Shakers is a platform that connects companies with curated freelance talent for project-based work. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Shakers co-founder and CEO Héctor Mata to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Héctor Mata’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Mata said:
“Our founding team, including myself, are a group of four serial entrepreneurs with deep roots in AI and software development, with first-hand experience both as tech freelancers, marketplaces operators and as hiring managers.”
“That unique perspective lets us see the challenges in traditional outsourcing and hiring processes from both sides. While operating in the freelancer market, we realised companies needed a more agile way to build teams, and that talented professionals deserved a more empowering way to work. That led to us founding Shakers in 2021. Our journey since then has been driven by that blend of tech-savvy and human-focused experience.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Mata shared:
“We recognized a gap in how companies and talent connect. Demand for specialised talent was soaring, yet the traditional outsourcing and freelance models felt outdated. There was too much friction in building external teams – lengthy hiring processes, mismatched skill sets, a lack of flexibility. We believed there had to be a better way.”
“We envisioned a platform that could leverage AI to quickly assemble high-performing teams on demand. We mapped out a solution where tech freelancers could get the stability and support of a full-time role while companies get the agility to innovate faster. That vision became Shakers, and it’s been our mission ever since.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Mata reflected:
“It’s hard to choose just one – from the long nights with my co-founders dreaming, planning and building the first MVP of Shakers, to the first enterprise clients we signed, proving our model was finally finding product-market-fit, to plenty of moments lived with the team.”
“But if I need to stick to one, I would say a memorable moment was when Shakers was named the “Most Scalable Startup” at South Summit 2024 – seeing our team recognised on a big stage was a testament to our vision to become Europe’s infrastructural layer for the future of work.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Mata explained:
“Shakers is a workforce orchestration platform that connects companies with top tech talent, and facilitates their collaboration with AI agents.The Shakers platform contains a comprehensive suite of AI-powered features, so that freelancers and companies have everything they need to work together and drive innovation: what we call the Freelancer OS. We provide integrated tools and services from contract and payment processing to banking, insurance, and productivity apps. The goal is to make the experience seamless: companies can quickly find and manage top talent, and freelancers have everything they need to succeed in one place.”
“The core feature is intelligent matchmaking – we use a proprietary AI system to analyse project requirements and recommend a highly targeted selection of freelance experts for each job. The Shakers AI guides hiring teams step-by-step to turn an idea into a structured, solid brief, and then automatically recommends the best candidates based on skill, aptitude and experience. This significantly reduces friction in the talent selection process – although you always have the option to post manually if you prefer to manage your search traditionally.”
“Another key element is skill assessment: all freelancers are pre-vetted, with the platform analyzing over 1,000 data points on individuals’ skills and experience and only accepting the top 7% of applicants.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Mata acknowledged: ”In our sector, one big challenge we faced was initial scepticism toward a new way of working; or an entrenchment in the old methods. We tackled this head-on by proving our model’s value, investing in vetting and matching solutions to put users’ minds at ease and prove we were much more than an algorithm.”
“Another challenge was setting the right expectations for our AI offerings. People sometimes fear that AI might replace human jobs, but our approach has been human-first from day one. We use AI to augment human talent by lightening the workloads of freelancers and hiring teams, offloading routine tasks to AI agents so that the focus can remain on creative, high-value work.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Mata noted:
“When we launched in 2021, our technology was a straightforward platform to connect companies with freelance tech talent in a more agile way – that was our 1.0. Since then, it has evolved into a sophisticated talent orchestration platform.”
“We’ve continually integrated new innovation – most recently with Shakers Labs, our internal R&D initiative where we experiment with cutting-edge AI tools, test new features with early adopters, and co-create solutions with our freelancer community and clients. It’s our sandbox for rapid prototyping and iteration – we like to dedicate 10% of our time to thinking outside of the box and discovering new use cases.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Mata cited:
“In late 2023, we secured a €6 million seed funding round that helped us accelerate development and reach more customers. By that point we had over 3,000 freelancers and 450 client companies in our network.”
