Brigad: The Future of Work

In 2019 Florent Malbranche, CEO and co-founder of the French tech startup Brigad, pondered the next growth steps. Founded in 2015, Brigad’s objective was two-fold: to help restaurants and bars find qualified staff for punctual shifts, and to make it easier for blue-collar workers to work as freelancers and benefit from these offers. In addition to the matching, Brigad offered businesses help with invoicing, payments, and hiring paperwork, and offered “Brigaders” access to fairly-paid work placements and some benefits usually reserved to employees. Headquartered in Paris, Brigad had expanded to Lyon and in 2018 to London. The company navigated in a complex environment, characterized by evolving legislation on the status of self-employed workers as well as negative publicity and challenges faced by platforms using freelancers in several EU countries. Backed by a recent funding round, Brigad’s management was nevertheless convinced it should scale in line with its mission to make work attractive and accessible to all. The question was how best to do so. Should they expand further geographically or consider new industry verticals?