Third Bridge expert: what the calls, the published interviews and the pay terms say

A Third Bridge expert is a professional Third Bridge invites to share firsthand industry knowledge with its clients, either on a one-hour call with a single client or in an interview hosted by a Third Bridge analyst whose transcript goes to many subscribers. If Third Bridge has contacted you, work out which of the two you are being offered, because they differ in who hears you, whether your name travels with what you say and how the fee is set. Third Bridge publishes its expert contracts but not its rates, so everything below comes from its own pages and terms.

1. Third Bridge finds you, usually for a one-hour call

Third Bridge's network is invitation-based. Its expert page says "we'll contact you directly when we have a project," and that engagements typically take the form of a one-hour direct phone call with a client. Surveys, panel events and longer advisory work are the other options it lists. Its expert calls page tells clients it has over 1.5 million individually recruited experts.

Reply fast. The same expert page says experts who respond within three hours are twice as likely to be selected.

2. Analyst-led interviews are published to people you will never meet

The second format used to be called a Forum Interview: a 2021 page from Third Bridge's old expert help center, saved by the Internet Archive in January 2022, described an hour-long phone discussion moderated by a Third Bridge team member who prepares the questions. That help center is gone, so rely on the contract for how the format works today.

Third Bridge's current content production terms (last revised September 2026) call this an Analyst-led Interview: an interactive discussion hosted by Third Bridge, "transcribed and/or recorded and distributed to Third Bridge clients." The same terms cover shorter formats too, such as Primer Interviews (a high-level company overview with a pre-prepared question list), quarterly Trend Tracker interviews and written Expert Commentary on a transcript. Clients read the results through the Third Bridge Library, and the same page advertises more than 100,000 expert transcripts.

Three clauses in those terms change the deal for you:

• Third Bridge owns what you say. It is "the sole owner of all intellectual property rights in Content," and you waive your moral rights in it.
• Your name can travel with it. For analyst-led interviews and other content you consent to, Third Bridge may share your name and employment history with clients. It will not show your name on its public website or a public third-party platform without your consent, but it may show your professional position and the date.
• There is a 14-day quiet period. For seven days before and seven days after an analyst-led interview, you agree not to join another recorded group discussion on substantially the same subject whose recording or transcript reaches Third Bridge clients.

Short version: treat an analyst-led interview like an article published under your job title. If you would not sign it, do not say it.

Tegus works the same way, recording calls and publishing them to subscribers; our post on Tegus expert calls covers that model in detail.

3. A one-to-one call can be recorded as well

Do not assume a private call stays private. Third Bridge's expert terms and conditions (last revised December 2024) say that where a client has agreed to distribution, your consultations "may be recorded by or on behalf of Third Bridge," and that taking part counts as consent to the recording and the transcript. Third Bridge owns those recordings and may publish them, though the terms say your name will not be included in transcripts distributed to third parties. The client, separately, is "free to use the content, transcripts and derivative works of the Consultations for any purpose whatsoever."

The expert calls page shows why: Third Bridge offers clients recordings, multilingual transcripts and AI-generated call summaries with their calls.

4. You are paid an agreed rate, by the minute, within about 30 days

The expert terms and conditions set out the pay rules for one-to-one consultations:

• Third Bridge pays "the agreed upon rate" for each completed consultation, prorated to the minutes you spent with the client.
• You confirm the consultation within two business days in Third Bridge's web application, entering the duration, the agreed rate and your bank details.
• Payment is due within 30 days of the later of your valid payment application and the client's confirmation that the call took place.
• If a consultation ends early because of a conflict, you are paid for the time spent plus an additional 15 minutes.
• No payment is due for consultations that do not take place, for any reason.
• You work as an independent contractor, not as a Third Bridge employee.

For analyst-led interviews, the content production terms say Third Bridge confirms your total fee in writing and pays within 30 days of the interview date. They do not say whether that fee is hourly or flat, so ask before you accept.

Here is a made-up example. Tomasz used to run the vehicle fleet for a parcel carrier and agrees a $250 hourly rate with Third Bridge. The client gets what it needs in 48 minutes. Tomasz is paid $200 (48 minutes at $250 an hour, our arithmetic). He logs the call in Third Bridge's web application that evening, well inside the two-business-day deadline, because the 30-day payment clock cannot start until his payment application is in.

5. What Third Bridge does not publish

Third Bridge publishes no rate card, typical rate or range for experts. The compensation section of its current help center says only "Watch this space." It also says nothing public about what analyst-led interviews pay, or how your rate compares with what clients pay Third Bridge.

Pay figures for Third Bridge do circulate on blogs and anonymous forums. Nobody can check them, so this post leaves them out.

To pick your number, use the approach in how much GLG pays: choose the lowest rate you would be glad to accept for an awkward hour, hold it for a few projects, and raise it when you turn down more invitations than you accept. AlphaSights expert pay works on the same agreed-hourly-rate model if you want a second comparison.

6. The compliance rules decide which calls you can take

Third Bridge's expert terms and conditions and Expert Code of Conduct set the rules. The ones that rule people out most often:

• Your employer. No consultations principally about a company you work for or are connected with, and you must not knowingly consult for a competitor of your current employer. Your contract may require your employer's prior consent, and the code says you must have all necessary approvals and must not accept work that breaches a duty to a current or former employer.
• Confidential and inside information. Never share confidential information or material non-public information. The content production terms add a useful test: if you are unsure whether information is public, do not disclose it.
• Special roles. You must disclose government work in the past two years. Auditors may not comment on companies they audited in the previous three years. Medical professionals may not discuss unpublished trial results. Nobody may consult while their employer is going through a tender offer or an IPO.
• No advice. You may not give investment, legal, financial, accounting or medical advice.
• No AI help. The code says you must not use any form of artificial intelligence, such as large language models, to answer questions from Third Bridge or its clients.

If a call drifts into territory you cannot discuss, the code tells you to end it early and report the issue to Third Bridge immediately. Before your first call, read our guide to material non-public information, and see what happens on an expert network call for the screening questions and the hour itself.

7. Say yes to the call before you say yes to the interview

Take a one-to-one call when you know the topic firsthand, your employer allows outside consulting, and the rate is one you would accept on a bad day. The audience is one client, and your name stays off transcripts that Third Bridge distributes to others.

Take an analyst-led interview only if you are comfortable with a permanent transcript, attached to your job history, being read by subscribers for years. Ask for the fee in writing first, and check that the 14-day quiet period does not clash with a conference panel or another network's recorded session.

Decline both if the topic is your current employer or a direct competitor. The expert terms contain no exclusivity clause, so you can join other networks too; our list of expert network companies covers the main ones. Two clauses still bind you: for a year after your last call with a client, you may not contact or solicit that client directly (a pre-existing relationship is an exception), and the client's identity and the rate you agreed with Third Bridge are confidential.

In the US, expert fees paid to an independent contractor count as self-employment income. The IRS says on its self-employment tax page that the rate is 15.3% (12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare) once net earnings reach $400, so set some of each payment aside.

Instant Expert works differently: a buyer invites you to a specific paid call or a written or voice answer, sets the amount up front, and you receive the full amount offered, or you can reply with your own higher price. You can claim your profile to set the rate buyers start from, or see open paid requests on the request board.

Answer Third Bridge's next invitation within three hours, and read which format it is before you reply.