[bbeneschott]

Background: I am the COO of Toptal

This is simply not true for Toptal. Our publicly stated $80,000,000 ARR is top line.

http://www.toptal.com/press-center/top-3-percent

For additional clarification:

You don't post "projects" on Toptal. Everything we do is time & materials, so the concept of misrepresenting financials based on posted projects simply isn't possible. ARR is calculated by actual sales right now multiplied out for a year of time.