FOAR DY

LTD
BUSINESS PLAN

Prepared By:
Divyansh Paul, Atishay Jain, Sahil Khanna

A-514 Connaught Place

 New Delhi, India 110072

9818242253

foardyltd@[Link]

[Link]

Confidentiality Agreement

The undersigned reader acknowledges that any

information provided by Foardy ltd in this business plan,
other than information that is in the public domain, is
confidential in nature, and that any disclosure or use of
same by the reader may cause serious harm or damage
to the company. Therefore, the undersigned agrees not
to disclose it. Upon request, the undersigned reader will
immediately return this document.

Name .
Signature .
Date .
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Foar dy ltd is intended to be established as a Partnership
at A-514 Connaught Place, New Delhi, India 110072 with
the expectation of rapid expansion in the freelancing
industry. The company solicits financial backing in order
to be able to introduce its new service (described below).

Business Description
The company shall be formed as Partnership under
Indian state laws and headed by Divyansh Paul, Atishay
Jain, and Sahil Khanna.
Divyansh Paul – Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Atishay Jain – Co Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Sahil Khanna – Chief Financial Officer
SERVICE
Through our marketplace, employers can hire freelancers
to do work in areas such as software development,
writing, data entry and design right through engineering,
the sciences, sales and marketing, accounting and legal
services
Foardy! It helps people to get their work done, efficiently
and effectively. So let's forget the old rules when you can
have the best people. Right [Link] here.

We provide you with following services:

