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Co-Founders for a Freelance Platform
I’m looking for cofounders to build a freelance platform. If you are interested in joining the team, please message me.
The main thing that will make this website different is that we’ll be charging a lower platform fee and we’ll be a lot more freelancer optimised than Upwork and Fiverr.
This is something to give you some perspective. The freelance market is worth 1.5 trillion USD. And the total market cap of all Upwork, Fiverr and Toptal is 15 billion. That’s the potential market I am targeting… people who have their own websites and have to maintain it etc…
I am still at the idea stage but I have contacted pre-seed investors and almost got another teen to code the site. If you are interested in coding (or anything else you will be able to contribute), please reply to this post or send me a message.
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9 Replies
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That is a great idea! One thing that I have noticed with freelancing sites is that it is a lot more consumer controlled. I think it is a great idea to have one that gives the freelancers more input. Awesome Niche to tap into.
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Your timing couldn’t be better with the COVID pandemic since everyone is trying to sell their skills/time as a side hustle.
Just some questions to think about: how do you think you could differentiate yourself enough and make it adequately freelancer optimized, especially when your competitors have 100x your budget? How are you going to get your initial set of consumers and freelancers on the site? How are you going to achieve that lower fee on startup margins; are you going to sacrifice profitability for it?
Sounds like a great idea and a market that can definitely be tapped into. Would love to see how it progresses, especially if you’re doing it legit with pre-seed funding.
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While the main thing that will make me different is the fact that I’ll be charging lower platform fees, there are other things that I’ll do differently. For some people the difference between a 20% platform fee and a 6% platform fee is the difference between leaving their job, buying a car or even buying a house in some cases. My competitors won’t be able to reduce the platform fee since they are already running at a loss.
I’ve already planned on how I can get my first users (though it’s a secret now).
As of now, I don’t have any plans of sacrificing profitability to get a lower platform fee. I’ll give you a more detailed answer once I get some traction on the website.
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Ah, I didn’t realize the big players charged 20%+ as their fee. That definitely gives you some wiggle room for making yours lower. If the financials check out and you already have a strategy for getting users, I think this has real potential.
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You are right that it is difficult for competitors to reduce their fee. However, something that you should consider is possible benefits outside of fees that other platforms have. For instance a larger client base for freelancers and a more solidified customer service base on hand.
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Yeah, I actually considered that. I’ll tell you my strategy after I start the company
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I like the idea as a whole but I struggle to see how you’d really be able to survive against the large & established players as a newcomer in the industry. How will you be able to offer something with your limited resources that they can’t or don’t already?
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Every investor I spoke to told the same thing. It’s too hard to compete against the established players even if I offer something they don’t have.
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That’s part of the struggle of these things. If you’re still interested in doing it, I’d say the best bet is to get some traction first and then try connecting with investors. But obviously, getting real customers, let alone building an MVP, is going to be difficult without backing. I think you have a solid idea here but investors are just going to want to see more from it.
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