2017 will be big year for freelance economy Linkedin/Microsoft allowing users to hire freelancers in-app

When Microsoft announced the purchase of LinkedIn an overlooked element of the story was how they planned to give users the ability to find experts while inside of all office apps. Imagine being in powerpoint and having a sidebar to find expert designers who are connected to you for hire or sitting inside of Microsoft word and looking for some editing help from a contact of yours. This is going to be big and disruptive.

One of the key trends we have observed in our portfolio is that larger enterprises are looking to augment their teams using on-demand/freelance labor. We are seeing this across the board in companies like Wonder (on-demand research), Workrails (on-demand software consulting), Emissary (on-demand sales intelligence) and Crew (best freelance mobile designers and developers). We must all be wary of linkedin but I do believe there will be opportunities for incredibly focused startups to thrive in this space as LinkedIn and Microsoft make this more mainstream in the business world.