How to Build a Two-Sided Marketplace with Michelle Tinsley

Billion Dollar Tech

“Gig work is upscaling and becoming more professional,” says Michelle Tinsley, COO of Yellowbird. Yellowbird matches qualified professional Risk and Environmental Health and Safety workers with companies in demand of their skill sets. Environmental Health and Safety is a 5 billion-dollar industry worldwide, and after the Great Resignation during the Covid 19 pandemic, countless workers found themselves in need of work. So Yellowbird quickly went from serving the Arizona area to gaining interest across the nation through word of mouth. This collaborative spirit presents itself throughout the company’s mission with employee referral incentives, and a focus on setting up a referral system for their best potential scaling partners.

Gig work is rapidly evolving from dog walking and driving for ride shares. People are becoming more and more selective about the jobs they want and how the jobs will fit into their lifestyle. Another aspect of community building Michelle participates in is angel investing, serving on boards and consulting, and here she discusses the rewards and drawbacks of each.

Join the discussion as Michelle explains that the first few rounds of investing come from friends and family, and why she’s found herself drawn to SaaS (software as a service) and IoT (internet of things) investments.

Quotes:

“A lot of people in the workforce want a higher degree of freedom. They want to pick and choose what type of jobs they do, when they do them, where they do them, and we’re a mechanism to expose their skillset when they do that.” (5:46-5:57 | Michelle)

“One of our first growth hacks was to walk around with a dozen donuts and drop it off with a flier at local construction sites and warehouses. And that was working wonderfully until March of 2020, when everyone thought we were dropping off poisoned donuts on their doorstep.” (19:11-19:26 | Michelle)

“A lot of this enables workers to become independent. You can live wherever you want as long as you’ve built up that domain experience. You can hang your shingle on these platforms just by being where you want to be and taking the jobs you feel like taking.” (20:26-20:41 | Michelle)

“Someday become an investing angel because you’re both going to learn from these companies as they grow, and see how they develop, it’s like a mini-MBA. Beyond that, yes, you’ll probably make money on your portfolio, but beyond that you’ll get a chance to mentor others and be involved.” (24:31-24:45 | Michelle)

“I think what I found is that consulting isn’t terribly rewarding. I love to build something permanent.” (26:39-26:45 | Michelle)

Connect with Brendan Dell: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendandell/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendanDell Instagram: @thebrendandellTikTok: @brendandell39 Buy a copy of Brendan’s Book, The 12 Immutable Laws of High-Impact Messaging: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780578210926

Connect with Michelle Tinsley:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-tinsley/ Website: https://www.goyellowbird.com/about Check out Michelle’s recommended books:

• The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company by Ram Charan https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?keys=The+Leadership+Pipeline
• Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want From Your Business by Gino Wickman and Marc C. Winters https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?keys=Rocket+Fuel

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