And? How was it??

8/ Once you're in the project portal, the buyer reviews the profiles and the screening question responses and decides whether or not to request a call with you specifically. This is where the confusion sometimes happens - just because you're screened doesnt mean the client thinks youre the right fit

7/ Re: actually getting to the point of payment: Mechanically, the way this works is that the network goes and scours linkedin to find people who may fit the project brief from their client, does a screening call with people who respond, then conveys that info to the buyer of the work. ...

6/ Added bonus, you make my life easier! We generally need to hit an N of like 30-60 expert calls in a 2-4 week span. And we're often dealing with niche spaces where the entire universe of people with relevant experience might barely exceed that number. So please do respond to the outreaches!

5/ If you get contacted by GLG, AlphaSights, Dialectica, Prosapient, Third Bridge, Capvision, Guide Point, Atheneum, or Coleman, these are all legit and they truly do want to pay you several hundred dollars to talk to some people building a valuation model or running a due diligence for an hour

4/ Overall, the companies are legit. I can't speak to the timeliness of their payments to experts, but my understanding is that the money does come through. I work for a $10B+ business who buys a ton of this work and has really rigorous vendor management, compliance, etc., so i have faith here

3/ So we pay these expert networks a buncha money (like $1k per 1hr call) and they go out and source people from the backgrounds that we tell them that we need. Turnaround time for an entire project is often super short (~2-3 weeks), and they're able to get us people on the phone same day or next

2/ Basically we need to build an understanding of how a given industry/function works, major trends, dynamics, market size and share, etc. to inform valuation models, due diligences, etc. - and you folks in relevant industries/functions have those understandings.

1/ So I'm actually a buyer of these services, so can give more context here. There are a handful of these companies out there whose job is largely to source experts in various industries/functions predominantly for the finance/investing, management consulting, and pharma industries to talk to.

Holy shit I literally just wheeze-laughed for a good 3 minutes straight. Couldn't stop!