Revolut Built It. Disney Is Pivoting Into It.
Revolut just launched an EOR. Disney just cut 1,000 marketers. The flexible workforce stopped being a trend. Now it is infrastructure.
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Revolut Built It. Disney Is Pivoting Into It.
Two headlines landed this week. Read them together.
Revolut, the fintech that now serves 800,000 business customers and processed £277 billion in transactions last year, launched GlobalHire. An Employer of Record platform that lets companies hire talent in 160 countries without setting up a single local entity. A mainstream fintech just declared that hiring flexible, global talent is now core business banking infrastructure.
Forty-eight hours later, Disney cut 1,000 jobs, primarily in marketing. CEO Josh D'Amaro's memo was explicit. The savings come from streamlining marketing and brand operations into a "more agile, technologically-enabled workforce." Entire home entertainment teams. SVP and Director level digital marketing. Gone.
Two companies. Two signals. One transition.
When a fintech with 800,000 business customers bakes EOR directly into its banking suite, the category is no longer niche. It is infrastructure. When a 230,000-person enterprise restructures its marketing function into an "agile, technologically-enabled workforce", the pattern has officially left tech and landed in every function of the business.
Here is what that means for you as a buyer. The rails are being built. The demand is arriving at your door. And the solutions that deliver against both moves are on this platform today.
Below you will find the Human Cloud solutions already delivering on both sides of the transition. The global EOR providers Revolut is now competing with. The consulting and fractional networks restructuring operations inside Disney-sized enterprises. The compliance layer keeping both moves defensible.
Read this issue like a playbook. Then start your search today.
To the transition,
- Tony, CSO
Human Cloud · Meet the way the world works. Learn more →
Featured from the Founders
Matthew Mottola, CEO
Top Talent Just Tripled Their ROI
The strategic read behind every Revolut and Disney headline. Top performers and AI-native operators are tripling their ROI while the rest of the org stalls. Required reading for anyone deciding who to keep, who to bring in, and where to reinvest the savings.
Tony Buffum, CSO
Tony Buffum Takes HR to Career Day
Tony spent last week presenting at his daughter's middle school career day. Four 20-minute sessions on HR, teams, and his second career as a founder. The most common question from 6th graders: is AI going to take their jobs? His answer was the ATM story. When the ATM rolled out, teller jobs actually grew for years. They just evolved. That is the right frame for every workforce conversation in 2026.
This Month's Community Call
Closed door. Invite only. The most senior room in flexible work. April 30, 2026 · 12:00 PM EST.
- Matt Vuckov on industrial talent transformation.
- Tony Buffum on what the C-Suite is actually procuring right now.
- Martins Vilums on driving enterprise leads straight out of ChatGPT.
This Week on the Human Cloud Podcast
Two episodes this week, paired on purpose. Yurii Lazaruk shows why enterprise adoption of flexible talent is genuinely hard. Joao Lucio shows who you actually bring in to lead the org when you move.
Why It Is Hard
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Yurii LazarukFreelance Market Builder, FreelancerMap |
Yurii reached out to 1,000+ HR and recruiting leaders across Poland with a clear flexible talent value prop. The response rate was near zero. His explanation reframes the whole enterprise adoption story.
"It is not that they do not know about freelancers. They just do not want to be the person who makes that call. Nobody gets promoted for changing how you hire. But they can definitely get fired for it."
The barrier is not awareness. It is friction, fear, and the responsibility hot potato. That is exactly why Revolut embedding EOR into a banking product matters, and why the next episode matters even more.
Listen Now →Who Can Help
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Joao LucioFounder, beecrowd (ex-Accenture, ex-Cognizant) |
Joao spent 30+ years running delivery at global system integrators. At Accenture and Cognizant he led 5,000+ professionals across seven countries in Latin America. Now at beecrowd he deploys skill-validated tech squads with 93% placement assertiveness and a five-year track record of never replacing a placed engineer for low performance.
