(Quotes in this post come from this article on Fortune)

There's an interview with Marc Andreessen that's been doing the rounds recently that really chimes with what we are trying to do here at YJ, and although it's not strictly tech, I wanted to do more that just retweet the quotes I liked!

The section that is most relevant to us is where he is asked "What are the broad risks of disintermediation by the Internet on traditional industries and businesses?"

The big thing the Internet does to business is it makes everything much more transparent. It makes information flow more easily than it used to.

He gives the example of buying a car:

...most carbuyers have not liked the process of having to go in and really get raked over the coals by a car dealer who takes advantage of the fact that consumers have no idea what the wholesale price of the car is. Now, after a little research online, you can walk in armed with a car's complete wholesale information and get a much better deal.

Sound familiar? This is exactly what has been happening in our industry - a lack of transparency that has bred distrust and discontent. And precisely what we are aiming to address. He also calls out the opportunities that are on offer for those companies who embrace transparency:

In traditional business circles that kind of transparency gets viewed mostly as a threat. I think that's unwarranted. I think the opportunities are just as large and probably larger, especially for businesses that have this view that their role in the world is to add value, is to bring consumers benefits.

He highlights the differences with this quote:

There are businesses that have the mentality of adding value, and businesses that have the mentality of extracting value. And the Internet, I think, is an enormous benefit to the model of adding value, and it's an enormous danger to the model of extracting value.

We here at YJ are firmly in the "adding value" camp - and we see transparency as a cornerstone of our product. We want to put you (that's employers and freelancers) back in control - it's disintermediation through transparency.