In 2008, Matt Dowling spent his last £300 on a lawyer to recover £11,000 that was owed to him from an unpaid invoice. The final attempt failed. Matt, a freelance photographer, was in debt, frustrated and desperate. The story made the paper and freelancers reached out with similar tales. Realising the need for support and a stop to the exploitation of creative freelancers, the first seeds of Freelancer Club were sown.

Not long after, Matt met Nina, a freelance model who had her own set of freelance challenges. They shared their experiences and wrote a list of all the things they wished they had access to when they started out. They always wanted Freelancer Club to be more than just a jobs board and vowed to dedicate their efforts to freelancers who felt helpless, lost or frustrated.

Today, Freelancer Club is one of the leading creative networks. Their campaign to end exploitative unpaid work, #NoFreeWork, has made huge headway and Matt Dowling has become one of the leading voices in the creative freelance community.