whather

Grouptalent dot com :). We're trying to solve this problem.

Most of the startups that are signed up have requested to work on short-term gigs (1-2 months long) full-time. Meaning, they focus on their contracting gig full-time and their startup part-time during that period. We only accept short-term projects on the platform, ranging from a week to 3 months tops.

Also, we've seen larger startups (4 or more people) that need to bootstrap tend to only give up a portion of their team to take a contracting gig while the rest of the team focuses on the startup. Not unlike raising a round of funding.

Assuming you guys are still together, then your team is still vetted. An incubator isn't required though, just helps us gauge talent. You should still apply.

True, but raising money is also a big distraction and can kill a startup. It really depends on the startup team and the route they want to go, whether raise money or bootstrap. Plus, you don't have to take a full-time project. You can choose to work 2-3 days a week or even weekends.

Going through an agency is fine, but they usually don't cater to team gigs and they take a pretty big percentage of your rate.

Awesome, nice looking site too. We feature both full-time and part-time projects, so feel free to fill out a startup profile anyways if you need work after your current gig.

Yeah definitely. We allow you to post your startup with any number of your founders. You can post a startup with only a single founder. And some of the smaller projects could easily be pumped out with a single talented dev.

Yes, and that's the primary reason we chose startups as a source of talent. They're a highly skilled, self-sufficient "swat team" that already have proven team fit.

Nonetheless, renting a startup or (team for that matter) is still a new concept for employers and they are used to paying an hourly rate for consulting gigs. If we start to see way more demand for flat-rate project from startups, we'll move in that direction.

A concern employers have with teams outside the US is the time-zone mismatch. Because Jamaica doesn't have this issue, and your company is registered in Delaware, definitely sign up.

Totally. It could even turn into a startup pre-incubator where your team can be vetted by working on a couple short-term gigs together (all while making money).

Totally agree. As of right now, our business in its current state isn't hugely scalable. We're high touch on both sides of the table. As we begin to scale, we'll have to make sure we maintain both talented startup teams and high quality projects. Because talent is in such high demand, it makes more sense to limit the signup of talented startups first and cater to the demand from employers. Then, slowly grow the startup pool.

Oh and one for my co-founders has connections in Australia if you're interested.

The feedback we've been getting from employers is that they're much more comfortable paying on an hourly basis. They're worried about a team abandoning a project half way through, etc.

We're exploring different ways to charge for projects as we move forward.

Thanks for the feedback marcamillion!

The wording on the last page of the wizard is old and should be changed. We are focused on accepting talented startup teams and knowing a team went through an incubator program does help vet them. We're not only accepting startups who are funded by an incubator program.

Our target market startup is one who was a finalist in a distinguished incubator program (top 50 or so). They've built a good product as a team, didn't quite make it in, but now need some bootstrapping cash to keep them going before raising a round of funding (if they choose to do so).

Oh, and our vision of the product is to allow team building within the site. A project is posted and they want 2 developers and 1 designer. If you're a developer, you could fill a developer slot and invite another dev/designer in your network or have us recommend one.

Most of the gigs we've gathered thus far have been through industry connections and relationships through previous agencies (many from the northwest). We manually evaluate and screen every employer/project submitted, as we know it's a pain in the ass to sift through crappy projects.

Thanks Peter! Yeah we had this problem while working on our last startup. It's hard to find quality short-term gigs that pay you market rate, and that you can work on as a team. ODesk and elance weren't worth our time.

We are currently focused on startups in the states but definitely sign up if your team is talented. We do get approached with quality gigs both in the states and overseas.

Thanks cmer! Yeah, investment can be super distracting. We spent around 5 months talking to investors for our last startup back in '08, when we could have been bootstrapping on a gig.

Just curious, how did you find your last contacting job? Did you work as a team or just allocate 1 person to do it?

Hey guys, we just launched a platform to match top startups with high end projects. We're focused on supporting startups that would rather take on a short term consulting gig than raising a round of funding. We'd love some feedback. Thanks!

yeah we currently don't restrict startup team size. Past project experience plays a big role in vetting the team (in your case, a team of 1).

I suppose the term bootstrapping in the poll title could mean your startup is self funded from previous savings. But I'm referring to finding a short-term contracting gig to keep your startup afloat rather than raising money.

Agreed that focus is critically important to an early stage startup. However, raising money can sometimes take 3-6 months (longer in some cases) and that can distract the team just as much. I know startups that have died from spending too much time on fundraising and not enough on product.

If you could spend a month on a short-term contracting gig and bring in the equivalent of a small angel round, wouldn't that be a worthwhile option?

If you do already bootstrap your start-up as a team, where do you find the gigs? Referrals? Craigslist, or another contracting site like Monster or oDesk?

We're working on adding BitBucket and Ohloh soon

I would make the dotted homepage background a little fainter. It makes the text a little hard to read and I find myself squinting.

Currently we're aimed mostly at teams of developers but we support any team who can launch a software product (which usually requires a developer). Your team definitely sounds like it could be a good fit.

thanks, will look into it

The plan is to eventually charge companies to find teams. It's true that the site might be a single use for many companies (leave once they hire a team) but I think that's a common problem for any recruiting site.

beautiful app. nice job chrys, dan and co.!

Nice job aj and dilan!

Dan was one of those guys who would light up the room when he came in. He was always very positive and he genuinely cared about others. I definitely agree he was the heart of our YC Summer 08 batch and gave so many of us great advice.

Dan, you were a good friend and will be missed.

Yeah we are. Thanks for the heads up, we'll forward to teamapart.com.