A.Team: Fractional Talent, Exponential Teams

Friends,

In early 2017, I got my first startup job. I joined a seed stage software company called AND CO as Chief of Staff, a fittingly generalist role.

AND CO’s premise was simple: make life easier for freelancers. The company offered a product suite that helped take care of invoices, contracts, and project management – a kind of mash-up of Asana, BILL, and Mercury for 1099s.

That was a compelling mission to me. During my Master’s degree, I’d studied how demographic, economic, and technological changes were likely to shift jobs overseas and create more flexible workforces. AND CO was a chance to build infrastructure for this future.

In early 2018, almost exactly a year after I joined, we sold the business to Fiverr. My stint at the much larger labor marketplace provided another perspective on the freelance economy and what it looked like to operate at a different kind of scale.

What does this have to do with today’s piece?

Why so much prehistory?

For the better part of seven years, I’ve had more than a cursory interest in the future-of-work and how it can best be served. I’ve worked at a small company in the sector, learning to survive, and at the largest digital marketplace.

​Today’s piece covers one of the most interesting, compelling companies I’ve come across in the space: A.Team. The startup leverages a deceptively simple premise to create a radically different product. Instead of trying to match individual freelancers to a corporate customer, A.Team pulls together a coherent, high-performance team. By shifting that emphasis, the company can address much higher complexity projects and drive much more value. Since meeting CEO Raphael Ouzan last year, I’ve had the chance to see the company develop and become increasingly impressed by its roster of blue-chip clients, raving customer reviews, exponential growth, and sophisticated product.

That excitement translated into one of The Generalist’s most detailed pieces. While we don’t usually send partner pieces on Sundays (and don’t expect to make it a regular occurrence), the depth of this particular briefing, and its personal significance made it feel like a suitable fit. I very much hope you’ll enjoy it.

If you want to understand how A.Team is unlocking innovation for customers like The Economist and potentially disrupting management consultants like McKinsey, jump in here:

This piece was written as part of The Generalist's partner program. You can read about the ethical guidelines I adhere to in the link above. I always note partnerships transparently, only share my genuine opinion, and commit to working with organizations I consider exceptional. A.Team is one of them.

Brought to you by A.Team

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You can go from posting a complex project to being matched with a fully-staffed, exceptional team in a matter of days. Once onboard, A.Team makes managing contracts, payment, and coordination simple.

​To start building transformative products with your dream team, sign up here.​

A.Team: Fractional Talent, Exponential Teams

Actionable insights

If you only have a few minutes to spare, here’s what investors, operators, and founders should know about A.Team.

• Focused on the team. A.Team is a different kind of talent marketplace. Rather than creating a platform to hire individual freelancers, CEO Raphael Ouzan has built a place to efficiently hire a high-performing team of contractors. By doing so, his company can solve more complex and valuable client problems.
• Keeping Bill Gurley happy. The investing legend famously outlined the ten important factors to consider when evaluating a marketplace. Gurley knew what he was talking about, having invested in massive players like Ebay, Uber, and OpenTable. Using Gurley’s checklist to analyze A.Team is revealing and speaks to the potential of Ouzan’s business.
• Winning customers, making an impact. Since launching in 2020, A.Team has attracted $60 million in venture funding. That capitalization has come in response to strong traction. The startup has attracted an impressive roster of customers, including Lyft, Pepsico, McGraw Hill, Ledger, The Economist, and many others.
• Disrupting McKinsey. Though it might be tempting to compare A.Team to Fiverr, given both are talent marketplaces, Ouzan’s company is more similar to a blue-chip management consulting firm like McKinsey. A.Team doesn’t care about winning low-value logo design or copywriting – it wants to help the biggest companies in the world solve their hardest problems. Unlike a consultancy, A.Team does that by building rather than advising.
• The OS for teams. Though A.Team could become an extremely large business without deviating from its current value proposition, Ouzan sees potential beyond talent matching. The software A.Team has built to run its marketplace could prove extremely valuable for other companies as a kind of “team OS,” helping optimize a blended workforce.

***

No one expected much from Building 20.

Constructed in a rush in the middle of World War II, the cement and timber construction was intended to serve as a “temporary” workspace for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Radiation Laboratory. Even its architect expected a short life span declaring it would last “for the duration of the war and six months thereafter.”

But from that makeshift structure, magic emerged. In the years that followed its opening in 1943, Building 20 served as the breeding ground for some of the 20th century’s most important discoveries. Beyond the asbestos shingles, scientists invented single antenna radar – essential in winning World War II. In a tiny office, Noam Chomsky developed his theories of linguistics. Amongst groaning floorboards, Amar Bose researched acoustics, laying the groundwork for his eventual company: The Bose Corporation. Building 20’s history is littered with such moments, marked by Nobel Prize winners and particle accelerators, scientific breakthroughs and profound cultural shifts, founders and hackers. Over the course of its 55-year existence, Building 20 established itself as a delightful aberration – a “magical incubator” housed in plywood.

It was, in its essence, an example of “scenius.” Coined by musician Brian Eno, that term captures the idea of the “collective genius” that manifests in certain social groups at different times. Xerox PARC, Bell Labs, The Bloomsbury Group – all are examples of scenius, stories defined not so much by a single visionary as the extraordinary generativeness of a group.

Perhaps because scenius is so rare, it’s often viewed as capricious. It arrives unannounced and leaves when it wishes. It is easily squandered but nearly impossible to wrangle. It may be naturally occurring but cannot be rationalized, industrialized, or engineered. Right?

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In a meme

​​​​​For the pictorially inclined, here's the whole piece — all 10,300 words of it — in a single meme.

Puzzler

​All guesses welcome and clues given to anyone that would like one. Just respond to this email for a hint.

Congratulations to Sagar S who swept to victory last time around. He was joined by Shashwat N, Ashita A, Joshua K, Saagar B, Michael O, Gary J, Sylma M, and Alexia B. All successfully deciphered this puzzler:

The answer? A schoolhouse.
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There are some exciting things brewing at The Generalist. I can’t wait to share more next week. In the meantime, I wish you all a lovely day.
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Until next time,
Mario