"Nearshoring is not just placing people inside your team. There is a lot of management, expectation management, and deliverable management you have to do to make this really work."
The takeaway for any buyer restructuring in 2026: the operator you bring in matters more than the platform you plug them into. Joao is a working example of what that operator looks like.
Listen Now →Industry Insights
Fintech
Revolut Launches GlobalHire for 800,000 Business Customers
Revolut Business launched GlobalHire this week. The EOR platform lets companies hire in 160 countries without a local entity, with Revolut acting as legal employer and handling payroll, benefits, tax, and compliance. Revolut Business surpassed £277 billion in transaction volume in 2025 and now serves nearly 800,000 global businesses. When mainstream fintech bakes EOR into a business banking suite, the category is no longer niche. It is infrastructure.
Layoffs
Disney Cuts 1,000 in Marketing Under New CEO Josh D'Amaro
Disney's 1,000 person cut hits the consolidated enterprise marketing and brand organization. Entire home entertainment teams, SVP of Global Digital Marketing, Director of Digital Marketing. Gone. The memo frames the move as a pivot to a "more agile and technologically-enabled workforce." Translation: flexible and fractional capacity is now how enterprise marketing gets done.
Platform Signal
Consulting +300%, Fractional +150% on Human Cloud This Month
Buyer search behavior on Human Cloud mirrors what Revolut and Disney just declared. Consulting searches are up roughly 300% this month. Fractional searches are up 150%. EOR is still the top search since December. Generalist staffing is losing share to vertical specialists and fractional operators. The shortlist you built two years ago is wrong.
Policy & Research
Where There's Flexible Talent, There's a Growing Economy
A new Mercatus Center study finds that states restricting flexible work saw employment decline across the board. Flexible talent infrastructure drives economic growth, and restrictive worker classification laws cost jobs. The data makes the case policymakers now have to answer to.
Events
Running Remote 2026 · Austin, April 27-29
The fastest growing flexible work conference lands in Austin at the end of this month. If you are going, reach out and let's connect.
Solution Spotlight: The Rails Revolut Just Entered
Nine solutions across three categories. The global EOR providers delivering what Revolut just productized. The senior operators reshaping enterprise restructures. The compliance layer keeping every move defensible.
1. Hire globally: the EOR rails Revolut just entered
EOR has been the top search on Human Cloud since December. These three are already doing what Revolut just announced, with deeper country coverage and more specialization.
Native Teams
Global
Global platform for work payments and employment services across 85+ countries with EOR, payroll, and multi-currency payments. A platform that treats global hiring and global paying as the same problem.
Atlas HXM
Chicago, United States
Direct Employer of Record with owned local entities across 160+ countries. Onboarding, payroll, benefits, compliance, and visa mobility without the third-party indirection most EOR providers rely on.
Borderless AI
Toronto, Canada
AI-native Employer of Record and global payroll platform in 170+ countries. Onboard and pay international employees and contractors compliantly without setting up foreign entities. The AI stack Revolut did not ship with.
2. Bring in senior operators: the restructure Disney just ran
Consulting searches are up 300% on Human Cloud this month. Fractional is up 150%. These three are what buyers are actually clicking on.
Catalant
Boston, United States
Consulting 2.0. Multi-disciplinary teams of big consulting alumni and former corporate operators, deployed as purpose-fit engagements instead of bloated firm retainers. The operators who reshape enterprise functions without the McKinsey bill.
Go Fractional
United States
Fractional executive platform connecting companies with proven multi-exited leaders, including CTOs, CFOs, CMOs, COOs, and CHROs at roughly 50% the cost of full-time hires. The playbook for companies rebuilding leadership without a 12-month search.
Adaptable
United States
Fractional marketing leadership and growth consulting for startups and SMBs. The exact capability 1,000 Disney marketing roles are being consolidated into, only distributed across a network of senior operators who charge a fraction of the cost.
