Free Agency Raises $10M in Series A Funding to Bring Hollywood Style Representation to Tech Talent

Startup to rapidly expand team as it brings its new job search model to more candidates in the tech industry.

NEW YORK, NY – Free Agency, a New York-based talent startup, announced a $10 million Series A investment led by Maveron. Additional new investors in the round include Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman's Thirty Five Ventures, Palm Tree Crew, Correlation Ventures, Modern Venture Partners, and Gaingels. Existing investors also participated in the round, including Resolute Ventures and Bloomberg Beta.

In the past three years, Free Agency has built a novel career management platform providing services and products designed for talent. This is enabled by the company's business model: instead of charging and working for employers, Free Agency charges individuals a percentage of their future income for services.

There has been massive value creation and innovation in the human capital space, yet almost all of it is directed by employer incentives. Free Agency is putting professionals in the driver's seat for the first time.

By aligning incentives with individual talent, Free Agency is creating a new workforce inspired by Hollywood-style talent agents and managers. Their Talent Agents provide concierge services to mid to C-level professionals in the tech industry. They help clients find new opportunities, secure top of market offers, and improve their overall performance and career trajectory.

“Free Agency thinks about team-building in the same way we do,” said award-winning DJ, songwriter, and producer, Kyrre “Kygo” Gørvell-Dahll. Kygo invested in the round alongside his manager, Myles Shear. “It is game-changing for an artist to be able to focus on their craft. That's what having a team behind you provides. When Free Agency told us that they were bringing the same concept to tech workers, the analogy was obvious,” said Palm Tree Crew's Shear.

“Sherveen is a visionary product leader and this industry has long-needed someone to rethink things from the talent side of the table,” said Maveron's Jason Stoffer, who is joining the company's Board of Directors as part of the round. “Over time, Free Agency will aggregate hard to find career data and build proprietary tools to automate the process of finding, interviewing, and negotiating for a job — and then managing your career.”

Key facts:

  • Free Agency has successfully represented and managed hundreds of candidates in tech, assisting in the negotiation of more than $200 million in total offers.
  • Clients include senior leaders at companies like SpaceX, TikTok, Square, Roblox, Notion, Netflix, Salesforce, and startups backed by top venture capital firms.
  • The company is bolstered by a network of thousands of talent partners, recruiters, startup leaders, and specialized coaches who provide expert insight and connectivity.

“Talent has historically suffered from an information and process asymmetry as it relates to job search and career progression,” said Free Agency's co-founder and CEO, Sherveen Mashayekhi. “Employers hold all of the power in this unbalanced marketplace. Our thesis is that even the best-paid knowledge worker is underpaid and poorly sorted into their career. By giving candidates a competitive edge, we empower them to reach the highest levels of their career potential – doing more, making more, and being more.”

The Series A brings Free Agency's total financing to $15.35 million since its founding in 2019. In addition to Jason Stoffer joining as a Board Member, Maveron's Jerry Lu will also join as a Board Observer. Additional investors include executives and founders from Twitter, MasterClass, Snapchat, and CAA. A significant number of Free Agency's clients also participated in the round.

About Free Agency

Free Agency is a New York-based talent startup bringing Hollywood-style talent representation to knowledge workers, starting with professionals in tech. The company empowers people to reach the highest levels of their career potential, breaking process and information asymmetries that hold them back from doing more, making more, and being more. Free Agency's clients work with dedicated Talent Agents to help them find and win top-of-market roles. In exchange, Free Agency receives a percentage of their future income for a limited amount of time. This incentive-aligned business model enables the company to build first-of-their-kind products to exclusively serve talent, rather than the traditional recruiting and HR industry that serves companies.