Four gig economy tech firms competed Thursday in a Dragon’s Den-style competition at SIA’s second annual Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference in London.
This year’s winner is Studitemps, a temporary employment provider headquartered in Germany that specializes in the assignment of students and direct placement of graduates. Studitemps was born in 2008 from the desire to give each student a job guarantee — through jobs that are flexible enough to study — that finance student life and enable these workers to gain initial practical experience.
It was voted the business model with the best chance of success by a panel of four judges as well as by audience members.
However, all four firms vying for the prize were finalists, chosen to deliver their pitches at the conference. The other finalists were:
- Think-it, a Tunisia-based startup that connects tech companies with engineers in the North Africa region.
- Shortlist Professionals, a platform that helps automate candidate screening and management in India and East Africa.
- network, a firm based in Germany that describes itself as a professional identity network connecting employees, candidates, recruiters and HR applications.
The Dragon’s Den-style competition was among the last panels at the Collaboration in the Gig Economy, which ended last Thursday. The conference brought together tech suppliers, HR executives, procurement professionals and others to discuss the latest trends in the human cloud and talent supply chain.
Judges on the Dragon’s Den panel were Ilonka Jankovich, managing partner at Randstad Innovation Fund; Jesse Levin, CEO of Brightfield Strategies; Jo Matkin, global workforce solutions director at SIA; and Tristan Ramus, chairman, Healthcare Resourcing Group.
Each company made a five-minute pitch to the panel of judges, who then had five minutes to fire off questions to the presenters.
Matkin said Studitemps was chosen because it had a track record of success, targeted a specific market and solved a clear problem.
Tim Wolter, head of product at Studitemps, said the victory was welcome.
“Dragon’s Den” is a television show in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing financing from them. Judges pick companies with the best chance of success in the future. A US-based version of the show is called “Shark Tank.”