

Freelancers:  High quality projects. Prompt payment. - startupstella
https://matchist.com/talent

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JoeCortopassi
10% fee so that I don't have to deal with non-payment issues or even _finding_
new projects would be _game-changing_ for quite a few freelancers out there.
But to do this, two major hurdles must be accomplished:

1) _Matchist needs to show that they can do this_. Waiting for developers to
take a leap of faith is a fools game. Show me how you intend to ensure prompt
payment, filter out cheap clients, and consistently provide work, and I would
gladly pay as high as a 30% fee. But if you expect people to trust a new
company out of the blue, all you will get is developers with no other options,
and chances are there is a reason they have no other options.

2) _Matchist needs to give the clients a way to ensure that they will receive
quality work_. The clients seeking the work are the ones that can hang
themselves out to dry using this system, so what value does it add for them?
If you can show only the best freelancers available are picked, chances are
very good there will be a line out the proverbial door to use your service.
But this is a reputation that needs to be built or _clearly explained_

~~~
startupstella
Hey Joe, these are great points. As startup people, we all take risks on new
services. Innovation would never work if people didn't take risks and only
used what they were familiar with. You can look at the founders of the company
and see that we have good experience: I'm an entrepreneur who's used to
working with devs (founding member of FeeFighters) and my partner is a
developer who used to be freelance and would have loved this service. We speak
technical and understand the challenges. 2) We are working on building our
reputation and will only be as good as our matches...especially in the
beginning. I'd be happy to chat with you (or anyone) and clearly explain
everything that goes into matching...it just all doesnt fit on a landing page!

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alanstorm
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.

~~~
startupstella
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.

~~~
andyjsong
how are you guys different from GroupTalent?

~~~
startupstella
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.

~~~
andyjsong
GT does work with startups. Most projects I was offered were in the idea phase
or prototypes.

~~~
startupstella
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

~~~
andyjsong
They do both, but they have been moving towards a team package.

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jemka
I enjoyed finding the commented out testimonials from Mickey Mouse and Sergey
Brin.

~~~
timjahn
Easter eggs FTW!

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hooande
This looks interesting. How does Machist get their clients? And what do they
do to ensure client quality? A bad client who doesn't really know what they
want, or over/under communicates can be a burden. I feel like the only way to
attract top clients is to build a great reputation with top devs, which is
like a chicken/egg thing.

And how does the communication with clients work? Does matchist drop you off
once you're on the job, leaving you to your own devices with the client? Or do
they help out/mediate along the way? And how do they continue to collect their
10% fee after communication has been established between freelancer and
client? Freelance projects can drag on for a long time. What happens if the
client doesn't like the work and refuses to pay, or wants infinite changes and
additions?

Many people have balked at a 10% fee, but I'm great with that as long as
finding work requires 0 effort on my part. I do wonder about how well this
will scale

~~~
timjahn
Great questions!

"How does Machist get their clients?" We are utilizing a combination of
content marketing, working our own networks, and participating in various
startup communities to find entrepreneurial clients looking to build their
betas and MVPs.

"And what do they do to ensure client quality?" We used a combination of a
personal phone call and their submitted information to determine the quality
of the client and their submitted project.

"And how does the communication with clients work?" Once we've matched you and
the client has funded the first milestone through our payment system, you're
set off on your own to get your work done. When you need to communicate with
the client, you can do so using the matchist internal messaging. Each time you
need to get paid or have a client fund a milestone, you will do so through the
matchist interface.

"Or do they help out/mediate along the way?" If you and your client can't come
to an agreement about a dispute, we're happy to step in and help out.

We're in the process of getting a developer FAQ page up to get all these
common questions answered immediately for ya.

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awolf
When I read

> Our payment platform requires that clients use escrow for guaranteed timely
> payment.

it makes me think that matchist takes a %-based cut. If this is the case then
I want nothing to do with them. And if this is _not_ the case then they should
really re-work their copy to avoid setting off alarm bells in potential
customer's heads.

~~~
timjahn
We take a 10% fee from the developer's payment. We understand that might not
be everybody's cup of tea and we're open to any constructive feedback you
might have.

~~~
whichdan
Yeah, you absolutely need an FAQ - there's hardly any copy on the site.

I think something like a 5% cut would be reasonable if the entire process was
pain free. Maybe 10% for a one-off project, or 5% if you maintain a $49/mo
subscription.

You could also partner with other companies to add value to the $49 - like a
curated "special offers" page for services that a freelancer could use or
resell to their clients.

~~~
timjahn
Developer FAQ page is up for ya.

<https://matchist.com/developer-faq>

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danenania
This is a great idea. Screening clients in addition to developers creates the
right kind of marketplace for both sides, one that is focused more on quality
work than price. If you screen effectively and still have enough good clients
left over, this will bring in the strong developers, which will in turn
generate greater interest from clients. Kudos! I hope you can pull it off.

~~~
timjahn
Appreciate your support!

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mkhattab
I'm curious to know what the difference this service and the one oDesk
provides? The %-cut is the same, minus the more personal service from
matchist, I'm assuming.

The site doesn't explain the vetting process, which is something that I'm also
curious about.

~~~
timjahn
Great question. oDesk is great for a lot of things. But from our chats with
freelance developers, they don't find oDesk great for finding quality clients
worth the time and money to work with.

At matchist, we're focusing more on the vetting process and less on finding
the cheapest developer around.

------
fHbjKlf6
I'm getting a 'Error 503 Service Unavailable'

~~~
timjahn
Sorry about that! Getting HNed. :(

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gfr2023
this is pretty cool, personally I'd part with 10% to only deal with vetted
clients and be paid on time.

Minor point - I think the min width of your layout is too large (Chrome).
Especially with the right justified navigation, I didn't even see the last two
links and on the home page I've got to do some side scrolling.

~~~
timjahn
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it!

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hntester123
How is payment to developers done? Do they need a PayPal account? or other
way? Is there more than one way to get paid?

~~~
timjahn
Right now, you can either be paid through PayPal or be mailed a check. We'll
have ACH very soon. If you have other suggestions, we're all ears!

~~~
hntester123
Thanks. I suggest SWIFT - <http://www.swift.com> \- as another option - if you
also plan to offer this to people (developers and/or consumers (of developer's
work) outside the US. It's been around for ever, and is reliable and used by
zillions of businesses worldwide. I've used it myself with no issues.

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hntester123
Is the service US-only? I seem to remember reading something like that on HN
recently in another thread.

~~~
timjahn
At the moment, we are accepting U.S. based developers only. We hope to change
that down the road. I know that's a shitty answer, but due to our payments
provider, and the fact that we don't want to jump in the deep end right away,
that's how we're rolling for now.

~~~
hntester123
Okay. Please consider setting up a page to collect email addresses of non-U.S.
developers for if/when you expand to international later. WorkMarket does
that, IIRC.

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hnwh
What about US developers living abroad, working US time zones, with US bank
accounts?

~~~
startupstella
That's fine.

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pfisch
Has anyone used this before?

~~~
startupstella
we have about 100 developers signed up so far, and our success hinges on our
ability to make awesome matches for developers...so the more freelance devs
sign up, the better the matches will be :)

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Mc_Big_G
Just a Fyi, your form errors on emails with spaces before or after.

~~~
timjahn
Thanks!

