Gigoing is an interesting new company in the intersection of work and travel, defining their product based on sharing economy principles. Lots of people would like to find a way to get paid to travel, and Gigoing offers a way to connect professionals with freelance work, helping people leverage their unique skills and experiences for short term gigs around the world.
On the Gigoing website individuals create profiles that are a combination of professional and personal skills and experiences to create an overall picture of each member. This is then used to network, make new connections, and ultimately find new projects, or find people to help with your project.
The Gigoing site was just launched in early October and I interviewed Beni Baixauli, CEO of Gigoing last week. Based in Valencia, Spain, Beni was kind enough to conduct the interview in English.
ShareTraveler: You talk about personal branding on your website. Can you tell me more about what this means?
Beni Baixauli: Personal Branding represents the process by which individuals distinguish themselves and stand out from a crowd by highlighting their unique value proposition (personal or professional), and showing it with a consistent image and message, to achieve a specific goal. Thanks to that, individuals can build self-confidence, boost their careers and enhance recognition as experts in their field. Personal Brand represents more realistic picture of who you are and what you’re capable of with your skills and commitments.
ST: What will professionals use the Gigoing website for once they create their personal branding passport?
Beni: Through the website you can find people who are looking for somebody to join the team or to have partners. Individuals can make contact, collaborate, develop projects and do business with them. Through the website you will find a lot of opportunities to expand your professional experience. Through reviews and recommendations from network of contacts our authenticity increases so the likelihood of more project collaboration increases too.
ST: How does Gigoing differ from more the traditional work networking site Linkedin?
Beni: Gigoing is a new way of developing your personal brand for doing business around the world. It connects professionals from all around the world in order to develop their personal brand as a new way to grow personally with professional results in a fragmented and highly competitive global market.
Thanks to Personal Branding Passport the users have a professional standard of differentiation that exceeds the traditional resume. Gigoing is based on the principles of sharing economy and traveling to develop skills and projects anywhere with anyone.
Gigoing is more about building independence and uniqueness, more about international contacts, about your true, personal and professional story. You are not your resume, you are more than that and people should know it. Gigoing is mainly about personal branding, about building something authentic, permanent and stronger than your resume. It is more about sharing economy and constant movement. LinkedIn is a kind of digital map of workers, is more how to fit your experience to the labor market and it is a useful tool for HR departments. Personal Branding Passport is something real, alive and always fresh. This ‘reputation’ is paramount; as it proves that you are unique, reliable and likeable.
ST: What types of professionals do you expect will use Gigoing?
Beni: We expect any type of professionals, from every country in the world. Entrepreneurs, freelancers, specialists from different fields, every professions are welcome. Professionals that want to build their identity through real stories. They want to expand international connections, want to collaborate, do business in different places in the world. We deliver a tool that can give you the flexibility to work whenever and wherever you like, and to specialize in exactly the skills that you possess.
ST: What goals do you have for the company this year?
Beni: Our first milestone for this year is to have 5,000 members. For the following year, the 2015, during the first quarter, we want to open an office in London. In terms of membership numbers, our goal is 100,000 with a sustained increase every month.