3. Stay compliant as you restructure
The rails behind every EOR and every consolidation. Miss this layer and the savings evaporate into classification risk and audit exposure.
Worksome
Copenhagen, Denmark
Unified freelance management platform for global workforce. Compliance, FMS, and payment infrastructure all under one roof. Buyers searched the Worksome brand by name on Human Cloud this week.
MBO Partners
United States
AOR, compliance, and MSP for independent contractor programs at Fortune 500 scale. The platform behind multi-billion dollar contingent workforce consolidations inside banks, healthcare, and Big 4 consulting firms.
Independently
New York, United States
AI-powered compliance platform automating worker classification for enterprises globally. The audit-ready defense layer behind every EOR, AOR, and talent marketplace a buyer plugs into.
6 Business Cases From the Shortlist
What the solutions above have already delivered. Six real engagements spanning global hiring, restructures, and compliance, each from a different solution.
Featured · Global Payroll Operations
Reduced International Payroll to Under 15 Minutes Monthly
Atlas HXM + Affygility Solutions
Affygility expanded into Brazil and the UAE through a Direct EOR setup. Ongoing international payroll dropped to under 15 minutes per month, time-from-offer-to-hire in Brazil fell below three weeks, and audit-ready historical payroll became a download instead of a project. This is what Revolut just announced it will try to ship. Atlas has been delivering it for years.
View Case →Enterprise Restructure
Delivered ~$500M Global Supply Chain Cost Reduction Over 3 Years
Catalant + $30B Beverage Company
A $30B beverage company facing margin pressure piloted a cost-of-sales reduction methodology with Catalant experts, cut cost of sales 10% at pilot sites in 6 months, and scaled it into roughly $500M in global supply chain savings over 3 years. The playbook for any enterprise restructuring operations under CFO pressure.
View Case →Fractional CTO Launch
Launched Mobile App Across iOS and Android in 6 Months
Go Fractional + Just Salad
A Fractional CTO and embedded full-stack engineers built and shipped a redesigned mobile experience across iOS and Android on a unified codebase in six months, including backend API modernization and design agency management. The alternative to a nine-month executive search.
View Case →Fractional Marketing
Achieved 200% MRR Growth With Fractional CMO Support
Adaptable + SaaS Startup
A SaaS startup without senior marketing leadership brought in a Fractional CMO to own strategy, GTM, and marketing ops. The engagement delivered 200% MRR growth. The exact capability Disney just consolidated 1,000 FTE marketing roles into, available on Human Cloud today.
View Case →Direct Sourcing at Scale
Saved $87.5K and Onboarded 50 Contractors in 6 Days
MBO Partners + Healthcare Improvement Company
A publicly-traded healthcare improvement company stood up an enterprise-wide independent contractor program, bypassed third-party supplier markups, and onboarded 50 contractors in 6 days. The direct-sourcing play under every major contingent workforce consolidation.
View Case →Classification Risk
Eliminated $79M+ in IC Misclassification Risk Across 13 Countries
Independently + Global MSP
A global MSP managing 850 contractors across 13 countries discovered 30% of its workforce was non-compliant. Independently automated classification across all vendors, brought every worker into compliance, and eliminated $79M+ in estimated misclassification liability. The price of skipping this layer is real.
View Case → |
Jon Younger Godfather of the Freelance Revolution |
"When a fintech with 800,000 business customers launches an EOR, the flexible workforce is not a trend. It is the operating system. Watch where the banks go. Watch where the brands cut. That is the transition."
About Human Cloud
Human Cloud is the human layer for your agentic workforce.
We help companies find and deploy the right flexible talent solutions in minutes instead of months. We automate discovery, compliance, and orchestration across 1,000+ workforce platforms so business teams move fast, procurement teams stay in control, and rogue contractor spend turns into a strategic advantage.
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✓ Turn rogue spend into strategic advantage
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