Aanpakkers: the best route to a successful online platform

Aanpakkers in brief

House of Covebo, a family of nine companies in recruitment, noticed an increasing number of freelancers responding to the temporary jobs they had posted. Especially in construction and engineering, the recruiter saw an interesting new target group in these freelancers. House of Covebo now wants to connect with that target group through an (online) community specifically targeting freelancers in construction and engineering, where the scalability of online and the personal touch of offline perfectly come together.

Bring your assumptions up

With this clear goal in mind, House of Covebo reached out to us. Would we like to develop that platform with them? A task that fits us perfectly. We started with two strategic sessions to make the recruiter's idea as concrete as possible. Together we defined the target group, the product, and the revenue model of the platform as sharply as possible. Time to get started on building that online platform that connects freelancers and clients. You would think. But instead, we built a website in 6 weeks where freelancers in construction and engineering can directly respond to open assignments: Aanpakkers. A considered choice, as in this way House of Covebo immediately brings in value (read: euros and insights), instead of spending months building something as complex as a supply and demand platform.

Complex matter

A supply and demand platform is a complex environment where everything must be in balance to make enough matches; the ratio of clients and contractors, the platform principles ‘transparency’, ‘trust’, and ‘convenience’, and the timing. Only when everything is right, will all the gears mesh and start turning. But before we carefully put all these gears in place for House of Covebo, we want to know: are freelancers looking for this?

Why this approach?

Okay, the short explanation for our chosen approach is that this way we ensure House of Covebo immediately capitalizes on their idea: they were live within 6 weeks and managed to connect with the new target group of freelancers. Speed is crucial for a service that doesn't yet exist and could be launched by another party at any moment. But there is also a more extensive explanation. It's about tapping into a new target group with a new idea, a platform that doesn't yet exist. “With so many unknown factors, you encounter many assumptions,” explains Roel Tuerlings, designer at Freshheads. “For example, the assumption that freelancers in construction and engineering are waiting for such a platform. All assumptions, especially the fundamental ones, are a potential risk. Therefore, it is important to validate these assumptions before you base your entire new business on them.” And that’s what Freshheads and House of Covebo did; they made all assumptions transparent. Roel: “We knew the biggest uncertainty was with the target group of freelancers. Will they actually use an online platform to arrange jobs? We wanted to eliminate this uncertainty as quickly as possible.”

Tip! 💡

From experience in developing supply and demand platforms, we know: you always run the risk of users bypassing it. Because why would you use a platform if supply and demand can find each other for free, without the platform's intervention? The added value of a platform must be so high that users are willing to pay for the transaction. To achieve that, you need to know the key tasks and needs of your users. For each target group, you map these out with a Value Proposition Canvas and define how your online platform connects to that.

Not building an online platform

So we built a website in six weeks where freelancers are specifically addressed and where they feel welcome. Instead of scrolling through various loose websites in search of a job that might interest them, they now find all freelance jobs bundled in one place. Just like on a supply and demand platform, freelancers easily search through a wide range of jobs. However, there is no automatic matching with a client. Instead, freelancers fill out a form when they see an interesting job. The completed form contains points where recruiters can follow up during a personal conversation to find the best match.

This setup brought in leads for House of Covebo in their growth market immediately. Perfect to validate whether freelancers are interested in such a platform. Roel: “A month after going live, we could conclude based on data: here lies a business opportunity.” With all the insights we gather ‘in the wild’, we start feature-by-feature with website development towards a successful supply and demand platform.

Have an idea for an online platform?

Nice, this example from House of Covebo. But every idea for an online platform has its own approach. Fortunately, the way to arrive at that route is often the same. Basically, it boils down to this: grab your ambition and goals, and from there clearly define your intended target group, the product (your online platform), and your revenue model as much as possible. As you go through that process, you make a lot of assumptions, which is logical. Note all the assumptions you make. Then it is crucial to validate those assumptions one by one, tackling the most risky or impactful ones first. You validate that assumption with the smallest possible solution that gives you the answer to the question: is this assumption correct or not? You test this most effectively in the wild, so don’t hesitate to launch your MVP (minimum viable product) and keep track of how your target audience responds.

Do you have questions about this? Or would you like to work with our experts to find the right approach for your platform? Let us know. Happy to help!