Commerce Hero Co-founder Kalen Jordan: "We See a Lot of Potential for this Marketplace Going Forward"

We all know that Magento is a huge ecosystem engaging numerous merchants, developers, marketers, investors, etc.

However, the more options you have the harder is the best choice when you need to hire a Magento developer, contract a dedicated agency, or find an inspiring project to work for.

That's exactly the main goal of the new service Commerce Hero that brings together store owners and developers for their mutual benefits. Today we are talking to Kalen Jordan, Commerce Hero co-founder, about this new project and its particular advantages.

KALEN JORDAN
CO-FOUNDER AT COMMERCE HERO, CO-HOST OF MAGE TALK PODCAST, ADVISOR AT MAGEMAIL

AW: Hi, Kalen. We are glad to welcome you here and appreciate this great opportunity to ask some questions on your new project Commercehero.io. It is quite a unique initiative for the Magento community, isn’t it?



Kalen: Well, yes, I certainly hope so!

AW: What are the main reasons behind your decision to launch this project? Is it due to the proper time or it is an absolutely innovative format?

Kalen: It seems as far back as I can remember since being involved in the Magento space, I’m always hearing people talk about how hard it is to find a good Magento developer - whether on a contract basis or for a full-time hire.

I’ve made a few referrals on an individual/personal basis to people, and figured it shouldn’t be too hard to scale that effort in order to really solve this problem at scale for the entire community.

9 or 10 people that told me “I had that idea too!”

After my last business, MageMail, was acquired, I was looking for a new project to work on. In talking with Eric Hileman about partnering on a new project, it turned out that we both had this developer marketplace idea in mind simultaneously, so we decided to go for it.

Since then I’ve heard from probably 9 or 10 people that told me “I had that idea too!”

AW: Would you please tell our readers how the project works and what are its major benefits for merchants and developers.

Kalen: Commerce Hero is a better way to find a Magento professional for your next project or full time hire. Our primary focus is on developers, but we also have project managers, solution specialists, UX/design people, and even biz dev / sales people.

The way it works is that you create an account for free, set up your profile, whether that is as someone looking to hire or looking to get hired or receive project leads. Then, if we find a match, you will get a notification.

Commerce Hero is a better way to find a Magento professional for your next project

You can see our pricing here (for contractors, and for clients).

The major benefit for merchants is that we help you to find quality Magento professionals. There are a lot of places you can go to find people, but you’ll find a ton of people that aren’t really qualified and will end up costing you a lot of money in wasted time and effort.

Our value prop for developers is that we bring you good clients. Everyone has dealt with a horrible client in the past - we help you to avoid that.

AW: For now, the pool of collected companies and Magento professionals is significant. Did it take long time to reach this level and how do you assess the potential growth opportunities of the project?

The next I believe 4-5 years Magento will grow to 400k jobs

Kalen: We are about 8.5 months in as of the writing of this post from the day that we decided to begin work on the site. It’s still early days and we’ve gotten a decent bit of traction relatively quickly.

We see a lot of potential for this marketplace going forward. Magento recently released some numbers on the size of the ecosystem which showed that there are 200k jobs in Magento and within the next I believe 4-5 years that will grow to 400k jobs.

We certainly wouldn’t mind capturing a portion of those jobs!

AW: Can you already name some completed or still running projects organized through your platform?

Kalen: Yes, some highlights:

• We’ve placed probably 50 or so candidates so far, between contract jobs and full time jobs;


• We’ve gotten a number of Magento masters some contract work;


• Have placed people in almost every continent already (North America, Europe, Australia);


• Have placed a number of individuals with companies that need help with M2 development. It’s been very gratifying to be able to help people get over that learning curve;


• Have placed agency referrals with merchants as well as setup agency to agency relationships;


• Have placed full time hires with Magento solution partners and successful merchants;


• Have helped freelances to hire their first sub-contractor successfully in order to grow their business.

AW: What is your current team? Looking at the existing content and its development dynamics the project requires much time and efforts, I suppose?

Kalen: Believe it or not, I’m doing the bulk of the work myself still! That includes development of the platform, support, and a lot of communication and follow up with hiring individuals and candidates, as well as content! It’s probably about time we hired some help! If you’re looking, hit me up.

We have placed people in almost every continent already

AW: Thank you very much for the great answers. You project is really interesting and seems to be a new page of the Magento history. We wish you good luck and a lot of satisfied customers.

Kalen: Thank you very much! I appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit about this new baby of mine! ;)