 Animation
 Virtual Assistance
 Audio Production
 Video Production
 Consulting
 App Development
 Web Development
 Graphic Design
Business Goals
Our vision is to become the number one freelancing
company in the world.
We're also aiming to become a purpose driven
brand by solving the problem of educated
unemployment persent in INDIA.
According to a survey the current unemployment
rate in India is around 8% out of which 19% are
educated.
We will provide them with training in particular
fields of their interest after which they will be
introduced to freelancing as a career option.
For all this we will be diverting 15% of the profit to
social welfare purposes.
INTRODUCTION
The traditional imagery of “labour” as referring to the
hedgehog grind is giving way to a freer way to work,
enabled by the ever increasing digitization that threatens
to replace labour as we have known it for centuries. Bots
or software designed to automate certain functions are
the most visible and popular manifestation of the
attempts to simulate certain simple human interactions
such as scheduling meetings and discovering prices of
flights and hotels to namea few. As technology becomes
functionally mature, bots will turn into more intelligent
beasts capable of disrupting even the more cognitive
tasks performed today by humans. Given the
technological dynamic nature of societies and
economies, it is natural for labourmarkets to have
undergone momentous change. Beginning with the
Neolithic Revolution
that transformed agriculture, the Industrial Revolution
that transformed large scale manufacturing and gave rise
to the modern city, we are now in the throes of a digital
revolution that is yet anticipated to be the most
disruptive in its effect on the labour market.
Each technological disruption has constantly redefined
the role workers and “labour” play in the economy, along
with regulations that describe the institutional structure
of the market. For the record, labour force of an
economy includes all those who are actively looking to
work for a living as distinguished from those who are not
expected to work, children, old persons etc or have
voluntarily dropped out of the labour force. The
extraordinary rise of the Internet, and of late christened
the Fourth Industrial Revolution is disrupting almost
every industry in every country. The depth and breadth
of these changes are a symptom of the transformation
underway-of entire systems of production, management,
and governance that happen only rarely. It is one of
those seminal moments in history which could lead to
yet another disruption in the labour market and
completely redefine how we
work. The question of how many jobs (and where) are
created and destroyed depends on the speed of
adoption, the economic activities which are based on
them, and the social relations which develop around
them, all informed by the local context. Moreover, jobs
lost and new jobs offered may take place in different
areas or points in time and would almost certainly
require different skills, leading to contemporary
mismatches and mismatches over time.3 This report
assesses the growth of Microwork and Online
Freelancing in India, an opportunity to
work independently and temporarily by the rise of web-
based platforms that are pairing talent with businesses.
These concepts are elaborated in subsequent sections of
the report.
THE ONLINE FREELANCING
REVOLUTION
Dating as far back as medieval times, the term
“Freelancer’ was commonly used as a way of referring to
a hired lance, a mercenary who offered to fight for the
highest bidder. Over time the word transcended
battlefields and found usage in business - loosely,
someone willing to
offer unique and much-needed skills to those willing to
pay for them. The Internet allowed for dynamic growth
of freelancing. It became much easier for independent
professionals to publish their profiles, while for those
seeking a service, the Internet allowed for a far more
efficient and expansive search. Freelancers were no
longer constrained by barriers of time and geography or
limited to cold-calling, print advertisements and local
area networks to find freelance opportunities. In 1998
Harvard Business Review published a prescient article
titled "The Dawn of the E-Lance Economy" which
seemingly predicted many of the ways that the internet
might change how work is done. Contemporary literature
calls this phenomenon the ‘gig economy’, a growing
number of workers abandoning traditional 9 to 5
employment in favour of working independently on a
task-by-task basis for various [Link] nature of
freelancing has completely transformed with the
emergence of online platforms such as [Link],
Truelance and [Link] (Now Upwork). It has
revolutionised the way a client could hire and interact
with freelancers. For the first time, clients and
freelancers who have never met in person or on the
phone are working together to complete and deliver
projects. Freelancers offer a wide variety of skill sets to
choose from, and are able to source work from anywhere
across the globe sitting at home. This particularly
benefits people in service heavy countries like India
where local compensations are lower than the global
average. A subset of such online “outsourcing” channels
wherein simple and small jobs require basic literacy and
numeracy, is called microwork. When microwork is
outsourced to vulnerable and disadvantaged population
groups in developing countries such as India it is called
impact sourcing. In the following sections we will deal
with the multiplicity of definitions surrounding online
outsourcing and freelancing. The rapidly rising digital
penetration has helped fuel the online freelancing trend
in India, a market that has risen manifold over the past
five years. According to some estimates India is home to
the second largest market of freelance professionals
(about 15 million), standing next only to the US (approx
53 million). These 15 million Indian freelancers
contribute to about 40% of total freelance jobs offered
worldwide27. As the market develops, platforms will
evolve to deliver better quality searches and nuance their
services to target specific population groups. The types of
existing models and their target groups are discussed in
the sections below.
The Online Labour Index (OLI) developed under the
iLabour project at Oxford University is the first economic
indicator that provides data related to the gig economy
which is equivalent to conventional labour market
statistics. It measures the supply and demand of online
freelancers across countries and occupations by tracking
the number of projects and tasks across platform in real
time. In July 2017 the index reported skills that different
countries were brining to the global online market. The
top occupational category in the United States is writing
and translation, while in India it is software development
and technology. While the index currently uses data from
four of the largest online labour platforms, it is
representative of the global trends in online freelancing.
Based on traffic statistics, we can estimate that these
four sites represent at least 40 percent of the global
market for platform-based online work. As the scope of
this data collection increases, we hope to see a more
nuanced disaggregation of this global market. The rest of
the report is organised as follows. Section 2 describes the
online freelancing and microwork ecosystem in India. We
present the data collected from our interaction with
several platform owners to outline the breadth of this
industry. Section 3 uses primary survey data collected
from an online survey to analyse the experience of online
