Indy provides a productivity suite to help freelancers and “Independent Workers” manage their businesses from one easy-to-use freelancing platform. Sebastian Gyr the CEO of Indy, shares more details with us in this exclusive interview with TechBullion.
Please tell us more about yourself?
My name is Sebastian Gyr and I am the co-founder and CEO of Indy. My CoFounder Jonathan and I started Tispr in a small apartment in Palo Alto and have nurtured its growth over the years. My passion has been creating the new home for independent work — a place where today’s independent workers can manage their business, learn and connect. We listened and learned directly from freelancers and continued to evolve the platform to better accommodate their needs. It was during this process of evolution that we decided to rebrand ourselves from Tispr, Inc. to Indy.
I believe that the future of work is the independent worker. As an entrepreneur, I have a deep understanding of the desire for independence and ownership. When I moved to California from Switzerland with my family to live in a shared house with my startup cofounder, I did it to pursue this same dream of independence and ownership.
What is Indy and what unique services are you bringing to the freelance market?
As an independent worker (who we now call “indies”) you are in charge of everything, which is why you need control of every aspect of your business, which means constantly improving everything from your personal skills, your network, and, perhaps most importantly, your income. Early on I was inspired by indies and soon decided that we needed to pivot our startup to help freelancers in their journeys. The soul of Indy has been, and always will be, centered around helping entrepreneurs.
Subscribing to multiple platforms to get the job done is messy and expensive. Indy provides all the tools you need to manage your work in one affordable package. Our unique platform streamlines the ‘business of running an independent business’ with a complete productivity suite that provides indies – the solopreneurs, freelancers, consultants, contractors, microbusinesses and side hustlers – take the operations of their administrative business tasks to the next level. These administrative tasks including invoicing, billing, dealing with contracts, expenses and organizing workflow often impede the ongoing management and potential for growth needed to succeed in today’s competitive, decentralized marketplace.
Additionally, our blog, The Independent Worker, features timely articles and shared resources focused on addressing topics of interest to freelancers, ranging from business development to managing burnout. Indy is invested in innovating today’s decentralized workplace for unique, outsourced workers everywhere and helping them succeed — whoever they are, as they are.
With the boom in digital transformation since COVID pandemic, what is the current market size of the freelance industry?
During the Covid-19 pandemic an estimated 59 million Americans representing 36% of the country’s entire workforce have freelanced this past year and solidly contributed $1.2 trillion to the U.S. economy according to a 2020 study.
And, going further, as many as 65 million Americans have some form of side hustle and more than half of them say they would never go back to working a traditional job, regardless of the salary offered. What kind of person would turn down a job with benefits and a more stable income? Someone who values independence more than anything and that set of ‘someones’ is predicted to continue to grow in the years ahead.
How can Indy help businesses and freelancers overcome the effects of the Covid pandemic crisis?
Indies all want three basic things from their careers: stability, control, and growth. Freelancing can be an unstable career path, but providing regular income and work that you can take pride in is vital. As an indie, you are in charge of everything, which is why you need control of every aspect of your business. They’re still wanting to grow in their careers, which means constantly improving everything from their personal skills, their network, and, perhaps most importantly, their income.
Based on the demonstrated success of the empowered remote workers of this past year means that freelancers will be key to the future of work, even as many others return to in-person office settings. To thrive both professionally and personally beyond the global pandemic, independent business owners will continue to need support, the ability to innovate to meet the real time needs of their industries and the community to promote, manage and grow their business, which is exactly what we’re here to do. In addition to our digital suite of productivity tools, Indy provides a creative, online space where indies can access a network of like-minded professionals who share their passion for independence.
There are many freelance platforms in the market, tell us more about the unique features that make Indy special?
Unlike other companies that promise jobs after a race to the lowest rate against competitors all over the world who then take large commissions, Indy takes a human approach to removing barriers to productivity and creating efficiency to manage the real world operations that come with running their businesses. Indy prides itself on being on the journey, in-it-to-win-it together with today’s diverse independent workers, helping them to realize the power that freelancers have.
