Toptal

Toptal
Private
Industry Freelance marketplace, Online outsourcing, Employment website
Founded Silicon Valley (2010)
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Taso Du Val (CEO), Breanden Beneschott (COO)
Website www.toptal.com

Toptal is an American company that offers vetted freelance software engineers and designers to companies in need of freelance talent. Toptal employs a screening process[1] to evaluate freelancers from around the globe and has an acceptance rate of around 3% of applicants.[2]

The company was founded in 2010 by Taso Du Val and Breanden Beneschott[3][4] Du Val used to work for Fotolog and Slide, and was selected by Forbes magazine as one of its 30 Under 30 Enterprise Technology entrepreneurs of 2015.[5][6] The company has stated that it has over 2,000 clients.[7] Toptal clients include Airbnb,[1] JPMorgan Chase, IDEO, Axel Springer SE, Pfizer, and Rand McNally.[7] The company's investors include Andreessen Horowitz,[8] Adam D'Angelo of Quora, and Ryan Rockefeller, among others.[3][9] On October 7th, 2015, Toptal announced the launch of Toptal Designers, as covered in TechCrunch.[10] In November 2015, Toptal was also ranked the #1 fastest growing talent marketplace in North America by Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 award.[11]

Description

Toptal vets software engineers and designers using a series of interviews and technical tests according to the applicant’s area of expertise. The process for software engineers is below.

Screening Step % of Applicants Who Pass
Language & Personality 26.4%
Timed Algorithm Test 7.4%
Technical Screenings 3.6%
Test Projects 3.2%
Continued Excellence 3.0%

The company’s team custom-matches developers and designers to client projects according to client specifications, a type of freelance service that contrasts with the high-volume approach of sites such as Freelancer.com. Clients receive a no-risk trial period on engagements. The company is on track for $100M in revenue in 2015.

Toptal has no offices and is a completely remote team distributed throughout the world.[12] Toptal and its network of software engineers sponsor and organize global tech community events such as tech talks, software engineering conferences, and coding academies,[13] including partnerships with organizations such as Hacker Paradise.[14] Toptal also features an unorthodox company culture, encouraging its employees to travel any time, anywhere, and not stipulating any mandatory hours.[15]

News

In January 2016, Toptal was covered in a Wall Street Journal business feature on the rapidly growing trend of companies across all industries turning to freelancers when in need of tech talent. The article includes an interview with Toptal client Andy Beck, an assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School who works at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Beck explains that he hired Toptal freelancers to design video games for interpreting images, an approach that has allowed the hospital to quickly accomplish tasks that don't fit within their normal area of expertise without hiring long-term employees. [16]

In January 2016, the benefits of the Toptal freelance network were discussed as part of a Bloomberg Businessweek feature on why the talent war is driving a rapid increase in demand for talented freelance software engineers. In the article, a client of Toptal's based in New York notes that due to the talent war, they would never have been able to find a talented engineer locally, as all skilled developers already have jobs. The article points out Toptal as a solution to this need. [17]

In November 2015, Toptal was ranked the #1 fastest growing talent marketplace in North America by Deloitte's 2015 Technology Fast 500 rankings. Toptal was also ranked by the award as the #12 fastest growing software company, and the #33 fastest growing technology company overall.[11]

On October 7th, 2015, Toptal was the subject of a TechCrunch feature covering the company’s growth and the launch of Toptal Designers, the company’s complementary designer marketplace.[10]

Toptal COO Breanden Beneschott was featured on Tim Ferriss's blog on October 4, 2014 to discuss Toptal and his life as a digital nomad. At that point, Beneschott had lived in approximately 29 countries over 3 years, all while building Toptal remotely.[12]

In July 2013, LinkedIn started a controversy by taking down Toptal ads that featured professional headshots of female developers in response to complaints by LinkedIn members about the images.[18] Toptal CEO Taso Du Val blasted the decision as an unacceptable case of sexism in the technology industry.[19] LinkedIn restored the ads shortly after, maintaining that the ads were rejected in error.[18]

