>>"Enter the agents. Solomon describes himself as an equalizer. In creative industries, he told me, 'there’s always this pattern that the creatives start out at the bottom of the food chain and are exploited.'"

Even recognizing that the current hiring model has major inefficiencies, it's hard to not see this as awfully ironic.

>>"part of our goal is to de-risk freelancing and make it more viable. [...] She also appreciated that they had been vetted for interpersonal skills. At one point, they had to speak directly with the health-care company’s New York offices. 'They were good,' she said. 'And it wasn’t embarrassing to let them out of their cave.'"

The value proposition of the agent, pushing both technical and personal professionalism of candidates, should be addressable through a reputational system that doesn't take 15% and require ad hoc negotiations. It would, however, have to be complex enough to address how well certain talent is at addressing specific projects. How much of that is a lack of proper metrics and how much is the hiring party's inability to frame their needs?