Comatch

[Zylon]

Has anybody dealt with an agency called Comatch? Just doing due dil after being approached directly on LinkedIn for an interesting looking project. I can't find any mention on these forums, nor too much out there generally. They claim to be a consultant 'marketplace' founded by a couple of ex-McKinsey consultants, but essentially appear like an agency with a couple of differences:

- Their fee to the end client is apparantly a flat 15% on top of what you (the consultant) takes. The positions don't have an advertised rate, rather you list what you'd like on a per project basis and the client takes forward whichever candidates they're interested in.
- Registration is subject to approval. They have restrictions broadly to 10 yrs+ industry, or several years in a big consultancy house or similar, followed by interviews - so they're aiming a bit more upmarket

After researching and speaking to them I'm perfectly satisfied they're a legit business, but it looks like they are both fairly new (with recent seed funding perhaps leading to large growth), and also have been primarily operating in Germany, at least that's where the HQ and the consultant I spoke to are based.

The contract would be with them, not the end client, so I'm keen to ensure they're financially stable, and also would be interested in the IR35 implications - though I assume the latter would depend largely on the contract with the end client.

[northernladyuk]

Has anybody dealt with an agency called Comatch? Just doing due dil after being approached directly on LinkedIn for an interesting looking project. I can't find any mention on these forums, nor too much out there generally. They claim to be a consultant 'marketplace' founded by a couple of ex-McKinsey consultants, but essentially appear like an agency with a couple of differences:

- Their fee to the end client is apparantly a flat 15% on top of what you (the consultant) takes. The positions don't have an advertised rate, rather you list what you'd like on a per project basis and the client takes forward whichever candidates they're interested in.
- Registration is subject to approval. They have restrictions broadly to 10 yrs+ industry, or several years in a big consultancy house or similar, followed by interviews - so they're aiming a bit more upmarket

After researching and speaking to them I'm perfectly satisfied they're a legit business, but it looks like they are both fairly new (with recent seed funding perhaps leading to large growth), and also have been primarily operating in Germany, at least that's where the HQ and the consultant I spoke to are based.

The contract would be with them, not the end client, so I'm keen to ensure they're financially stable, and also would be interested in the IR35 implications - though I assume the latter would depend largely on the contract with the end client.

An obvious step is to watch the payment terms to reduce your exposure.

[Zylon]

Following up on this in case anybody else comes across them in future. It all appears quite well organised after a few interactions, and I like the concept; the platform is decent too. They interviewed me over the phone after a couple of weeks. It was with a generalist so nothing technical, but the questions were sensible contractor fare, and there was no asking for referees or previous rates. They claim to reject over half of applicants but this may just be a marketing line.

The range of roles is broad, from very hands on dev roles to purely strategic. They generally pay very well by my standards - often €600 to €1100 per day, but there's a reason for this - most are based in continental Europe and expect you to be on site for extended periods. I asked if they're planning on expanding to the UK and they told me it's slowly growing organically but there's no push here as the contractor market here is already better established and far more competitive than much of Europe.

Bottom line - if you're happy to work away from home for extended periods, I'd recommend signing up. But for the UK it's currently too small.

[cojak]

Thanks for reporting back Zylon.