How FlexC Built a $240K/Year AI Hiring Marketplace in India

Who built it, and what they built

Girish Kukreja is the Founder and CEO of FlexC, a talent marketplace based in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. The company helps businesses hire and manage a hybrid workforce that blends permanent employees with freelancers and contractors.

He spent more than 20 years in the Indian IT services industry before starting his own venture. Launching a business had long been his ambition, and the arrival of the pandemic created the opening to finally act on it.

Where the idea came from

Across his career in Indian IT services, Girish watched the industry scale to 450K people and studied developed markets where flexible employees make up a far larger share of the workforce. In India, permanent hires account for over 95% of workers, while in the USA and UK that figure sits between 60-65%.

When Covid reshaped working norms, he believed India was ready to shift toward a hybrid staffing mix. FlexC was conceived as the country's first talent marketplace built for hiring and managing that blended workforce, using AI to digitize the entire process from talent discovery through engagement.

He expected freelancers and contractors to grow to 20-30% of overall employees as more organizations went hybrid. When he shared the concept with experienced peers, they were interested enough to invest, so early funding came from his own savings plus money from his connections.