August 11, 2025 • 9 mins
Upwork Inc., the world’s largest human and AI-powered work marketplace, has facilitated more than $25 billion in economic opportunity for talent around the world. The online recruitment company this week reported second-quarter results that beat expectations and also raised its full-year forecast.
Erica Gessert, Upwork's Chief Financial, breaks down the latest numbers and discusses the recent acquisition of Bubty, as well as its agreement to acquire Ascen through Upwork’s new wholly-owned Enterprise subsidiary. The company sees the deals enhancing its offerings of full-stack, digitally native, end-to-end contingent work solutions for large enterprises. Erica speaks with Carol Massar, Jess Menton and Nina Trentmann on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. You're listening to Bloomberg
Business Week with Carol Masser and tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
We're going to go back a little bit too earnings,
because that's definitely been on our radar as of late.
I know we talked a lot about geopolitics, and we
might roll a little bit of that into our next conversation.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I want to go to Upwork.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Shares ralling big time yesterday following their quarterly update. The
online recruitment company reported second quarter results that beat expectations.
They also raised their full year forecasts. The one point
seven billion dollar market cap company, it connects businesses and
independent professionals, so freelance, freelancers and others for remote work opportunities.
The stock down more than twenty percent year to date,
(00:46):
and about ten percent of the float is short. The
company though a useful indicator of what is going on
in the labor force, and so let's get to it.
Today's CFO briefing with us as Erica Gesser. She is
chief financial officer at Upwork. She joins US for San Francisco.
She will be featured in an upcoming edition of the
Bloomberg CFO Briefing newsletter, which you can find at Bloomberg
dot com slash CFO Briefing and also with us as
(01:09):
Nina Trupman. She's Bloomberg News senior editor who writes the
Bloomberg CFO Briefing newsletter. She joins us here in studio. Eric,
good to have you here with Nina, Jess and myself.
Your stock did soar on your latest quarterly update and outlook.
Talk to us about the business and what's driving growth.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, thanks so much, Carol, it's great to be here.
You know, we had a standout quarter in Q two
in so many ways, but you know, I think really
the most distinctive thing is that is the AI category
of work. So many different types of work are developing
in AI and on our platform. Our AI category group
(01:48):
thirty percent year over year in the second quarter, and
that was actually an acceleration from the first quarter. And
one of the other drivers is actually all of the
AI enablement on our platform. So if you think about
the high hiring process just in general, you know that
you know, posting a job freelancers, you know, bidding on
a job, and then and then you know, the interview process. Well,
(02:09):
we have now enabled AI all across the hiring process,
pulling out friction from every single part of the customer experience,
and we actually attribute about eighty million dollars a volume
on our platform just from those improved customer experiences.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Erica, thanks for joining us. I'm just wanting to follow
up on this. Of course, your platform operates all around
the world. It's not just an indicator of job markets
in the US, but also in other countries. Just wondering
if we're looking at your US business in particular, I'm wondering,
what does the growth that you've seen in the latest
quarter tell you about the state of the labor market
(02:45):
more broadly.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
You know, it's really interesting Nina, and and hello, good
to Good to talk to you again. You know, we overall,
you know, I think on the in the labor market
writ large. You know, there are obviously persistent winds hitting
the labor market. The BLS data coming down, and you know,
public staffing, if you look at the kind of public
(03:08):
market public staffing companies, they reported about a four percent
on average down quarter in Q two and actually projecting
even you know, even more kind of negative growth. We're
actually really pleased in that context that you know, upper
kind of growth quorterer in Q two and that actually
just shows the strength and the attractiveness of our digital platform.
But you know, I would just say that the vagaries
(03:30):
of the BLS data in general, you know, if that's
telling us anything, it's that things are really uncertain out there,
and that uncertainty is affecting our clients and people in
small businesses in general that are just unsure about what's
around the corner.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
When you're looking at particularly your share price actually being
down roughly seventeen percent year to date, why is that?
And what do you think investors are telling you when
it comes to their chief concerns right now?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
You know, it's a great question, and and you know,
we obviously, uh, you know, disagree with what the market
is saying right now. And I think I think that
the reality is is some of these kind of broader
labor market concerns are affecting a lot of stocks in
the human capital industry, and we're kind of getting pulled
down with the pack, even though our results and the
(04:19):
progress on the platform is really standing out from the crowd.