freelancers and microworkers in India. Section 4
concludes and offers policy recommendations
 ONLINE FREELANCING
The ecosystem for online freelancing and microwork
consists of three principle groups of stakeholders, clients
- looking to outsource work, service providers including
web based platforms - that facilitate the outsourcing, and
workers - individual freelancers, groups of people,
professionals, etc willing to offer their service. The
business model using which these groups of stakeholders
engage and the socio-economic objective of such an
engagement has led to a variety of definitions that often
confuse a reader. In order to iron out the overlaps, the
well-established idea of business process outsourcing
(BPO) is a good starting point. While outsourcing of
manufacturing is an old story, outsourcing to services is a
relatively new phenomenon. Services outsourcing to
India started in the 1980s and rapidly accelerated in the
'90s. India offered a unique combination of attributes
that established it as the preferred destination for IT-BPO
services. This included an abundant, skilled, English-
speaking manpower and high-end telecom facilities and
infrastructure which were at par with global standards.
More recently, automation has reduced demand for
some of the standard BPO services including data entry,
technical support and customer services. Online
outsourcing developed from the BPO model enables
companies/ clients to contract with a third-party firm or
individual (often in a different country) to supply
products or services that are delivered and paid for via
the Internet30. For clients online outsourcing provides
broader access to specialized skills, more flexible and
faster hiring processes, while for workers it has created
new opportunities to access and compete in global job
markets31. Online outsourcing can be divided into two
major segments - microwork and online freelancing
(often referred to as e-lancing). Microwork and online
freelancing often overlap, the major difference between
them often being the size and complexity of the tasks, as
well as the compensation offered. In the illustration
below (2.1) we use existing definitions to explain some of
these terms using examples to help illustrate the
difference, along with other popular nomenclature used
by the industry. Moreover, even within a particular type
of model, there can be several sub-models. A report by
the Global Centre for Youth Employment32 explains the
different business configurations within microwork (i) a
direct model builds and operates delivery centres
(physical locations) and trains local workers to complete
work in those centres. An example would be iMerit (ii) a
microdistribution model that runs on a crowdsourcing
platform, breaks down large complex tasks obtained
from clients into a series of small microtasks for potential
workers to select from and work independently from
home, cyber cafes, etc. An example could be Amazon’s
Mechanical Turk and (iii) an intermediary model (indirect
model) adds an additional layer between client and
workers, where the platform often partners with smaller
or location specific entities for implementation of the
work. The primary platform is responsible for marketing,
business development, business acquisition, etc, while
the partner organization manages recruitment, training
and delivery. An example would be Rural Shores.
Samasource while primary a direct model, sometimes
uses the intermediary model by networking with
partners in India and Africa. Across microwork models
when companies outsource to suppliers that employ
individuals from the lowest economic segments of the
population it is popularly referred to as impact sourcing
or socially responsible outsourcing. Similarly, we can
distinguish between online freelancing models on the
basis of intermediation by the platform owners, type of
tasks posted on these platforms, target market of
freelancers, etc. The World Bank Report on the future of
Online Outsourcing discusses some of these
[Link] variety in freelancing and microwork
platforms is discussed in the next section using the data
collected from our stakeholder interactions. Components
of the online labour market that are characterized by the
prevalence of short-term contracts as opposed to
permanent jobs is now referred to as the “gig economy,”
popularized by platforms such as Fiverr and Craigslist in
the early days of the market. Popular perception might
suggest that this is the world of the millennials, who have
undoubtedly embraced the freelance economy.
Interestingly, however, several mid-career professionals
in the US are now using online outsourcing as a platform
to stay employed beyond the traditional retirement age.
We expect for this trend to pick up in India as well. In our
detailed discussion on online platforms in the next
section, we refer to Flexing It, an online freelancing
platform that focuses on experienced professionals
looking for freelance opportunities.
Analysing the ecosystem using data from Stakeholder
interactions
As a part of the research design we spent time browsing
the Internet and interacting with freelancers to list out
firms that constituted the microwork and online
freelancing sector in India. Through this search, we
created a list of 50 firms39 that were contacted over
email and phone for interactions on what could help us
build an understanding of the microwork and online
freelancing ecosystem in India. While not exhaustive, the
list is broadly representative of the variety inherent in
the ecosystem-that includes clients, platforms (service
providers) and freelancers and how they interact with
each other. Other studies that have examined this
market before us have focused on the state and future of
online freelancing globally. A study that focused on the
future of freelancing in IT selected a list of 10 platforms
on the basis of registered users, traffic, mention of the
platform in academic writing and other Google trends40.
A competition analysis of platforms, revealed a
monopolized demand structure while the IT provider’s
market describes a rather high degree of
competitiveness, even between global regions41. Other
studies have also evaluated platforms, their advantages
and disadvantages and their ability to impact the global
workforce42. Interestingly most of these narratives
feature India as an important part of the overall
discussion. Since this report focuses only on India,
microwork and online freelancing platforms have been
interviewed from the perspective of impacting the Indian
economy. Over a period of 2 months we connected with
18 of the 50 firms, some over phone and others in a face
to face interview. Using the background of definitions
and other characteristics of operation, differences across
these platforms have been illustrated in Table 2.1 below.
The list of nine characteristics which help summarise the
objective, operation and impact of each platform are:
(i) Primary Objective of the Platform: While business
models may overlap, the key driver of each organisation
type is fairly distinct. For example, in the microwork
category, several organizations that worked on the direct
model in India (DataHalli, Desicrew) placed social
upliftment of the local community as their primary
objective. Platforms such as JobsForHer and SHEROES
address gender issues and focus primarily on
employability of the female work force. Some general
category freelance platforms are working towards
changing perceptions associated with freelancing and
internationalisation of the experienced Indian labour
force. Enunciating these objectives help understand and
align the other aspects of the organisation.