Du Val has been featured by Forbes on its list of the top 30 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 in the field of enterprise technology for his work as the cofounder of Toptal, which Forbes noted was rumored to be worth over half a billion dollars.[6] CNBC's Squawk Box has also interviewed Du Val to discuss Toptal's work to fill the skills gap by connecting businesses to software developers across the globe.[20] Du Val has also spoken at Harvard Business School on the subject of topsourcing, the art of how Toptal finds and hires people,[21][22] and has guest lectured in a Udemy course on the subject.[23] Du Val appeared on the Fox Business Network's Countdown to the Closing Bell with Liz Claman on June 15, 2015, to discuss Toptal's vetting process and the inequality between supply and demand of software engineers in the US.[24]

Toptal has been discussed on a number of publications for its merits as a freelancing site, including Entrepreneur, Inc., and The Huffington Post.[25][26][27] Entrepreneurial podcasts Mixergy and Entrepreneur on Fire have also done features on Toptal through interviews with Beneschott.[28][29]

Acquisitions

On April 6, 2016, eWEEK reported that Toptal had acquired Skillbridge, an online platform for elite business freelancers, for an undisclosed sum. Toptal CEO Taso Du Val described the purpose of the acquisition as a way to "catalyze and accelerate [Toptal's] launch into the business talent category".[30]

References

  1. 1 2 "How To Build A Killer Team--Sight Unseen (Infographic) - Inc.com". Inc.com.
  2. ↑ "Matchmaker, make me an app: How AppFutura, Tapfame and Toptal bring developers and clients together". FierceDeveloper.
  3. 1 2 https://www.toptal.com/about
  4. ↑ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/toptal
  5. ↑ "Skills For Growing An Online Business Overview". upenn.edu.
  6. 1 2 "30 Under 30 - Forbes". forbes.com.
  7. 1 2 "Toptal Delivers the Top Three Percent of Developers Worldwide to Help Companies Address the Shortage of Elite Technical Talent". MarketWatch.
  8. ↑ "A16z Seeds - Andreessen Horowitz". a16z.com.
  9. ↑ https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/toptal/investors
  10. 1 2 "The Biggest Startup No One Talks About - TechCrunch". TechCrunch.
  11. 1 2 "Deloitte's 2015 Technology Fast 500 - Deloitte" (PDF). Deloitte.
  12. 1 2 "How to Travel to 20+ Countries…While Building a Massive Business in the Process - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss". fourhourworkweek.com.
  13. ↑ "Explore the Toptal community". toptal.com.
  14. ↑ Hacker Paradise. "Hacker Paradise". Hacker Paradise Blog.
  15. ↑ "Remote Tech Jobs with Toptal". toptal.com.
  16. ↑ "Companies Find Tech Talent In Robust Freelance Market".
  17. ↑ "Why an Ex-Google Coder Makes Twice as Much Freelancing".
  18. 1 2 "LinkedIn Shuts Down TopTal Ads That Featured Photos Of Female Engineers". The Huffington Post.
  19. ↑ "A Look at Sexism in Technology for Female Software Engineers - Toptal". Toptal Engineering Blog.
  20. ↑ http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000377937
  21. ↑ "Taso Du Val Speaking at Harvard Business School". mba-essay-analysis.com.
  22. ↑ Miriam Salpeter. "You're Only 3 Steps From Being a Top-Sourced Job Candidate". US News & World Report.
  23. ↑ "Human Resource Planning for Startups - Human Resources Strategy". Udemy.
  24. ↑ "Closing Bell with Liz Claman". Fox Business.
  25. ↑ Anna Johansson (12 May 2015). "The 15 Best Freelance Websites to Find Jobs". Entrepreneur.
  26. ↑ "10 Best Freelance Websites to Find Skilled Contractors". Inc.com.
  27. ↑ "10 Best Freelance Sites To Find Jobs". The Huffington Post.
  28. ↑ "Breanden Beneschott of TopTal - EntrepreneurOnFire Business Podcasts". Entrepreneur On Fire Business Podcasts.
  29. ↑ "TopTal: How To Hire The Right Software Developers (The First Time) - with Breanden Beneschott". Mixergy.
  30. ↑ Darryl K. Taft (6 April 2016). "Toptal Buys Skillbridge to Advance Freelance Tech Market". eWEEK.

External links

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