Ask HN: What can be done about freelance sites?
What in the existing freelance sites seem wrong to you, a problem needing solving which is a market opportunity?
Now in general, this market seem to be built in a way that prevents people's progress at every stage: starting out, growing as a professional, starting as a business, growing as a business.
At the begining we have a chicken and egg problem when nobody wants to hire you even if you are brilliant, until you have a stellar profile with a lot of experience - and lowering price doesn't really work, because the lower your price the higher the competition.
When the freelancer is past that stage, he has a problem of low rates in his history which makes him look like cheap labor, rising rates is very difficult.
And finally - it is difficulty to grow beyond an individual freelancer: many clients, for subjective reasons, don't want a company/agency, even those who definitely need one.
On the customer's side, it is a problem of fakes, and false impression of very low rates, which arise from a large number of profiles that bid with super low bids, but never get a job.
So, no surprise first advice to freelancers is usually 'avoid freelance sites'!
I fully understand that this is very hard since it is a two-sided market: to get freelancers you need clients and vice versa. But i think it is possible to make something to disrupt this market.
That is the biggest problem here? Anything you can think of on how to improve the market?
Thanks for inputs!