The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Product decision · 2014–2015
Gigster's managed-app bet booked $1M in two weeks, then raised a $10M a16z Series A
Gigster sold managed app builds with fixed quotes instead of freelance bidding, booking $1M in two weeks at launch and a $10M Series A within 18 weeks.
Gigster
What the business is
Gigster is a full-service development shop: a founder chats with a sales engineer, gets a guaranteed price and schedule within minutes, and Gigster's project managers run vetted freelance engineers and designers to deliver a working app, then maintain and upgrade it.
Starting capital：$2.5M seed from Y Combinator, Greylock, Bloomberg Beta and Felicis Ventures, plus angels including Naval Ravikant, Stan Chudnovsky and Emmit Shear; $10M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz announced 2015-12-07.
How it started
Roger Dickey sold his Facebook-app studio to Zynga in 2008, led Mafia Wars there, and left in 2011; in 2014 he tried building 15 app ideas and spent about $1 million on outsourced development. Testing oDesk with co-founder Debo Olaosebikan, the same project drew bids ranging from $22 to $50,000, and marketplaces left the buyer to vet talent and manage the work, while pre-vetted networks like Crew and Toptal still left management to the client. Gigster launched as the opposite: a full-service shop that takes over delivery.
What happened
Y Combinator backed Gigster with $2.5 million alongside Greylock, Bloomberg Beta and Felicis Ventures plus angels, and it launched on 2015-07-22 with discounted pricing while building trust. The TechCrunch launch profile put freelancer acceptance at 7.7 percent and described weekly status reports, one project manager per job, and on-demand swapping of underperforming developers. The same-day HN thread, 115 points and 188 comments, tested the model hard: skeptics doubted elite developers would join for $10k–$20k a month and predicted a race to the bottom, while founder rogerdickey answered that Gigster was designed from the freelancer's side first, with no bidding and no customer interface. By 2015-12-07 TechCrunch reported $1 million in sales booked within two weeks of launch, over 300 customers, a client base that had shifted to enterprise, and a $10 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz with Y Combinator Continuity, Ron Conway, Ashton Kutcher and Jason Calacanis participating.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Gigster is a full-service development shop that promises a working app instead of a bench of freelancers: a founder instant-messages a sales engineer, gets a guaranteed quote and schedule within minutes, and Gigster's project managers assemble vetted freelance engineers and designers to build it, sending weekly status reports and then maintaining or upgrading the code. Co-founder Roger Dickey had sold his Facebook-app studio to Zynga in 2008 and built Mafia Wars there; after leaving in 2011, he spent 2014 prototyping 15 app ideas and burning roughly $1 million on outsourcing.
The founding problem was management, not talent supply. Testing oDesk with co-founder Debo Olaosebikan, the same project drew bids from $22 to $50,000, and marketplaces made buyers vet developers and run the project themselves; pre-vetted networks such as Crew and Toptal still left the client managing delivery. Gigster's answer was to take over that job entirely, charging for a guaranteed outcome rather than for hours, with Y Combinator, Greylock, Bloomberg Beta and Felicis Ventures providing a $2.5 million seed alongside angels including Naval Ravikant, Stan Chudnovsky and Emmit Shear.
The model validated fast. TechCrunch's 2015-07-22 launch profile reported weekly updates, one project manager per job, and 7.7 percent freelancer acceptance; the same-day HN thread (115 points, 188 comments) argued over whether elite developers would really join, with founder rogerdickey answering that Gigster was designed from the freelancer's side first. On 2015-12-07 TechCrunch reported $1 million in sales booked within two weeks of launch, over 300 customers, a shift toward enterprise clients, and a $10 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, 18 weeks after launch.
What has to be true
- Gigster attacked the management chore marketplaces leave to buyers: quoting, vetting, staffing, status and fixes all became the vendor's job.
- A fixed quote from a sales engineer in minutes made the offer concrete where oDesk's $22–$50,000 bid spread made quality unknowable.
- Designing for freelancers first — no bidding, no customer interface, regular pay — gave Gigster a supply story that HN skeptics still challenged.
- Fast validation followed the model: $1M booked within two weeks of launch and 300-plus customers by the Series A.
What can be applied
Sell the outcome, not the input: taking over the buyer's management job is a bigger wedge than adding more vetted freelancers to a marketplace.
Aftermath
As of 2015-12-07 Gigster was live and scaling: it had booked $1 million in sales within two weeks of its late-July launch, served over 300 customers, and had pivoted its client base toward enterprise, competing with Pivotal Labs rather than only serving first-time founders. The $10 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Y Combinator Continuity, Ron Conway, Ashton Kutcher and Jason Calacanis participating, was announced 18 weeks after launch with plans to keep building the proposal-to-plan engine. These sources stop at that announcement; later milestones are not covered here.
Sources
- Gigster Does The Dev Dirty Work To Turn Your Idea Into An App
- Software Eats Software Development As Andreessen Invests $10M In App Outsourcer Gigster
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