You know, I think that in general, there's been this
you know, concept out there that you know, as these
really really exciting advances in a AI come forward, that
they're going to start to substitute work. And there's actually
no doubt that in certain categories at the very lowest
(04:40):
end of you know, the types of work that are
getting done and writing and translation, you do see AI substitution.
But on platforms like ours, where we we we actually
supply much larger, more complex work with skilled workers, we're
seeing AI actually enhance work and actually start to augment
and accelerate categories that that some people thought would be disrupted,
(05:01):
things like video and animation, contract law, accounting, and bookkeeping.
All of these categories are actually being accelerated and advanced
by Aiay.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Eric, I will turn to AI in a second. I
think Carol has a follow up on that. I'm just wondering.
You said one thing about the BLS that I thought
was interesting and actually one of the things I had
wanted to to ask to you about as the CFO
of a business that is of course labor related. I'm
wondering what you make of the firing of President Trump
of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Uh, well, it's it's it's hard to comment on on
sort of on those decisions. I think, you know, these
types of data get you know, get get revised all
the time. These were actually large revisions. But you know,
it's hard to comment on that decision. It was it
was certainly very surprising.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
But is it a data point that you respect and
have looked at and compared it to know what's going
on in your world?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Look, I mean we, of course as a business, you know,
in a business in the human capital industry, watch the
labor market very very carefully. And you know, and we
have seen historically that you know, our kind of volume
related trend what we call GSV in our platform have
some correlation to kind of the movement of the Jolt
(06:23):
report on a lagging on a lagging as a lagging indicator.
But you know, what we're what we're seeing now is
that all the improvements on our platform and again, you know,
some of the strength that we're seeing in certain categories
is actually helping us to kind of buck the trends
of what's going on out there. And you know, we're
really kind of we're relying on the strength of our
(06:43):
platform and advancements in our own tech to offset you know,
what continues to be a very very uncertain operating environment.
Erica Nina was right.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I want to go back to AI for a moment
because I'm kind of blown away that you say AI
is kind of enhancing your your work and your platform
in a big way, because I think there is this
feeling like could even AI make what you guys do
obsolete at some point? But educate because I think as
we go along and we throw so much about AI
(07:11):
into one little bucket, like, help us understand how you
are using it on the platform, how it is actually
driving things in your business.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, so it is driving things in our business in
two ways, you know. The first is you know what
I refer to is that AI enhancements on our platforms,
So just making it easier for our clients, which are
you know, businesses of all sizes who are coming onto
our platform, you know, looking for great talent to get
work done. In the past, they would have to write
(07:41):
up a job post, you know, post the job interview,
interview freelancers a series of freelancers, and the freelancers themselves
have to write a proposal. Now all of that is
done by AI, and it's taking what used to take
hours and hours, you know, down to minutes. So that's
a huge advancement just in the enablement of finding a
great match to get the work that you want to
(08:01):
get done done quickly and easily. But the even more
interesting trends are really around how AI is enhancing every
single category of work. I mean, you know, what we're
seeing on our platform is you know, freelancer, you know,
job descriptions popping up saying hey, I'm an AI video animator,
I'm an AI artist. You know, it's not just prompt
(08:23):
engineering or or you know, ll and building, of which
we have you know, many, many, many, nearly two hundred
and fifty thousand, you know, AI skilled talent on our platform.
But it's really impacting every single area of work. And
what we're finding is, you know, it's enabling our freelancers
to get work done faster, to get get work done better,
and clients are actually looking for freelancers who are using
(08:45):
AI to get to get work done.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Hey, listen, we just have about thirty forty seconds. I
know Nina has one last question that she wants to
ask us quickly.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Yeah, Eric, I'm just wondering you completed two transactions recently
and wondering did any of the macro uncertainty influence those
so the deal making for those transactions, that's.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
An interesting question. You know, I don't think the macro uncertainty,
you know, really played into it at all. These two
game changing transactions that we did. The names of the
companies are buve Tea and Assend. These are really adding
kind of digitally native capabilities to our enterprise offering to integrate,
you know, kind of an incredible AI kind of enhanced
(09:27):
platform with our talent, as well as a broader contingent
labor solution that will enable enterprises to again quickly and
easily and kind of get through all the red tape
of compliance and everything else to hire the contingent labor
that they need.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Thank you so much, You're so real.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Erica Guessert, two financial officer at Utwork, featured in an
upcoming Bloomberg CFO briefing, and of course, Anina Treatman Bloomberg
new Senior Editor
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. You're listening to Bloomberg
Business Week with Carol Masser and tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
We're going to go back a little bit too earnings,
because that's definitely been on our radar as of late.
