| Full disclosure: I work with Gigster. We noticed the same broken things here. I don't want to give Elance/UpWork too hard a time - they can be good for some things (like Data Entry, etc) but clearly their model has some issues when it comes to development projects. Where our model is different is that all of our projects have a dedicated Product Manager who overseas the build for fixed-price projects. The developers and clients deal directly with the project's PM (not with each other). That saves time for the client. It adds a layer but this counter-intuitively improves communication. I speak broken Spanish. So if I run into a Spanish speaker who speaks broken English then we can communicate. That's fine if we're doing something simple but if the nuance of different words matters then we'll do much better if we have a professional translator who's a native speaker in both languages in between us. I actually interviewed the former CEO of oDesk for my blog a few years ago (long before Gigster existed) so I've been following this space and thinking about where it's heading for a while. That's why I agree with the OP about the opportunity for a new platform to rise in this space and the fundamental issue that a race to the bottom will impact the quality of the build. @jalopy & @mithaldu - I think what you're alluding to is the simplicity of not having to deal with all the pain of being a freelancer (client management, paperwork, etc). That's our appeal to developers: we give them specs and they can just focus on building, not marketing themselves, client management, etc. @logn - Eerily similar to how we operate. |