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Ask HN: Would a oDesk/99designs co-op work?

8 points by biznerd ↗ HN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative

Sorta like Vanguard funds, if you're familiar with them.

Fees on these freelancer platforms are very high. In some cases, 99designs takes a 40% commission, for very little work.

I remember awhile back there was Scriptlance, which only cost $5 to post a job.

Now you might say this would only benefit freelancers. But if you think about it, the job providers would benefit too. If oDesk's commission on a contract is $500, that's $500 that could have gone to increase the payout. You'd be able to attract a better candidate or have the freelancer spend more time.

This wouldn't be for the money of course. And taking on the entrenched competition (with their network effects) would be hard.

6 comments

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fraXis
Are you planning on starting something like this? Contact me and let's talk.
macarthy12
contact me too
biznerd
Contacted you both
aunimh
I'd like to hear more about this as well and see if I can be helpful
biznerd
aunimh you have no contact information in your profile
xpto123
I think this would work but it would probably have to be country specific due to legal reasons.

I often wonder why this solution has not been adopted in many countries. I heard that in France this exists for example. There are probably legal barriers for this, otherwise it would have been in place a long time ago.