(ii) Type of Platform: Each interviewed organisation is

classified by its platform type. We have covered a mix of
organisations across the entire spectrum of microwork
and online freelancing. From Illustration 2.1 we have the
broad categorisation of organisations with definitions
that provide a ready reference to understand the general
scope and nature of work each organisation type is
engaged in. Where available, the scale of operations in
terms of registered number of users, number of tasks
outsourced, etc., has been provided to understand the
relative size of the organisation.
(iii) Task Complexity: The segmentation in task
complexity is based on a general understanding of the
skills and training required to complete a task. Task
complexity is also closely tied to the level of
compensation associated with the corresponding task.
For this analysis we adopt the definition used by the
World Bank Report on “The Global Opportunity in Online
Outsourcing” published in 2015. Low complexity tasks
refer to those where no specialized skills or training is
required including activities such as search and click,
voting, data entry, etc.; medium complexity tasks require
basic literacy, numeracy, and some degree of soft skills
that include activities such as translation, content
development, etc.; high complexity tasks require
specialized technical knowledge that often involves
vocational training, experience and a university degree.
This includes tasks related to market intelligence,
business, accounting and HR consulting, etc. In an
associated inference from stakeholder consultations we
found that microworkers and freelancers can be easily
trained for low and medium skills tasks. On the other
hand, high complexity tasks are generally undertaken by
previously trained and experienced professionals.
(iv) Skill/ Applicable Sector: Some platforms offer
generalised posting of tasks, cutting across sectors and
skill type while others are niche that curate the best
talent for a particular type of task. For example,
Truelancer and Upwork are platforms that allow postings
for all types of freelancers. The range of services for
Upwork includes coding, software development, content
writing, administrative support specialists, finance
professionals, etc. However, there are some platforms
that provide only specialised services for a given sector.
For example, Problogger for writing and content
development, 99 designs for design and web
development, Toptal and Codementor for coding and
software development. Platforms that focus on niche
services often follow a screening process using tests to
identify capability. In case of generic platforms,
freelancers are vetted based on reviews
(v) Revenue Model: Most platforms earn revenue as a
share of the payment made by clients to engage
freelancers on the platform. This could range from 5 -
20%, depending on the platform, nature of work, value of
transaction, etc. On some platforms freelancers are
charged an upfront registration fees and occasionally a
transaction related fee. In services that are managed by
the platforms or where the platform plays an active role
in the identification, initiation and completion of a task,
the fee is often higher, paid by both parties and linked to
the value of transaction. While most platforms maintain
an escrow account to transfer payments to the
freelancers after completion of a task, some platforms do
not engage themselves in the payment process at all.

(vi) Target User Groups: This aspect of the business

model is very closely related to the primary objective of
an organisation. Generic platforms that work towards
creating a marketplace for online freelancing keep the
platform open to all categories of users. However, during
our interactions we found several platforms that worked
dedicatedly towards women empowerment,
employability of the specially-abled, etc. In fact, niche
consulting firms also target users groups that are trained
in specific skills. Demographics of the user category
become an important aspect not only for scalability of
the business, but also with respect to building a policy
narrative around training and skilling of the labour force.

