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by alanstorm 5000 days ago
TL;DR; If you have the talent to do the sort of work these sorts of services require, then you have the ability to do it without them.

Just my two cents here (with the caveat I could be talking out of my behind since I don't know these people), but I'd discourage anyone considering a career in freelance design/development from using these sorts of services.

The hardest part of making a long term go at this sort of work is learning how to sell yourself and having the hard discussions about business, money, and commitments. Using these sorts of services rob you of that experience, and your working relationship ends up being more employee than independent, but without the hard fought protections employees deserve.

What these services promise you is high quality projects, and an escrow service for getting paid. You can, and should, set these sorts of protections yourself. If you are going to try out these sorts of services as training wheels, be sure to carefully read anything they have you sign, and make sure it could never be used to impact your future, 100% independent career.

1 comments

Those are all great points, but I want to differentiate matchist from "these sorts of services." We focus on making quality connections to people you would otherwise not meet (whether geographic barriers, time limits, etc). Services in the past have worked on automating these interactions and end up in a price war towards the bottom: we get to know devs as people and only give them projects they would pick themselves. We want to streamline freelance so that freelancers do what they do best instead of being in meetings all day.
how are you guys different from GroupTalent?
My understanding is that GroupTalent works with bigger companies to subcontract freelance talent. We are not working with large companies, but entrepreneurs/agencies/smaller entities.
GT does work with startups. Most projects I was offered were in the idea phase or prototypes.
that's good to know. another difference is that GT works with teams (correct me if I'm wrong) and matchist is currently one developer matching per project
They do both, but they have been moving towards a team package.