Jersey City, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/15/2013 -- Heading into 2013, the world has never felt smaller. Workers and companies around the world are changing the way they work, leveraging globally distributed teams of on-demand experts to make their businesses flexible, agile and even entirely mobile. One company that is leading the charge in this bold new way of working is oDesk. With its online workplace servicing over 530,000 businesses and more than 2.8 million contract workers around the world, they’ve created the perfect vehicle for companies to go global or to exist completely in the cloud. One of the best examples of this new way of working is the drag-and-drop make your own mobile app building company:Infinite Monkeys.

In an article published by oDesk last week, Infinite Monkeys was spotlighted as a groundbreaking business using oDesk in new and innovative ways. In fact, Infinite Monkeys has become a virtual poster child for the oDesk philosophy of giving the world a new way to work. Jay Shapiro, CEO of Infinite Monkeys and self-described “Global Nomad,” started the company with a team of oDesk contractors spread across all six continents. Over the past 2 years, over 140 different contractors have participated in creating different aspects of the business, although that team is now settled in at a steady 30 to 40 contractors, it’s still as global as ever and the entire infrastructure of the company exists in the cloud.

Thanks to the platform provided by oDesk, Shapiro is not just theoretically able to virtually oversee his team contractors from anywhere in the world, he actually does. Many of the company’s weekly video conferences and progress updates are held by the side of a glacier or lakeshore, as Shapiro and his family travel around the world in their custom built “EcoRoamer” vehicle.

Connecting via satellite and 4G network signals, Shapiro has designed the EcoRoamer to be not just his rolling global expedition vehicle, but it also serves as global headquarters for the Infinite Monkeys business. According to the oDesk article, “Brought under one roof, Shapiro’s team would need about 4,000 square feet, plus support services and equipment — costs that could choke a startup launching in a conventional way.”

Additionally, given the fact that the team’s contractors are spread across the world, there is no such thing as company downtime with at least some of the staff “on the clock” at any hour of the day.

The oDesk / Infinite Monkeys combination is a perfect marriage of two forward-thinking businesses who’ve experienced quick growth and success while bolstering the emergence of global, mobile workforces. Infinite Monkeys saw tens of thousands of small business customers signed up with their app building platform in the first nine months, a feat due largely in part to the vast and talented pool of oDesk contractors.

"It's an honor to be one of the first companies spotlighted for our global business model by oDesk," states Shapiro. “We’ve really capitalized on their platform in building Infinite Monkeys and it's a large part of the reason we’ve enjoyed so many successes while providing an easy, zero-cost entry to the app marketplace for our small business customers.”

About Infinite Monkeys
Infinite Monkeys is a self-serve free app maker that enables anyone to build your own mobile app for iPhone, Android & HTML5 smartphones - without any coding. With three pricing options, from free to just $99, Infinite Monkeys brings custom mobile apps within the reach of small businesses. By servicing the long-tail of niche interests with free and low-cost apps, Infinite Monkeys aims to be the largest publisher of free mobile apps by the end of 2013.

To learn more about how Infinite Monkeys is transforming the Mobile App Economy, please visit http://www.infinitemonkeys.mobi and follow @oo_monkeys on Twitter

About oDesk
oDesk (http://www.oDesk.com) is the world’s largest online workplace, enabling businesses and contractors to work together without geographic limits.

By using technology to remove the barriers of traditional hiring, oDesk’s platform aligns businesses’ talent needs with contractors’ desire to work when and where they want, on projects of their choosing. More than 530,000 clients and 2.8 million contractors are registered on oDesk.

oDesk is a registered trademark of oDesk Corporation. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.