I know we talked a lot about geopolitics, and we
might roll a little bit of that into our next conversation.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I want to go to Upwork.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Shares ralling big time yesterday following their quarterly update. The
online recruitment company reported second quarter results that beat expectations.
They also raised their full year forecasts. The one point
seven billion dollar market cap company, it connects businesses and
independent professionals, so freelance, freelancers and others for remote work opportunities.
The stock down more than twenty percent year to date,
(00:46):
and about ten percent of the float is short. The
company though a useful indicator of what is going on
in the labor force, and so let's get to it.
Today's CFO briefing with us as Erica Gesser. She is
chief financial officer at Upwork. She joins US for San Francisco.
She will be featured in an upcoming edition of the
Bloomberg CFO Briefing newsletter, which you can find at Bloomberg
dot com slash CFO Briefing and also with us as
(01:09):
Nina Trupman. She's Bloomberg News senior editor who writes the
Bloomberg CFO Briefing newsletter. She joins us here in studio. Eric,
good to have you here with Nina, Jess and myself.
Your stock did soar on your latest quarterly update and outlook.
Talk to us about the business and what's driving growth.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, thanks so much, Carol, it's great to be here.
You know, we had a standout quarter in Q two
in so many ways, but you know, I think really
the most distinctive thing is that is the AI category
of work. So many different types of work are developing
in AI and on our platform. Our AI category group
(01:48):
thirty percent year over year in the second quarter, and
that was actually an acceleration from the first quarter. And
one of the other drivers is actually all of the
AI enablement on our platform. So if you think about
the high hiring process just in general, you know that
you know, posting a job freelancers, you know, bidding on
a job, and then and then you know, the interview process. Well,
(02:09):
we have now enabled AI all across the hiring process,
pulling out friction from every single part of the customer experience,
and we actually attribute about eighty million dollars a volume
on our platform just from those improved customer experiences.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Erica, thanks for joining us. I'm just wanting to follow
up on this. Of course, your platform operates all around
the world. It's not just an indicator of job markets
in the US, but also in other countries. Just wondering
if we're looking at your US business in particular, I'm wondering,
what does the growth that you've seen in the latest
quarter tell you about the state of the labor market
(02:45):
more broadly.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
You know, it's really interesting Nina, and and hello, good
to Good to talk to you again. You know, we overall,
you know, I think on the in the labor market
writ large. You know, there are obviously persistent winds hitting
the labor market. The BLS data coming down, and you know,
public staffing, if you look at the kind of public
(03:08):
market public staffing companies, they reported about a four percent
on average down quarter in Q two and actually projecting
even you know, even more kind of negative growth. We're
actually really pleased in that context that you know, upper
kind of growth quorterer in Q two and that actually
just shows the strength and the attractiveness of our digital platform.
But you know, I would just say that the vagaries
(03:30):
of the BLS data in general, you know, if that's
telling us anything, it's that things are really uncertain out there,
and that uncertainty is affecting our clients and people in
small businesses in general that are just unsure about what's
around the corner.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
When you're looking at particularly your share price actually being
down roughly seventeen percent year to date, why is that?
And what do you think investors are telling you when
it comes to their chief concerns right now?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
You know, it's a great question, and and you know,
we obviously, uh, you know, disagree with what the market
is saying right now. And I think I think that
the reality is is some of these kind of broader
labor market concerns are affecting a lot of stocks in
the human capital industry, and we're kind of getting pulled
down with the pack, even though our results and the
(04:19):
progress on the platform is really standing out from the crowd.
You know, I think that in general, there's been this
you know, concept out there that you know, as these
really really exciting advances in a AI come forward, that
they're going to start to substitute work. And there's actually
no doubt that in certain categories at the very lowest
(04:40):
end of you know, the types of work that are
getting done and writing and translation, you do see AI substitution.