Indy was created to empower the independent worker everywhere by leveling the playing field, which, in turn helps ensure inclusion and equity in the economics of decentralized workplaces. The only purpose we serve is to help small businesses and freelancers make and save money and time, freeing them up to do the work they actually get paid to do. We make it easier to win business and receive payment more quickly and easily, while staying out of your way (and out of your pockets). Ultimately we believe in fostering community over competition, enabling today’s independent professionals to create the stability, control and growth required to be more confident, successful and achieve a state of steady income.
Our five promises to serve, support and empower Indies everywhere are at the heart of our core values as a company. These promises are that Indy will NEVER:
- Try to own or come between your client relationships
- Nickel-and-dime you with fees
- Take a cut of the money you earned
- Tell you how to do your job
- Force you to lower your rates
Tell us more about the invoice generator and contract templates features of Indy and how they work?
Indy offers effective solutions to the unique, operational challenges facing today’s self-employed business owners. Our suite of productivity tools tick all the boxes for freelancers, from cost to ease of use. Indy’s invoice generator gives freelancers a simple way to create a professional invoice in minutes. Each invoice can integrate with payment providers like PayPal and Stripe to make tracking payments easy, too.. Calendar, Indy’s new Calendar tool, syncs with existing calendars including Google Calendars and helps indies organize events and tasks, track time and more, while seamlessly linking project hours to invoices for accuracy and efficiency.
Now indies can get paid quickly and easily with Indy’s simplified online invoicing and payment options. We’ve got everything you need to ensure that your invoices not only look great, but are also easy to send and receive. Our invoice templates include all the info your clients need, and give you the ability to add your logo and brand colors. Link your hours directly to your invoice using the Time Tracker tool and save yourself time.
We use the industry’s most trusted online payment solutions, and your clients are one click away from paying using the method of their choice.
Having a solid contract in place ensures everyone’s in agreement so you can lock in your rate. Ease, time-saving simplicity and the best, legally-sound, customizable contract templates for peace of mind are also what our Contract Templates offer, helping freelancers create, send and sign contracts in minutes, while giving them peace of mind. We’ve done the work of creating a variety of job-specific contract templates, including Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) that can be customized as needed. Indy also helps streamline the approval process. Clients can review and sign without needing an Indy account, and you can even send to multiple parties at once. And indies can keep their records clean and digital. Clients can sign contracts using our built-in e-signature feature or upload their own signature file for safe storage and quick reusability.
Are there any limits or regional restrictions on the invoicing and payment features on Indy?
Our invoicing and payment features are available to users who come from the US and APAC region. In the upcoming weeks, we are planning to open the access for users from Canada and Australia.
We are providing convenient payment methods allowing our customers to use Paypal, Stripe and ACH via our invoicing tool.
Who are the brains behind Indy, tell us more about your team and customer support?
Being human is another value at the core of who we are. We value the humanity of the work experience, especially in terms of how we treat our customers and how we treat ourselves in a trustworthy, clear and direct manner – always. We believe in transparency in our team and our company — just like our customers. Our customers trust us with their business and we strive to build and fortify that trust with them and each other. Our belief in fairness and innovation are inherently brewed into the company.
We are driven to serve the customer first with the easy-to-use, affordable products and services desired to ensure/create the stability, control and growth required to achieve a different level of success and real sense of ownership as a business owner.
With the unique insights that we’ve garnered over the years, we set out to help freelancers do work that they are proud of, keep as much of the money they’ve earned as possible, and remain as independent as they want to be.
We pride ourselves on being here for the independent workers who want to own their work, time, relationships, and everything between 24/7 – 365 days of the year.
Do you have more information for our readers today?
Yes, we are open to opportunities for investors and partnerships that will complement our service offering and provide additional value to our users.
As the world continues to open and evolve, embracing broader, more worldly values from centralized economies, currencies and talent pools we are committed to always be connected, responsive and level-up to the needs of our customers – ready to pivot and change direction accordingly.
Indy strives to be the TRUE ALLY for freelancers in the marketplace that truly understands their vision and passion for indepence and our mission is to help them work smarter, get paid faster, and thrive. Visit us at: weareindy.com for additional information and to create an account for free. Own it. No matter what “it” is. Start for free. When you’re ready, upgrade to Pro for just $5.99/month. Start using the all-in-one platform designed for you, by people like you.
