Pavel Shynkarenko, CEO of HR platform Mellow, talks about how the company focuses on finding talented young freelance workers for firms in need and on discovering jobs for a growing pool of today’s independently motivated professionals.
One day, over a decade ago, seated at a café table in the sun-baked plaza in Limassol’s old town, Pavel Shynkarenko was sipping a cappuccino – still unaware of the island’s devotion to the café frappé and freddo espresso, those frothy, ice-laden emblems of local café culture.
Around them, several crumbling buildings caught his eye. When his Cypriot legal partner explained that they were Turkish Cypriot properties, abandoned since the 1974 invasion, Shynkarenko fell silent, struck by something both historical and intimate. Like many from the former Soviet Union – he was born in Ukraine – he had not grown up in a society that revered private ownership.
At the time, he was deciding where to base Solar Staff, a platform designed to help corporations find and manage freelancers efficiently. A lawyer by training, specialising in international taxation and cyber law, he had already founded Senechal International in 2004 to guide clients through the bureaucratic labyrinth of cross-border operations. He knew how awkward large firms could be when it came to the small, fast-moving transactions governing freelance relationships.
For Solar Staff, he had considered five jurisdictions: Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, the US and Cyprus. The island offered clear advantages, from a competitive tax regime to a stable political climate, but it was that moment in the plaza, surrounded by sunlight and memory, that ultimately sealed the decision.
The birth of Mellow
In Cyprus, Solar Staff did well, reaching revenues of more than €20 million in two years but, as it served predominantly Russian clients, the war in Ukraine forced Shynkarenko to enact a split, separating people, technology, payments and business infrastructure. From that division, Mellow was born.
Today, Shynkarenko is waiting for me at Mellow’s offices in Limassol, which occupy two floors of Maximos Court – a mid-rise commercial block with a dated geometry: concrete façades and rows of rectangular windows. The CEO’s office fills one floor and the interior bears no resemblance to the building’s facade. It is modern, spare and quietly stylish. Art dominates the space: shelves lined with volumes on Monet, Picasso, Vogue, animation and fashion; photographs hang on the walls. He unrolls one of his own photographs – once submitted to an open call at Miami Fashion Week – depicting two models, painted in metallic hues, unclothed but rendered almost sculptural.
“I started taking photographs while travelling for work. It was a way of discovering different cultures,” he explains. During his years as a lawyer, he lived in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Riga and Amsterdam. Speaking with a familiar self-effacing tone, he calls himself an amateur as he rolls the print up and takes a seat at the kitchen table, a bottle of sparkling water in hand.
Are there parallels between entrepreneurship and photography? “One helps the other,” he says evenly. “It helps me understand people – their culture, their motives.” He gestures to a series of books behind me. Shynkarenko is also training to become a pilot, and he has come to see striking parallels between the cockpit and the CEO’s chair: adaptability, composure under pressure and a focus on the bigger picture. “It translates directly into my leadership style – I try to control the company’s overall direction and enjoy it, without disrupting my team with everyday control,” he says.
Matching project managers with the most suitable freelancers
Two years ago, Mellow surveyed its corporate clients to identify their main frustrations and 67% said that finding and selecting the right talent for a project was their biggest challenge. In response, the company built an AI-powered sourcing system designed to match project managers with the most suitable freelancers – not just according to skill but by temperament and fit. The tool functions like a network amplifier. “We discovered,” says Shynkarenko, “that half of all successful collaborations begin within your own network. When people share a culture, a time zone or even a way of communicating, the chances of success rise sharply.” The system maps three degrees of connection: personal, corporate (colleagues) and the extended circle beyond them. It is due for its full launch later this year. Early results from the beta are promising, as the average time to find a freelancer has fallen from three days to about fifteen hours. “Ideally,” he adds, “you start looking in the morning and have your freelancer by midday.”
Unlike Solar Staff, however, Mellow is thinking as much about freelancers as it is about corporates. The platform manages invoicing and payments, holding funds until a project is delivered – acting, as Shynkarenko puts it, “as a middleman that buys and sells freelancing services.” When asked what their own main challenge was, freelancers gave the predictable answer: finding new work. “It’s the elephant in the room,” he says with a chuckle.
To tackle this, Mellow developed another AI tool that scans a freelancer’s online feeds. When someone in their network posts a project likely to interest them, the system sends an alert. The prototype began with open platforms such as Cypriot classifieds site Bazaraki.com and is now expanding into social media. The feature has already been approved for integration with Gmail, and the team is working to secure access to LinkedIn next, followed by TikTok and Facebook. “It’s not easy,” admits Shynkarenko. “These companies are wary of third-party services. We have to prove that we’re not here to spam their users but to add value to their networks.”
Solving real problems
Beyond Limassol, Mellow now operates offices in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, New York and Dubai. In its brief existence – the split began three years ago and was formalised in 2025 – the company has grown to some 150 employees, with Limassol accounting for 40% of the workforce. Shynkarenko concedes that taking a core team of 40 specialists from Solar Staff, as well as infrastructure, gave the venture an early advantage.