(vii) Level of Intermediation by platform: Platforms can

be divided into two main categories based on the
platform’s involvement in completing a transaction -
open services platform and managed services platform.
In an open services platform, workers and employers
connect and negotiate directly based often on a process
of competitive bidding. Under the managed services
model, platforms take care of finding and hiring
individual workers and are accountable for the quality of
work. Platforms don’t necessarily exist on the two
extremes; most platforms today follow a combination of
the self-service model along with a premium model that
handholds clients and freelancers through the entire
outsourcing process.
(viii) Availability of Job-Seeking options: Some online
freelancing platforms are vertically integrating their
service supply chain to offer recruitment services. This
was especially true in case of platforms that focused on
helping women join or reenter the labour force. The
process of job placements was often accompanied with a
mentoring facility that helped women feel ready for work
outside of their homes.
(ix) Provisions for training and upskilling: Training and
skilling form an integral part of the microwork culture,
especially in case of the direct model where a group of
microworkers operate.
CONCLUSION
There is no doubt that microwork and online freelancing
have grown rapidly in India. Several international
platforms for microwork and online freelancing host a
very high percentage of workers from India. Several India
specific platforms and microwork organisations have
emerged that now cater specifically to the capabilities
offered by Indian demographics and focus on the
upliftment of the local community. General platforms
that host all categories of freelancers are competing in
the same market. Since the market is still in its infancy,
market evolution will decide the number, type and
nature of firms and competition that prevails in the
future. Surely there will be space for niche platforms.
This trend is already visible in the types of services that
platforms now offer including training, upskilling,
recruitment, etc. Platforms are experimenting with
innovative ideas to improve ranking and visibility of
freelancers on their platform. However, a sector that
holds promise is also fraught with challenges, both social
and regulatory. The latter is only to be expected since
online freelancing and microwork are a relatively new
phenomenon with significant bearing on the functioning
of labour markets. On the social side, a typically deep
seated hindrance to growth is the general perception
related to online freelancing. A stakeholder mentioned
how freelancers were treated “second grade” to
individuals with permanent jobs in the Indian society.
The stability and security of a traditional “9 to 5” job is
still seen to be a superior option among the older
generation. This apparent stickiness in mindset can have
adverse future effects on the freelance market. This
perception is often reinforced by the irregularity in
income for freelancers - in certain cases they have to go
without work for several months. It is also true that
Indian companies are still unwilling to see the benefits of
outsourcing to freelancers. Mr. AjatShatru, founder and
CEO of Ghar Se Naukri, one of India’s first Online
Freelancing platforms, stated that around 70-80% of jobs
in the economy could be potentially outsourced given
the right infrastructure. Perhaps, a fundamental
limitation is the stickiness in mindset, also within the
employer group. Inertia also prevents even bigger firms
from experimenting with a more mixed labour force that
comprises both contractual and flexible labour, since the
solution is not only cost efficient but also increases
worker productivity61
.The almost meteoric rise in the number of Online
Freelancing platforms active in the Indian market over
the past decade is a clear indicator of their demand in
the market. However, our interactions with stakeholders
have revealed the presence of an active offline
community in the freelancing space which prefers to
grow outside of the world of online platforms. We also
understand that these communities are not a threat to
online freelancing, infact works complementary.
The lack of recognition of freelancing as a legitimate
means of employment is another serious flaw in labour
policy design. While India’s labour market largely
comprises of informal labour, policy hasn’t done enough
to recognize and stimulate its development focusing
instead largely on the miniscule formal employment. The
long-established belief that informal work is mostly
“unskilled” and hence not as productive with minimal
contribution to tax revenue has left the section grossly
neglected. However, the Online Freelancing revolution
over the past decade has proved that there exists a
broad, diverse spectrum within India’s informal
economy. Failing to address these developments in
policy design could prove to be counter-productive,
especially in view of India’s demographic profile. Even
today, freelancers have mentioned they are regularly
denied loans from banks for purchasing homes due to
the fluctuating nature of their incomes, as is also the lack
of clarity on the taxability of their income. Despite major
developments, policy making tends to overlook the
informal section of the labour force. For instance, the
recently introduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) grants
tax exemptions only for work sourced from within a
city/town, removing the existing exemption for work
sourced from outside62. This is largely detrimental for
freelancers and small online freelancing platforms such
as GaiaQ which rely primarily on foreign clients for
[Link] and Rural BPOs, flourishing a few
years ago, are now up against automation and Artificial
Intelligence (AI) which are rapidly rendering certain types
of jobs obsolete. Our interactions with stakeholders from
several active Rural BPOs led us to believe that this is
indeed the most pressing challenge faced by the industry
currently, for it questions the very need for its existence.
However, we also encountered unique solutions to these
problems that could very well become the norm for BPOs
and similar organisations in their struggle to remain
future relevant. While some private sector managed
BPOs such as DataHalli integrated their work flow with
their parent companies by performing low skilled
components of larger projects, others such as IndiVillage
and Vindhya use their social impact driven narratives as
the unique selling points and differentiators to foreign
clients. Others still, such as iMerit, have embraced
changing technology and transformed their business into
one that delivers Artificial Intelligence driven solutions to
clients, whilst using microworkers to aid and manage the
data being fed into the machine learning algorithms.
HarVa has completely overturned its microwork model
into a micro-entrepreneurship model offering its workers
a platform to run their own low-skill and small-scale
business. Clearly, the sector’s ability to adapt to changes
in the technical and business environment is what will
help it remain an active contributor in this ecosystem,
even in the long run.