Just eighteen months ago, Connectd was best known for helping startups find investors. But today, the platform is growing fastest in an unexpected area: helping professionals go fractional.
“We’re seeing the biggest shift since we launched,” Roei Samuel, founder and CEO of Connectd, told Refresh Miami. “More and more companies are coming to us not for capital, but for talent: fractional executives, advisors, consultants. That’s what they need now.”
The numbers back him up. Since early 2023, Connectd has doubled its ARR to over $10 million, onboarded more than 5,000 startups and 5,000 advisors, and signed major partnerships with Google Cloud and Capchase. But its most explosive growth has come from the U.S. Southeast – particularly Miami and Georgia – where the company has seen a nearly 100x increase in ARR since launching there in December 2023.
Originally designed to connect startups with investors and non-executive directors, the platform has evolved into a broader infrastructure for what Samuel calls the “collaboration economy.”
“Back in 2020 or 2021, startups would join Connectd mostly to fundraise,” he said. “Now, they’re joining because they want help executing, and they want it from highly specialized, flexible professionals.”
The shift, he said, isn’t only about startups trimming budgets or avoiding full-time hires. It’s also about larger companies rethinking how work gets done in a world reshaped by AI and automation.
“We’re hearing from companies that say, ‘We can afford full-time staff, but why would we?’ They’re using AI to handle operations and want seasoned talent to point them in the right direction,” Samuel explained. “That’s where we come in.”
Connectd’s platform works by ingesting data from a company’s banking, payment, and accounting systems. That information is used to match companies with advisors based on real-time needs: a form of intelligence that’s become central to its growth in the U.S.
The company is also attracting a new wave of professionals who aren’t waiting to be laid off but are rather proactively building flexible, future-proof careers.
“It’s not just career cushioning anymore,” he said. “People want career mobility. They’re choosing fractional work as a way to stand out and build something resilient.”
This is part of a broader change Samuel sees in the startup world. Outside of DeepTech, the moat for most startups isn’t the product. It’s the brand, the distribution, the human network. That means talent, community, and speed matter more than ever.
“Startups can’t rely on a 10 percent better product anymore. That’s not a moat,” he said. “Distribution is the moat now. Personal brands are the moat.”
In Miami, he sees fertile ground for that mindset. “It’s always been a place where people come to make a change in their lives,” Samuel said. “There’s a willingness to adopt new ways of working.”
Looking ahead, Connectd is preparing a major rebrand in July to reinforce its role as the go-to platform for fractional careers. The focus, Samuel said, is making sure professionals have the tools and infrastructure they lose when they leave traditional jobs.
“We want to be the home for people building a new kind of career,” he said.
But beyond infrastructure, Samuel is betting on something simpler: connection.
“As we move into a world shaped by synthetic content and AI, people will start to crave what’s real,” he said. “It’s not about perfect writing or perfect logic. It’s about hard-earned experience and human relationships.”
That’s why Connectd is also investing in live events, with seven happening in just ten days across Miami and New York this summer. On June 11th, the company will be hosting a panel discussion and networking session (learn more and register here).
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