Show HN: Orbit – Weekly list of software contractors ready for immediate work
moonlightwork.com
moonlightwork.com
What differentiates us from other sites is that we have quality contractors who are not normally in the contractor market. 62% of our 1000+ contractors have day jobs at technology companies. at companies like Facebook and Google.
We've realized through user testing that clients like to see who is available and how much time they have to work each week, before they submit a problem to the contractor community. So, today we’re releasing that as a product!
Orbit is a weekly email of top software contractors ready immediate work. We have 1000+ contractors with backgrounds like “Frontend team at Facebook” and “Former Android Team at Google.” When you sign up for Orbit, we’ll send you the latest issue - and inside you can read about some of the projects where Moonlighters have made an impact.
If you’re interested in contracting through Moonlight - you can sign up here: https://www.moonlightwork.com/apply
Thinking about it. Couldn't find any info on your site (from a contractor / freelancer perspective), so asking here.
1) How does it work once someone submits that typeform? what is your criteria for approval?
2) Who decided the hourly rate for the contractor? You or the Contractor?
3) The Orbit landing page says "Richa S 165$ / hour", "Jacob L" 150$ / hour. Are these real people or placeholders? Cos I couldn't click them to view their profile.
4) How much of the "165$ / hour" does Richa S get once approved by a client for work, assuming you (moonlightwork) take a cut. Is that negotiable between you and the contractor? Is it a 1 time fee or on-going based on the hourly rate?
5) Is the work done as 1099 Contractors? or W2?
6) Anything else you can add here, that will help potential prospects decide if this is worth applying for.
1) How does it work once someone submits that typeform? what is your criteria for approval?
We do some basic screening that the person says who they are. However, we accept a variety of backgrounds - you can see that, on this week's Orbit, hourly rates ranged from $20 to $150/hour.
We keep Moonlight more of a pure marketplace. Multiple contractors can submit proposals on a project, and the client chooses who to work with. Proposals are structured and short - what's your rate, how many hours do you think it will take you, and why are you a good fit for the job. We've found that clients care more about relevant experience than pure cost. Average hourly rate has been over $100/hour thus far.
2) Who decided the hourly rate for the contractor? You or the Contractor?
The contractor sets their own rate. Moonlight adds a 15% fee on top, paid by the client. As I described in our proposal system above, it really is a pure marketplace - the customer determines whether the cost is aligned with value.
3) The Orbit landing page says "Richa S 165$ / hour", "Jacob L" 150$ / hour. Are these real people or placeholders? Cos I couldn't click them to view their profile.
We recently built out a lot of landing pages (see our sitemap.xml). We also value privacy of our contractors, so contractors only get added to the marketing website when they opt into being featured. So, I wrote a system that fills in contractors on landing pages by finding real contractors with the matched skills, then backfilling with pseudo-identities. However, I just realized that the Orbit page had a misconfiguration that caused only pseudoidentities to be filled in - so I'm pushing a fix now that should fix this and make 100% of the contractors on the Orbit page real.
Regarding "I couldn't click them to view their profile"- in the spirit of YC's "build things that don't scale", we've been running Moonlight off of spreadsheets and emails as we navigate product/market fit. This process has started to become painful recently, though - so we're working on an app, which should be online this month.
4) How much of the "165$ / hour" does Richa S get once approved by a client for work, assuming you (moonlightwork) take a cut. Is that negotiable between you and the contractor? Is it a 1 time fee or on-going based on the hourly rate?
The client pays a 15% processing fee in addition to the contractor's hourly rate. The contractor gets paid their full stated hourly rate via direct deposit.
5) Is the work done as 1099 Contractors? or W2?
1099 for USA-based contractors. We use Payable to provide the 1099.
6) Anything else you can add here, that will help potential prospects decide if this is worth applying for.
We're trying to make it as low friction as possible. If you're a contractor - you can just sign up and see what kind of matches you get. If you're a company, you can now sign up for Orbit and see what kind of talent is available and at what cost.
