply side.

Demographics and Psychographics: our target market is startups and SMBs across the world who don’t have the resources or the capacity to hire functional experts full-time and don’t want to get overcharged by agencies or consultants
Customer Need: Companies need external help to fill in the gaps in knowledge and execution. Agencies, consultants, advisors, and talent marketplaces have built their businesses by providing value but usually taking advantage of companies by arbitrating knowledge. Founders and business owners need more options when hiring talent for short and specific work in hourly, transparent engagements.

Revenue Streams: there are three main revenue streams for Hourly Hive
- Take rate: 50% of the transactions (currently priced at $199/hour for launch)
- Recruiter fee: 20% of the first year’s salary of an Hourly Hive member who ends up hired by one of the companies they worked with through the platform
- Membership: TBD on the amounts and whether this would be charged to one or both sides of the marketplace
Pricing Strategy: the price for the beta launch will be $199 per hour. Rates will go up as the platform increases its reputation.

Marketing Channels: Hourly Hive will build a repository of knowledge throughout time. This knowledge will be turned into content marketing materials to share across networks and communities to increase awareness.
Sales Tactics: we will leverage online communities to avoid the cold-start problem. Once the platform gains momentum, we will build partner channels and inside sales teams to sell upmarket.

Competitors: our main competitors are advisors, consultants, agencies, and talent marketplaces.
Competitive Advantage: we have a few advantages over the legacy business models mentioned above.
- Speed: our vetted experts are ready to work on demand. It’s like opening up Uber or Lyft but for tech operators. By decreasing the scope to atomic units of work we’re able to reduce the time to value for the demand side.
- Transparency: our experts share their screens with clients. That’s how much we believe in our vetted experts and sharing knowledge.
- Pricing: talent can’t compete with each other on pricing. This builds trust between the platform and both sides of the marketplace while incentivizing the supply side to be readily available for work.

Key Team Members: Pablo Pinto and Pablo Martínez-Falero are the co-founders. Both Pablo’s have been working together in startups since 2021. See their brief bios below:
- Pablo Pinto: exited founder turned product manager building talent marketplaces for 5+ years. Pablo is experienced in startup GTM, strategy, and recruiting. He has built a deep network in the tech talent ecosystem, which is his distribution advantage.
- Pablo Martinez-Falero: mechanical engineer turned full-stack no code/low code builder. Pablo is a systems thinker with a knack for finding software-driven solutions to business problems.

Looming Ventures