Today, Mellow processes around US$200 million in freelance transactions, earning a margin of nearly US$15 million. Growth stands at 50-60% year-on-year; a rate he believes can be sustained. What drives it? He laughs. “Well, we solve a real problem,” he says, though he is quick to temper the optimism. The next task, he explains, is visibility: most clients have so far arrived through word of mouth. The United States is Mellow’s largest market, followed by the UK and Cyprus, where the platform has found an eager audience within the island’s expanding tech scene. Yet, without external funding, Shynkarenko remains cautious. “If you push too hard, you burn cash fast,” he says. “But we’re growing at a good tempo.”
A glance at Mellow’s Trustpilot profile reveals a recurring theme: reliability. Dozens of freelancers praise the company for prompt payments and clear communication – qualities that, Shynkarenko argues, make Mellow competitive with the giants of the HR-tech world, such as Deel and Rippling. Reliability, he adds, matters just as much to corporate clients, particularly those working with contractors in difficult-to-reach markets. Two other principles, he says, define Mellow’s edge: dedication and streamlining. The company’s ambition is to become the global meeting ground for firms and freelancers, to make work frictionless, borderless and bureaucratically painless. “In the future of work,” he reflects, “we’ll be part of the project-based ecosystem that supports people who want to live and work independently, those who move between countries and ways of living. And we’ll help companies find them.”
Employment pattern shifts
The pandemic fuelled an extraordinary surge in freelancing, driven by widespread job losses and the rise of remote-first digital infrastructures. While many workers turned to contract work out of necessity, a 2024 World Bank report estimated that online freelancers now make up nearly 12% of the global workforce, up by 90% in a four-year span –a remarkable shift in employment patterns.
Beyond the familiar strongholds of e-commerce, technology and the creative industries, the gig economy has become a defining force. But is it sustainable?
The new wave of artificial intelligence complicates the picture. Optimists see AI as a tool for empowerment, while the doomsayers view it as an existential threat to jobs. “I’m a realist,” Shynkarenko says, distancing himself from the debate. He draws parallels with earlier economic transformations, from the Industrial Revolution – when workers left rural life for cities – to the later shift towards a service economy, when millions traded factory floors for offices and computer screens. “We’re now entering an era where AI is providing services for both businesses and individuals,” he says. Cautious about predictions, he nevertheless foresees another kind of migration. This means that governments will have to rethink how they attract talent. But progress, he believes, is unstoppable. “You can slow it down a little – but stop it? No chance.”
Still, freelancing is not for everyone. Like entrepreneurship, it demands resilience, adaptability and relentless self-management – traits not universally shared. Does that, then, impose a ceiling on the sector’s growth? “You’re right and not right at the same time,” he says, leaning forward, both hands on the table. “For people with responsibilities, family and children, freelancing can feel like a hustle, because you have no illusion of stability.” Illusion, he stresses, is the operative word. Life is subject to shocks – financial crises, personal loss or the random roll of luck – that thwart even the best-laid plans. He concedes, though, that freelancing demands a certain maturity. “You have to be self-organised and self-disciplined – and that’s not for everyone,” he says.
The future of work
Shynkarenko is convinced that younger generations will continue to turn away from the traditional nine-to-five. It’s not rebellion, but rhythm. “They want to do everything fast. They have no fixed career paths in their imagination. They want to do something today, something else tomorrow. That’s what independent work is about,” he says. The same generational contrast plays out inside Mellow itself. “We see clear differences between people born into a world where technology already existed,” he notes. Then, sensing the obvious question, he adds: “It’s not about age. It’s about the environment you grew up in – the behaviours you developed as a kid. That changes your imagination. And it’s not good or bad. Just different.”
So, is it really not a matter of youthful exuberance? That once life has delivered a few upsets, stability – however illusory – might start to look appealing? He shakes his head, unconvinced. “People who work independently earn more, on average,” he says.
The numbers back him up: In the US, freelance software developers earn around US$111,800 per year, compared to US$108,900 for full-time employees. Admittedly, not all industries follow that pattern. “Maybe some will change direction,” he allows, “but not all the way back to the office. And sometimes it’s even easier to change direction when you’re independent.”
For Shynkarenko, the traditional roadmap – school, university, career – feels increasingly outdated. “It’s deterministic,” he says, “and the new generation doesn’t like that.” He points to how fast professions now appear and vanish. “In 2021, there wasn’t a single prompt engineer,” he notes. “Now there are millions. And maybe in ten years, the profession will disappear completely.” In a world where jobs are created and erased at such velocity, he believes that adaptability – not stability – will define success. Workers will have to recycle their past experiences into new forms of value, using each chapter as a launchpad for the next. “And I have good news for us,” he adds with a grin. “What makes humans successful on this planet is our ability to adapt to almost anything. So now we face the next challenge – and I think we’ll manage it, just like we always have.”
(Original photo by TADOBI)
This interview first appeared in the October edition of GOLD magazine. Click here to view it.
