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#88: Inflation Worse Than Expected, Did You Know...You Can Build The Next Figma By Embracing The Freelance Economy?
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#88: Inflation Worse Than Expected, Did You Know...You Can Build The Next Figma By Embracing The Freelance Economy?

This week showed us two things..1: life ain't getting easier with inflation, 2: we'll need resilient superpowers to build the next Figma, thank god the freelance economy has these superpowers.

Matthew Mottola's avatar
Matthew Mottola
Sep 19, 2022
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The Human Cloud
#88: Inflation Worse Than Expected, Did You Know...You Can Build The Next Figma By Embracing The Freelance Economy?
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Leaders, 3 things you should be aware of this week:

  • The Adobe acquisition of Figma shows us the importance of resilience and run rate, and how the freelance economy can unlock this resilience

  • Inflation reports were worse than expected

  • Luca got a bowtie

Also enjoy our last pod :)


🤔 Inflation and the State of the Economy

Honestly, if anyone says they know what’s happening they’re either blissfully ignorant or lying to you.

Below is a screenshot from Google News.


🚀 Figma, a Case Study In Resilience

I can tell y’all from personal pain, building a startup totally sucks. You’ll make less. You’ll have little to no resources. And you’ll need a couple massive breaks that look like luck, yet this luck will be carefully engineered.

Case in point…Figma, specifically the below ARR growth chart.

Image
EV = Estimated Valuation, ARR = Annual Recurring Revenue

That’s literally 8 years until any significant growth!!!!! 8 years!!!!!

Can you survive 8 years off savings? If you’re a public school American like me…the answer is hell no…unless you’re fluent in the freelance economy.

How we all can be Figma: Embrace the freelance economy.

Why the freelance economy?

It unlocks two massive benefits:

  1. A leaner way to scale by hiring freelancers instead of full time employees.

  2. Side income that can accelerate product development by aligning your freelance clients with the product you’re building.

How can you unlock these two benefits?

  1. Position yourself for freelancing with the below checklist (paid members find this in your portal)

  1. Be a pro at working with freelancers with these insights


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