I played a prediction game in 2019, and I dare to say, I played it pretty well.
So, let's see how accurate were my predictions.
Prediction #1 - Upwork Stock Prices Will Turn Out To Be A Huge Disappointment.
In October of 2018, I dared to ask this question: Why I think it's tragic that Upwork went public? Then, one month later I analyzed Upwork's first month as a public company.
I left more than one red flag in my articles.
I even quoted some guys who really knew what they were talking about:
“The double-digit drop today should serve as a nice reminder to investors on why it can make sense to wait a quarter or two before buying shares of any newly public company.”
Did I get this one right? Well, Yahoo Finance summed it up perfectly in this article: If You Had Bought Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) Stock A Year Ago, You'd Be Sitting On A 46% Loss, Today.
Prediction #2 - Upwork's Captain Won't Go Down With His Ship.
Here on Hacker Noon, I pointed out Upwork's CEO - Stephane Kasriel, preoccupation with stocks selling activities. The timing was perfect, to say the least.
Here's the full article: Upwork Second Quarter 2019 Financial Report: Titanic Orchestra At Their Finest.
Eventually, Upwork's CEO stepped down. Why? Well, according to Fortune "amid depressed stock price." My article's illustration and one particular subheading became an ominous prediction:
"O Captain! My Captain! Why Are You Leaving Your Ship That Still Floats?"
Prediction #3 - Upwork Will Make Freelancers Pay To Play.
Again, October 2018. Back then, I used to write about freelance fees on Hacker Noon. I couldn't leave out Upwork, could I?
Talking about "unpleasant surprises:"
The only thing left for me to do was to write a heartbreaking article about it: A Farewell To FREE Upwork Connects — Cherish Your Freelance Moments.
Prediction #4 - Fiverr Will Go Public.
I asked, Is Fiver Going Public in November of 2018. In June of 2019, I got the positive response.
Prediction #5 - Quora Will Become Shamelessly Biased in Freelance-Related Topics.
This is one of my longer stories on Hacker Noon.
When I wrote about it in September of 2019, Quora and Toptal limited their "growth-hacking-activities" to the most popular freelance-related topics with the biggest number of followers, "only!"
That changed recently with the usurpation of the most viewed writers list in Upwork topic on Quora. The number of views speaks for themselves.
Just in case you've been wondering, what Toptal has to do with Quora? Well, you should know that the co-founder and CEO of Quora - Adam D’Angelo is also among the top investors in Toptal. Nuff said.
Prediction #6 - GoLance Will Lower Their Service Fees.
I've already mentioned my Hacker Noon article Let’s Talk About Fees, You Busy Freelance Bees. It seems that I actually made two predictions in one article. The first one was about Upwork (see Prediction #3). This one was about goLance:
Here's what happened a few months later:
Prediction #7 - Upwork Will "Fix" Their Negative Trustpilot's Score
Done. Upwork "improved" their TrustScore from 1.4/5.0 to 4.1/5.0. How?
What About Your Predictions For 2020?
Why not? Let's play the prediction game again.
My First 2020 Prediction - Upwork stock prices will stay above $10. How do I know? Well, wait and see.
My Second 2020 Prediction - The new Upwork's CEO will keep the old stock market habits. It's already happening.
My Third 2020 Prediction - Hacker Noon's Alexa ranking will be somewhere between 2.5K and 3K in 2020.
My Fourth 2020 Prediction - Freelancing Mindset will have more than 100K followers by the end of this year and confirm its status as the most popular Quora Space for freelancers.
My Fifth 2020 Prediction - GoLance will lower their service fees, again.
My Sixth 2020 Prediction - The AB5 virus will spread all over the USA, not just Cali and NJ.
My Seventh 2020 Prediction - I won't win a Noonie Award as the most controversial writer on Hacker Noon.
That's all Hacker Noon folks! The 2020 prediction game is on!