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Hi Cory, this site does look like it’s off to a pretty good start. I definitely like the Typeform’s design! Some quick first impressions: - You’ll definitely need more social proof. The site says that “many” companies use it, but there aren’t any numbers, names, or testimonials. Similarly, there isn’t anything describing who the freelancers are or what kind of experience they’ve had so far on the site. Since you just made the site, you won’t have that in the beginning. But press coverage is another way to start building your authority. - For clients, it’s not enough to look for just any developer. They’ll generally know which technology stack or languages they are looking for, or at the very least have a few platforms they’re considering. So wearing the client hat, going onto the site kind of feels like a black box. - I’m in a few freelance Facebook groups and Slack communities. On the freelancers’ side, a common objection we have with job sites is that so many of them promise to be “the one site we need to save our business”, but then the sites woefully underdeliver - which leads to a lack of trust, a lot of stale profiles, and just a few people per skill getting all the work. You’ll really need to think through that as you open up the site to new freelancers. There’s also a significant fragmentation problem with sites that require/encourage portfolios without just allowing an external portfolio link. Freelancers may also have objections around unfavorable payment arrangements, free work, tire-kicking clients, and sites that act like they’re the only place where the freelancer ever finds work. - The site also doesn’t really set an expectation of pricing, budget, or client experience. As a full-time independent consultant, I’m pretty well aware of freelance marketplaces that just turn into a race-to-the-bottom price competition. Still, it’s good to at least set a ballpark expectation of - for example, “these are senior developers in North America” - so that clients have a good sense of what they need in order to be here. - On a related note, think through what kind of objections freelance clients typically encounter when they hire developers. If you’re a freelancer yourself or the developers you’re starting out with freelance full-time, they could at least help with this outreach. Some objections I can think of off the top of my head, as a former onshore developer for a small business with a mixed onshore/offshore team, might include these: their time zones are way different, their communication skills aren’t up to par, they require additional management handholding, or their resumes look a lot more impressive then they are after we hire them. - You might want to bring some aspects of your Typeform into your landing page. Think about what the pain points or objections are around clients who want less realistic project constraints (e.g. “it needs to be done yesterday for $2k”), and how you protect both client and freelancer in both that and more ideal working arrangements. Pain/Dream/Fix is a helpful formula for thinking about what causes a client or freelancer to want to come to your site, what they want to achieve, and how they can get there. |