David Corfield, FTMBA ’19 - Leveraging His Time At Haas to Help Shape the Future of Work

Episode #32: Host Sean Li talks to David Corfield FTMBA'19. They discuss his company LifeWork, how he became an entrepreneur and ended up at Haas, how business skills are transferable across industries, and more.

Episode Highlights:

• David grew up in Essex, about an hour outside of London, and began his entrepreneurial experience with a company called Folder Monkey that created custom folder systems for students, but it quickly got shut down.
• In his first year at McKinsey, he was thrown feet first into the fray, but it was also his only exposure to the business world prior to pursuing his MBA.
• David pursued his MBA in California because of its proximity to the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• David wants to be able to see the tangible impact of his work.
• The biggest pain point for freelancers that David talked to is income insecurity.
• LifeWork aims to ease payment issues that freelancers encounter and wants to provide, essentially, an HR department or back-office support for freelancers.
• LifeWork differs from other platforms like Upwork or Fiverr because it is client-focused instead of being marketplace driven.
• One of LifeWork’s core values is transparency.
• You shouldn’t be afraid to share your ideas; if someone else takes it and executes it, it just proves that you have good ideas.

3 Key Points:

1. As a freelancer in any industry, you need to have some business skills.
2. People now value autonomy and purpose in their work more than they value stability.
3. Don’t hoard your ideas, but share them for the sake of solving problems.

Tweetable Quotes

• “The entrepreneurial spark that I knew I had was starting to be squashed by these big, slow-moving companies and our role to advise them and never actually see that impact.” –David Corfield
• “There is no solution right now that enables flexibility, which is obviously why people become freelancers in the first place, and also provide security.” –David Corfield
• “I think I’d say to any student anywhere that is in close proximity to a business school, it is the perfect time to start something.” –David Corfield

Resources Mentioned: 

• Email Sean: reachsean@berkeley.edu 
• https://www.lifeworkonline.com/
• David Corfield
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidjcorfield
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcorfield
• Medium: https://medium.com/@david_corfield