Background
Bright Development, a US-based boutique agency founded by Greg Jacoby, has carved out a strong presence in branding, web development, web and mobile application development, and marketing support services. While they don’t manage paid ad campaigns, their team specializes in helping clients launch products, implement automation, and build custom business logic. With around 25 employees, Bright Development has maintained a flawless reputation on Upwork, holding 100% Job Success Score, Top Rated Plus status, Expert-Vetted recognition, and a history of exclusively five-star reviews. Over the years, this has translated into more than $600K earned on the platform.
When Greg first joined Upwork in 2018, his motivation was more curiosity than confidence.
I didn’t have a lot of faith in platforms like Upwork. I didn’t think they could be useful. But at the time, this agency was very new, so I decided to experiment.
The Initial Approach and Its Limitations
In the early days, Greg handled all bidding personally, committing to a level of outreach that would exhaust most freelancers. He sent between 100 and 200 proposals per day, often reaching 5,000 to 6,000 proposals before securing the first job. His winning formula was simple: keep proposals very short, just two or three sentences, acknowledge the client’s problem, explain how Bright Development could help, and request a quick call.
The timing was critical.
If I could respond to someone’s listing within an hour of them posting it, with a short proposal like that, I had a very decent chance they’d respond to me and start a conversation.
The method worked well for about a year, but scaling became a major challenge as the agency grew. Greg tried training new hires to write proposals his way, but Bright Development’s broad range of services made it difficult to find people with the necessary expertise.
It was almost impossible to train someone to write proposals effectively without broad knowledge. And if they had that knowledge, they were worth more than a small hourly rate to send proposals.
Attempts to delegate proposal writing to virtual assistants also fell short. The lack of industry-specific understanding meant that even short proposals weren’t hitting the same quality level. Greg and his business partner eventually shared the responsibility with a few top project managers, but it still consumed valuable time.
Early Automation Experiments
The release of ChatGPT opened new possibilities. Greg began using virtual assistants supported by AI to write proposals. The AI helped fill the knowledge gaps, while assistants focused on job selection and customization. The approach improved efficiency but still required oversight and refinement.
This period of experimentation made Greg more open to exploring dedicated automation platforms, though he remained cautious. That’s when he came across GigRadar. He doesn’t recall the exact moment of discovery, but remembers his initial reaction:
I was quite skeptical, but I decided to give it a try.
Switching to GigRadar
The results came quickly. After just a few weeks of optimization, Greg found GigRadar’s proposals to be nearly on par with his own.
It was about as effective as me personally writing the proposals, which was pretty incredible.
In the first two months, the agency’s interview rate with GigRadar was only one or two percentage points lower than Greg’s personal best. For six months, Bright Development ran GigRadar alongside manual bidding, until the numbers proved automation could fully replace manual work. The agency stopped writing proposals manually altogether.
Greg credits the success to two main factors: the strong foundation of Bright Development’s Upwork profile and GigRadar’s ability to deliver consistent, high-quality proposals.
We’ve had 100% job success score for a long time, Top Rated Plus, Expert-Vetted status, amazing case studies, and nothing but five-star reviews that obviously gives a leg up. But also, the platform is genuinely built really well. It’s one of the few tools that I can honestly give a good review for without really any major downsides.
Impact on Operations
Today, Bright Development’s bidding process on Upwork is fully automated. Manual proposal writing is gone, replaced by continuous optimization of GigRadar’s filters and targeting. The team uses the automatic job disqualification model to avoid irrelevant projects, and leverages Laziza AI to produce more compelling cover letters.
Greg values the platform’s flexibility and responsiveness to client feedback. He points to recent updates that allow more precise filtering as examples of how GigRadar evolves alongside user needs. Still, he sees room for improvement in two key areas:
- Giving the AI the ability to “learn” and replicate a client’s unique voice and tone.
- Further enhancing the precision of automatic job disqualification to eliminate edge cases.
Most proposals being sent out on Upwork today are generated by AI. The key is to keep them personal and unique, and that’s where I hope GigRadar keeps pushing forward.
Measurable Results
Since switching to GigRadar:
- The agency has sustained nearly the same interview rate as during its best manual bidding period.
- Bright Development has surpassed $600K in Upwork earnings.
- The Upwork profile continues to rank among the platform’s elite with 100% JSS, Top Rated Plus, and Expert-Vetted status.
- Significant time and labor costs have been saved by eliminating manual bidding.
- Management resources are now focused on high-value client work rather than repetitive outreach.
Greg also highlights the quick return on investment:
The investment paid for itself within months through time savings, reduced labor costs, and consistent new project wins.
Looking Ahead
Greg’s long-term hope is that GigRadar will continue to stay ahead of the growing sea of generic AI-generated proposals. For him, personalization is the next frontier in proposal automation, and a crucial differentiator on platforms like Upwork.
His advice to other agencies considering GigRadar is straightforward: maintain a top-tier Upwork profile, refine your job filters regularly, and don’t underestimate the power of standing out with a unique, authentic proposal style, even when it’s AI-assisted.
If you want to save hundreds of hours on proposal writing and still win high-quality Upwork projects, GigRadar is a no-brainer. It’s as close as you can get to having your best salesperson bidding for you 24/7.
