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The current gig-economy is saturated with inaccessible freelancing platforms that privilege clients over freelancers. At Flan, we change the conversation and focus on creation. Projects are what brings freelancers and clients together and that is exactly what we focus on.
Freelancers’ financial wellness is negatively impacted by the high commission fees that freelance platforms charge for their services. When it comes to working across borders, freelancers have to also foot the bill for fees incurred from currency exchange and bank fees. In addition, freelancers often experience delayed payments caused by slow traditional banking processes.
A significant portion of the digital workforce is unable to benefit from the global village due to their unbanked status. This issue is particularly salient in developing economies where financial services are less accessible in comparison to high-income economies where bank account ownership is nearly universal.
Almost half of a freelancer's time (47%) goes to unpaid work which typically consists of administrative tasks, opportunity searching, and the navigation of many tools to conduct a single project.
Cost is important, but it's not everything. Globalization has created a saturated marketplace of freelancers. In this marketplace, the digital creative economy is highly competitive and cost-driven rather than quality-driven. The result is sub-optimal outputs for clients and a chaotic and financially unsustainable gig economy for freelancers.
Freelance platforms lack collaboration. The transactional nature of project handling creates distance between the freelancer and the client. Which, in turn, leads to communication breakdowns and unmet expectations. All of this negatively impacts the overall quality of the project and the experience as a whole.
Flan offers freelancers competitive commission fees (6% for FLN, and 12% for cUSD/FIAT transactions) in addition to reduced rates for stakers (as low as 6% for cUSD, and 0% for FLN transactions).
All talents on Flan are pre-vetted by professional members in the Flan community and are considered to be subject matter experts in their industry.
Clients and freelancers are incentivized to leverage crypto payments (cUSD/FLN) to instantly pay/get paid for their projects. In addition, Flan also gives clients and freelancers the option to pay/get paid using legacy (non-crypto) payments directly by connecting their bank account or debit/credit card.
By utilizing crypto, cross-border transactions within Flan are instant, direct, and secure.
Freelancers and clients share a common project dashboard. Here, they can create paid sub-tasks, share files, track the project, and communicate directly via messaging and voice/video chat.
Flan harnesses the potential of NFTs to present users with true project ownership and the opportunity to maximize earnings by trading NFTs on Flan’s NFT marketplace. Freelancers’ portfolios and projects are upgradeable NFTs providing an added layer of authenticity to works conducted on the platform.
Over the past 2 years we have witnessed a significant rise in digital nomadism and work from home. By 2027, freelancing is poised to become the majority of the U.S. workforce. Esteemed businesses are hiring more freelancers than ever before. In fact, as of 2019, Google’s workforce has more freelancers than full-time employees. In addition, SMBs are finding freelancers a more cost-effective and flexible solution to their hiring needs. In 2021, 19 of the 20 most in-demand skills for freelancers are related to creative works and development. Blockchain-related skills came in at the top of that list.
With a largely untapped freelance market for unbanked talents/clients and frustrations surrounding current freelancing platforms; a golden opportunity is presented for Flan to set the standard of the future's gig economy.
Starting with an enhanced solution to writing design briefs and posting jobs, Flan makes it easier for freelancers to sort out the different opportunities and find their next project. Clients can receive offers, view work samples, shortlist freelancers, and select the right person for the job. Integrated Agile project management tools help visualize work and maximize efficiency and flow. On Flan, users are able to add multiple milestones, assign payments, attach files and have full control of their projects in real-time. Users are also able to communicate seamlessly by messaging, voice and video chat. Users can share notes, timelines and track task progress. They can also monitor project financials using the analytics dashboard.
Our matchmaking algorithms work to show the right person the opportunity that best fits them and in turn increase the probability of successful projects and valuable experiences. Our local-first matchmaking structure empowers local economies, especially unbanked ones, and presents the community with a platform where they can meet and create meaningful relationships.
We believe in the fluid and organic nature of the gig economy. Stemming from that, we encourage members to meet outside of the platform in real life. We believe that a platform’s success should not depend on harvesting the attention span of users and taking away their professional freedom to meet in person and connect with others. Instead, at Flan we celebrate what makes us creative and human. We cherish privacy and freedom. Our job is to facilitate, not control. Operating on a decentralized network within the Celo ecosystem allows Flan to be completely transparent and accessible and our community-governance gives our members a say in how the platform operates.
Our focus on the creative industry allows us to understand its pain points and in turn deliver the best experience to both freelancers and clients. A freelancer on Flan has the space to showcase their projects and share who they are with clients and the community. Clients can easily navigate freelancers’ credentials, past works, and decide who’s the right fit for the job. They can then plan the project together, facilitated by Flan’s built-in video/audio meetings and agile project tracking.
When a task is paid, a client can choose to mint a “Task Submission” NFT of the work and sell it directly on Flan’s NFT marketplace. Those NFTs contain metadata of the project, the freelancer, and the client. In addition, we empower the creator economy by enabling everyone to mint and sell “Media for Sale” NFTs on Flan’s NFT Marketplace.
We understand that crypto adoption has still more growing to do so, in the meantime, we offer members the option to pay/get paid in FIAT should they prefer to, and incentivize them to pay in cUSD/FLN. What sets us apart from the competition is our commitment to curating an all-encompassing freelancing experience that truly serves and builds the creative community worldwide.
Project Commission Fees:
Tax Fees: 0.5% (Crypto-only)
NFT Commission Fee: 2.5%
In October 2021, we received the Celo Community Fund (CCF) Grant.
Our seed fund round will commence in Q2, 2022.
For our soft launch in April 2022, we have enabled fundamental blockchain features on the Flan platform. These features include connecting a Metamask wallet and paying/getting paid for tasks in cUSD. In addition, we started our community-building efforts.
FLN is Flan’s currency on the Celo blockchain. It is used to make payments, facilitate governance, grant access to services, and to incentivize staking.
Shortly after the Token launch, FLN will be enabled to be used platform-wide.
Romulus is a platform to enable on-chain governance. Flan’s integration with Romulus will allow stakers to vote on proposals and reap the benefits of community-governance.
Deploying NFT contracts and launching the Flan NFT marketplace.
Enabling communities in the MENA region to use the cUSD earned on Flan to pay for non-digital goods and services.
Introducing lending services to clients where they can take advantage of receiving fair credit to be used for their projects on Flan.
