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General Information

Websiteodesk.com
Blogodesk.com/blog
CategoryConsumer Web
Employees
DescriptionOnline project management software

Offices

Menlo Park, USA
4200 Bohannon Dr.
Suite 100
Menlo Park, CA, 94025
USA

People

CEO
VP of Marketing
VP of Development, Co-Founder
VP of Operations
CTO, co-founder
Board
Board
Board
VP of Engineering

Funding

Tags

employment, hire, manage, pay, software

oDesk

oDesk enables both buyers and providers of tech services to build business relationships around the world. This is possible due to a “pay by the hour” service which eases the lives of providers and buyers of services. Managers can oversee a project and chart progress with ease, and providers can rest assured of their payment. oDesk is primarily funded by Benchmark Capital, Globespan Capital Partners, and Sigma Partners.

Products

oDesk

Websiteodesk.com
Blogblog.odesk.com
Launch DateJuly 19, 2007
Tags outsourcing

oDesk makes it simple for two categories of people. It helps buyers of technology services to hire, manage and pay technology service providers from around the world. Buyers track their projects via webcams and direct access to timeslots and the work that their employees do, which enables them to manage almost as they would a local team.This kind of “on-demand” employment service is also a convenient alternative for workers in the technology industry. Employees search for work just as employers do, can track their payments and are in direct contact with their employers. oDesk seems to be an answer to many of the problems that users found with Elance. Both buyers and providers are given extensive information of the people they deal with, which includes a list of degrees and other certifications in addition to an independent reputation system and guesses as to rates of each individual.

oDesk screenshot
Above: oDesk Screenshot -- #1
Uploaded: 2/5/08
oDesk screenshot
Above: oDesk Screenshot -- #2
Uploaded: 2/5/08

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Comments

PursuitVision - April 7, 2009 at 10:37pm
I wasn't familiar with freelancing.. I started my first project as an individual nine months before and now i have grown into a company. I still have my first client from odesk but now I work for them as technology partner but we still work through odesk makes it easy with our accounts. I would recommend for anyone... It is worth your time and money.
Gaurav Majumdar - November 1, 2008 at 12:50pm
I am working with oDesk from past one year. I found not only some special clients while I found the system so fair and simple for everyone. It's an equal opportunity platform for the providers. Buyer gets the work on time and providers get the payment on time.So, all my dear friends, you can work with oDesk without any problem. I recommend it.
Atul Kumar - August 12, 2008 at 3:53am
I am a current provider at oDesk and use it regularly. I had found some of the best clients of mine there and we have been having a very good understanding from last several months. For a buyer, it is advisable that you ask your provider as much questions as you can because this will give you the insight into the working of programmer. I agree that some persons misuse the dispute system, but oDesk has some of the best freelancers which you can easily find if you apply some thinking before.
bhart - June 6, 2008 at 9:40am
I have used oDesk for 3 years and it provides a great value, and excellent tools for managing the HR aspects as well as the team management aspects. They are continually improving. Yes I've had plenty of poor experiences with programmers hired from there, but that is the nature of hiring. I've also found really great programmers on oDesk.
DarkStar - May 4, 2008 at 11:48pm
I, on the contrary, would highly recommend oDesk. I found two new clients that way, one of them already came to me with another project. Consider whether your failures were not tied to choosing providers in a wrong way (e.g. the cheapest one, because you are a scrooge). I think that bad experiences like that happen mostly because we make wrong choices or people act in a non-professional way and it should not be considered as a representative image of the whole website, because there are many happy users as well.
DonotuseOdesk - February 18, 2008 at 6:06pm
Do not use ODesk, unless you are doing everything online. We had a buyer dispute our work, after doing the preliminary work offline, he disputed our hours, Odesk says we owe a refund. To bad the buyer implemented our work on his website, and has left it there for the last month. If you don't pay for the product, you should not get the product.
ben - January 29, 2008 at 10:57pm
I had a few bad experiences with Odesk, and finally have learned my lesson. Sure everyone says there are good and bad programmers, but the problem with Odesk is their dispute system. If a programmer runs up the hours and/or delivers garbage. Which happens more often than it doesn't, then you have little recourse. Their system charges your bank card anyway, then you are at their mercy to get a refund. You'd be more likely to get hit by a meteorite. So I advise everyone to stay away from Odesk.
Enigma - December 19, 2007 at 5:39am
Do not use Odesk. I had a very bad experience with them and lost money while not getting any programming completed. I recommend you stay as far away from this company as possible.

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  2. odesk.com [edit]
  3. techcrunch.com [edit]
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Last Edited 4/30/09

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