But on platforms like ours, where we we we actually
supply much larger, more complex work with skilled workers, we're
seeing AI actually enhance work and actually start to augment
and accelerate categories that that some people thought would be disrupted,
(05:01):
things like video and animation, contract law, accounting, and bookkeeping.
All of these categories are actually being accelerated and advanced
by Aiay.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Eric, I will turn to AI in a second. I
think Carol has a follow up on that. I'm just wondering.
You said one thing about the BLS that I thought
was interesting and actually one of the things I had
wanted to to ask to you about as the CFO
of a business that is of course labor related. I'm
wondering what you make of the firing of President Trump
of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Uh, well, it's it's it's hard to comment on on
sort of on those decisions. I think, you know, these
types of data get you know, get get revised all
the time. These were actually large revisions. But you know,
it's hard to comment on that decision. It was it
was certainly very surprising.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
But is it a data point that you respect and
have looked at and compared it to know what's going
on in your world?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Look, I mean we, of course as a business, you know,
in a business in the human capital industry, watch the
labor market very very carefully. And you know, and we
have seen historically that you know, our kind of volume
related trend what we call GSV in our platform have
some correlation to kind of the movement of the Jolt
(06:23):
report on a lagging on a lagging as a lagging indicator.
But you know, what we're what we're seeing now is
that all the improvements on our platform and again, you know,
some of the strength that we're seeing in certain categories
is actually helping us to kind of buck the trends
of what's going on out there. And you know, we're
really kind of we're relying on the strength of our
(06:43):
platform and advancements in our own tech to offset you know,
what continues to be a very very uncertain operating environment.
Erica Nina was right.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I want to go back to AI for a moment
because I'm kind of blown away that you say AI
is kind of enhancing your your work and your platform
in a big way, because I think there is this
feeling like could even AI make what you guys do
obsolete at some point? But educate because I think as
we go along and we throw so much about AI
(07:11):
into one little bucket, like, help us understand how you
are using it on the platform, how it is actually
driving things in your business.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, so it is driving things in our business in
two ways, you know. The first is you know what
I refer to is that AI enhancements on our platforms,
So just making it easier for our clients, which are
you know, businesses of all sizes who are coming onto
our platform, you know, looking for great talent to get
work done. In the past, they would have to write
(07:41):
up a job post, you know, post the job interview,
interview freelancers a series of freelancers, and the freelancers themselves
have to write a proposal. Now all of that is
done by AI, and it's taking what used to take
hours and hours, you know, down to minutes. So that's
a huge advancement just in the enablement of finding a
great match to get the work that you want to
(08:01):
get done done quickly and easily. But the even more
interesting trends are really around how AI is enhancing every
single category of work. I mean, you know, what we're
seeing on our platform is you know, freelancer, you know,
job descriptions popping up saying hey, I'm an AI video animator,
I'm an AI artist. You know, it's not just prompt
(08:23):
engineering or or you know, ll and building, of which
we have you know, many, many, many, nearly two hundred
and fifty thousand, you know, AI skilled talent on our platform.
But it's really impacting every single area of work. And
what we're finding is, you know, it's enabling our freelancers
to get work done faster, to get get work done better,
and clients are actually looking for freelancers who are using
(08:45):
AI to get to get work done.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Hey, listen, we just have about thirty forty seconds. I
know Nina has one last question that she wants to
ask us quickly.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Yeah, Eric, I'm just wondering you completed two transactions recently
and wondering did any of the macro uncertainty influence those
so the deal making for those transactions, that's.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
An interesting question. You know, I don't think the macro uncertainty,
you know, really played into it at all. These two
game changing transactions that we did. The names of the
companies are buve Tea and Assend. These are really adding
kind of digitally native capabilities to our enterprise offering to integrate,
you know, kind of an incredible AI kind of enhanced
(09:27):
platform with our talent, as well as a broader contingent
labor solution that will enable enterprises to again quickly and
easily and kind of get through all the red tape
of compliance and everything else to hire the contingent labor
that they need.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Thank you so much, You're so real.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Erica Guessert, two financial officer at Utwork, featured in an
upcoming Bloomberg CFO briefing, and of course, Anina Treatman Bloomberg
new Senior Editor
Hosts And Creators
Tim Stenovec
Carol Massar
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