A Million Reasons to Celebrate: Conestoga's Gig Marketplace Hits Historic Milestone

It’s said that the first million is the hardest. If that’s true, then the creative freelancers of the Conestoga Entrepreneurship Collective’s Gig Marketplace have cleared the biggest hurdle — and they’re just getting started.

The Gig Marketplace recently surpassed $1 million in provided services, a milestone that validates what the program has been building since its launch in October 2021. The Gig Marketplace was designed to be a trusted, curated platform to connect vetted freelance talent with businesses and organizations across Waterloo Region.

“This milestone isn’t just about hitting a number. It shows that students can turn their skills into real income while delivering the services companies need,” said Rose Mastnak, director of the Conestoga Entrepreneurship Collective. 

The Gig Marketplace evolved out of the Conestoga Gig Lab program, Canada’s only incubator dedicated to helping student and graduate freelancers develop and launch their own small businesses. What sets the platform apart is that freelancers are developed, vetted, and ready to deliver real work as independent businesses.

Every freelancer listed on the marketplace has been vetted through Conestoga’s academic programming and the Gig Lab program with training in client management, pricing, project delivery, and professional standards.

Today, the platform boasts more than 120 freelancers offering services across over 100 skills and areas of expertise, from marketing and public relations to hardware design and prototyping. Gig Marketplace freelancers have worked on over 150 projects to date.

A significant portion of the $1 million milestone was driven by key partnerships between the Conestoga Entrepreneurship Collective and its ecosystem partners. The Accelerator Centre’s AC:Studio program provided participating startups with stipends to use with Gig Marketplace freelancers as they moved through its internationally-recognized program. 

Ruth Casselman, CEO of the Accelerator Centre, noted that Gig Marketplace freelancers have helped AC:Studio startups get to market faster than their potential competitors, including AC:Studio startup Aqua-Cell Energy.

“Like so many founders, they needed the resources to take the next step. Through the AC:Studio program, they received access to talented freelancers through Conestoga Gig Marketplace that helped them go from lab to a commercial prototype in six months,” Casselman said.

Vessl's co-founder Oleksiy Zaika said the prosthetics startup initially used Gig Marketplace freelancers for their website, but soon discovered other services to help them get to market.

“We were surprised by the types of services offered. Typically they’re digital services, but there was a machinist who was instrumental in helping us figure out some of the more nuanced things about how to manufacture our product. That support through the Gig Marketplace team has been incredibly helpful,” says Zaika.

In addition to the services, an RBC grant program extended stipends of up to $1,000 to skilled trades entrepreneurs looking to access services ranging from marketing to branded workwear.

At its core, the Gig Marketplace is built on a simple but powerful idea: connect business-ready student freelancers with real market demand. Companies get access to qualified, agile talent exactly when they need it, while freelancers earn income and build sustainable businesses through real client work.

“We’ve proven the model works. Now it’s time to scale it,” said Mastnak.

Organizations interested in partnering with the Gig Marketplace or accessing its freelance talent can contact Rose Mastnak.