San Francisco-based Decentralized Talent Community startup Outdefine has raised $2.5 million co-led by web3 investors TCG Crypto and Jump Crypto, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Formless Capital, Blocore, Mask Eco Fund, crypto angels, and syndicates.
In 2021, 51% of all knowledge workers globally went permanently remote, a shift accelerated by COVID-19. The ability to work remotely enabled talent to work flexibly and provide specialized skills to a variety of companies.
In particular, it became apparent that the core ethos of developing in the web3 space is to be part of a community for growth, learning, and earning crypto rewards. However, the reality is that most of these job opportunities have gatekeepers who take up to 50% of the talents’ salary. Outdefine is addressing that gap by prioritizing talent growth and experience.
Outdefine is building a token-backed hiring marketplace on the Solana blockchain. Here, talent directly negotiates the scope and compensation of their jobs and receives token rewards. Talent earns Outdefine’s crypto token for referring friends, finding work, and contributing to the community. With its capability to offer rewards, incentivize network activity, and promote transparency, the token helps hiring companies, talent, and the marketplace form a fair partnership.
Outdefine Co-Founder and CEO Romil Verma formerly co-founded a venture-backed company and worked as an engineer at Google. He began his blockchain career at Stanford in 2014 when the overwhelming majority of people were diving into artificial intelligence.
Across his various roles, Romil saw that the options available to hire great talent lacked the necessary trust and transparency between companies, talent, and the network. Romil has partnered with Co-Founder and CRO Sanjay Verma, who served as CXO for several public engineering services companies over the last decade. Sanjay has led such companies through growth, mergers, and geographical expansion while managing 25,000 people globally.
Outdefine raised this round of funding during a difficult period for the crypto market. It speaks to the company’s value proposition and real-world application for crypto.
Jonathan Moore, an Investor at TCG Crypto, said:
“Outdefine has created a unique approach to hiring and incentivizing web3 developers, one that we believe will help solve the global shortage of technical blockchain talent. TCG Crypto is excited to support Romil and his team in their endeavors to solve a fundamental issue for the crypto industry and increase the consumer adoption of blockchain technologies.”
Outdefine has planned to use the capital to develop the token and expand the web3 talent community.