Upwork Named in Inc.’s First-Annual Best-Led Companies List

Inc’s first-ever roundup of companies recognizes Upwork for management excellence

Upwork Inc. (Nasdaq:UPWK), the world’s work marketplace that connects businesses with independent talent, today announced the company was recognized in Inc’s first annual Best-Led Companies list – a select, data-driven list honoring the strongest public and private companies.

Under the leadership of CEO and President Hayden Brown, over the past year Upwork has innovated multiple products that empower customers to foster trusted, long-term relationships and achieve great outcomes together. Many of these innovations, such as the recently announced Virtual Talent Bench™, feed into Upwork’s robust Enterprise Suite. As a result of this strategic vision, in the third quarter of 2021, new Enterprise plan customers grew 143% year-over-year, gross services volume (GSV) grew 38% year-over-year to reach $904.0 million, and revenue grew 32% year-over-year to reach $128.1 million.

“It is exciting and humbling for Upwork to be recognized for Inc’s first Best-Led Companies list,” said Brown. “I’m a firm believer that the most successful companies stand for something powerful – in our case, that traditional models of work are both in need of and capable of change. But to create a tectonic shift as big as the one we are fueling, you have to be bold in building a team of elite talent. This industry recognition is a testament to the vision-led thinkers we have at every level of the company who play in the unknown, have big ambitions, and are passionate about improving the world of work.”

The final list recognizes 250 companies that are agile enough to maneuver but also big enough to have a broad impact. These companies employ 35 million people, about one in four U.S. workers. All 250 have a successful track record with leadership teams that spur solid performance, create value, penetrate markets, engage with customers, and more. To compile the list, Inc. evaluated private and public U.S.-based companies with a 2020 revenue of $50 million to $2 billion or a valuation of $50 million to $10 billion using a proprietary 12-point measure of management excellence generated with input from partners at Pitchbook and Shango Labs.

“This inaugural list of companies represents the remarkable midsized companies, both public and private, often founder led, that are at the vanguard of reinventing American business,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine. “With their leadership, all business will benefit from an exciting, competitive future full of possibilities.”

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About Upwork

Upwork is the world’s work marketplace that connects businesses with independent talent. We serve everyone from one-person startups to 30% of the Fortune 100 with a powerful, trust-driven platform that enables companies and freelancers to work together in new ways that unlock their potential. Our talent community earned over $2.3 billion on Upwork in 2020 across more than 10,000 skills in categories including website & app development, creative & design, customer support, finance & accounting, consulting, and operations. Learn more at www.upwork.com and join us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

About Inc.

The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc., offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community they need to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across various channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 allows the founders of the best businesses to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

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