Also I would be on the high end of your $70-200/hr range, and I've heard a lot of stories of Toptal members being pressured to charge low rates. If you can give me work that pays better than my own current rate, without a big time investment up front, then I'd be very interested.
I must say Toptal sure has great PR! They have really positioned themselves as the place to go if you want to hire elite people. But I'm skeptical given the effort to apply and the rumors about lower-than-promised rates, so maybe you can beat them in terms of client satisfaction and customer retention.
I noticed your site has a weird double scroll thing (Firefox on Ubuntu), and the freelancer signup form has triple scroll bars. Seems like a detail worth fixing.
In the video you seemed to really resist their advice to start out handling things manually (like invoices). I guess that was two months ago, but you might want to listen to them a little more. :-)
Anyway I'm pretty booked for the summer but I still might sign up just to get on your list and see if you can boost my rate. Good luck! :-)
Rather than pure web development, our early projects have included data processing, applying machine learning, and lots of dev-ops work. I think that variety of projects keeps things interesting, and in fact 39% of contractors say that they use Moonlight to work on technology different than their day jobs.
As I mentioned in a previous comment, we operate as more of a pure marketplace. If the hourly rate misaligns with a contractor's abilities, that basically means that they will not get as many projects.
Can you email me details on your version of Firefox? We're using http://Bulma.io for css - does the same thing happen on their website? (I'm philip at moonlightwork.com)
Regarding doing things manually - we've embraced it entirely. Moonlight operates off of spreadsheets and emails at this point. Our login page doesn't work, and signup is powered by Typeform + Zapier. We use Paid Labs for invoices, and Payable for paying contractors.
Because of non-scalable approach, piloting Orbit and launching it took one day (and got us new projects on the first test among existing clients). We've identified the part of an application that are most important to build, and are hoping to start rolling out pieces this month.
One benefit of contracting through a company is a long due diligence process before starting. This is helpful to set realistic expectations. Is there any process at Orbit for something similar, or is it Grindr for devs and work?
We also try to keep tasks small. I think that a 10 hour task lets both sides test working together (and get paid in the process), and if things work out well - then they can continue working on tasks.
If you want to update anything - please email us! (team at moonlightwork.com).
As we talk about things like universal basic income, I think we also need to rethink the idea of a workweek. The contractors on Moonlight are not junior - 48% have 10+ years experience in technology (and 76% have 5+ years). I think it's a sign that what people expect in terms of work is changing.
As a contractor, I am able to sell as little hours as I want. Working from a thailand beach. Or Tokyo. Or Las Vegas, where I currently reside.
I can operate this as a business. Meaning that I can immediately reinvest the money into a side venture without taking the employment tax hit.
I can set my own hours, work other projects, don't answer to a boss and don't dance with HR.
I make 4x the cash I could make working a real job. I don't get fucked over on overtime.
Does moonlightwork beat working a very senior position at google headquarters? Probably not. But not everyone has the means or ambition or willingness to do the SF grind.
Doing contract work is a very easy path to becoming a millionaire if you're good. You can easily take home 250k+ here. Live whereever you want. Its a very easy life.
I've never been inside an office and I will never be. Never going to be stuck in traffic. Or with people I don't like. Always around my loved ones.
As far as those platforms are concerned, Moonlight Work is easily the best. All the power to Emma and Phillip. I don't know their numbers, but they will make it big. Sky is the limit, guys.
I'd immediately come work for them if they offered me a job.
These guys only charge 15% on top of what you make. That's a joke. They could easily justify 35%. Moonlight Work is the shit. Screw the haters.
Not all entrepreneurs have to be product-based. I have friends who are sales experts and know no engineering, but have setup successful reseller businesses (e.g. of Cisco products). I think that freelancing for engineers can be very similar - you don't have to make a product or raise funding to get the flexibility associated with being an entrepreneur.
Regarding remote work - after I shut down my last startup, I started freelancing, then promptly sold all my stuff and moved to Mexico City (where I am now). It's been liberating to live on my own terms.