“In May this year, we closed a €14 million Series A, led by Partech, enabling us to expand across Europe.”
“Most importantly, we’ve seen tremendous growth in usage – our revenue grew 6x in 2024.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Mata highlighted:
“On the customer side, we would probably highlight the relationship with Microsoft, with whom we’ve been collaborating for more than a year. We have already worked on more than 50 projects together, with teams in both Spain and the US. Finding a trustworthy partner takes time but makes all the difference, and at Shakers we aim to build long-term relationships of high value added with our clients.”
“On the freelancer side, we’ve seen independent professionals get to work with big-name companies like Microsoft and Telefónica via Shakers. We take pride in opening doors for talented individuals who might not have been able to consider these high-level freelance opportunities otherwise: these success stories, where both the business and the freelancer succeed, are what Shakers is all about.”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? Mata revealed:
“To date we’ve raised roughly €20 million in total funding, backed by Partech, KFund, Brighteye, Athos, and Wayra (Telefónica’s innovation arm).”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Mata assessed:
“We’re addressing a vast market. Broadly speaking, our total addressable market includes the global pool of tech project outsourcing and high-skilled freelance work. The IT outsourcing market in Europe alone is projected to grow from about €180 billion today to over €280 billion by 2030. That figure aligns with the trend we’re seeing, where companies are shifting towards more flexible, on-demand talent solutions.”
“We’re focused on the segment of that market that involves highly skilled digital talent and AI-driven collaboration, which is a huge multi-billion opportunity on its own. The exciting part is that this market is growing every year as more organisations embrace agile workforce models, so we get to play a key role in shaping the future of work for these communities.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Mata affirmed:
“Our approach is quite unique compared to others in the space. For one, we blend human talent with AI in a very deep way – Shakers is not just a freelancer marketplace, it’s a platform where autonomous AI agents actually work alongside freelance experts on projects. This means we can handle complex, long-term projects by pairing creative human problem-solving with AI-driven efficiency.”
“Secondly, we emphasize quality over quantity. Instead of presenting a list of hundreds of semi-vetted freelancers, our system uses over 1,000 data points to vet and match the right people for the job, saving clients time and ensuring better outcomes. We also provide a rich support ecosystem for freelancers. Our “Freelancer OS” offers them tools and benefits (from integrated banking to insurance) that they typically wouldn’t get on other platforms.”
“Finally, there’s our philosophy: we talk about “freeworkers” and truly treat our talent as partners. We focus on building long-term, high-trust relationships, whereas some competitors are more transactional. All these factors – advanced tech, curated quality, all-in-one support, and a human-first mindset – make Shakers stand out.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Mata emphasized:
“In the near term, we’re focussed on expanding our presence across Europe, entering new markets, and roughly doubling our team to support that growth over the next year. We’re driving these goals by continually innovating new AI-driven features, especially agentic solutions, to further support clients and freelancers. By 2027, we’re aiming to have powered over 10,000 hybrid projects through Shakers.”
“All this is to help us achieve our central vision: cementing our role in Europe’s future work ecosystem. We want to be the go-to platform for companies to assemble dream teams on demand, and enable any talented person to work with more flexibility and freedom. To that end, we’ll continue growing thoughtfully, investing in our community, and pushing the envelope of what a human-AI collaborative workforce can achieve.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Mata concluded:
“Beyond building a platform, we’re building communities of highly-motivated, talent-driven freeworkers – we host knowledge-sharing events, publish insights, and help them to build on their emerging careers.”
“And for companies, we’re helping them rethink how they build teams and innovate. Shakers is not just about gig-matching or AI for efficiency, it’s about a new ethos of work. We want to play a key part in shaping a sustainable, empowering future of work.”
“This is our mission, and we’re grateful to have an ambitious team behind us to share it with. Our culture is the heart of our operations – we push each other to experiment and learn so we can go the extra mile every day. We don’t let failure get to us: it’s our motivation to work ten times harder towards our goals. That’s what makes us a winning team.”
