Ask HN: Thoughts on current freelance/fractional work platforms

4 points by v1l 4y ago ↗ HN

Many of these abound but these are the problems I found that make them untrustworthy or unsavory to use (both as company and as freelancer):

- they don't focus on experienced talent which makes finding proven talent on these platforms a needle in haystack problem (upwork)

- the platform tries to be the middleman and take a cut of true freelancer rate (toptal)

- they'll make you jump through multiple screening hoops in their pursuit of top 1%/3% bs marketing (toptal + others)

You either spending a ton of time finding people and projects and sifting through low quality talent + low paid work or the platform will take a cut.

I keep thinking there must be room for a niche (small overall size) marketplace that focuses on proven (experienced) talent only as evident from their past companies/roles and does not try to dip into earnings.

What do you think?

2 comments

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bdcravens 4y ago ↗

There's a demand for what you describe, but you have to consider to cost to curate quality developers. Whatever quality angle you think you have will be gamed, and you need to processes in place to verify and validate.

v1l 4y ago ↗

You're right -- which is why I think curation/review should be light and based on simple/visible heuristics (experience + prior companies and roles) and then use client reviews as a way to curate further. This would naturally mean the platform probably lets in fewer people, but on the balance, quality goes up.

As a consultant/freelancer, you are being hired for specific expertise and experience. You need to demonstrate value relatively quickly. So if you can't do well what you claim, you'll get caught and the platform can take that into account.

The commitment expectations are different for freelancers vs full-time hires. It's ok to fire a freelancer when you want, as soon as you want. So if you're going to game it, you won't last long.