Clients seeking talent on major freelance platforms often encounter a frustrating reality. Their project postings are met with an overwhelming flood of proposals, many from individuals clearly lacking the necessary skills or experience. This deluge forces clients to spend valuable time sifting through numerous unqualified applications just to find a handful of suitable candidates. Even after this time-consuming process, the quality of work can be inconsistent due to the open nature of these platforms, leading to project delays and subpar results.

Adding to this frustration is the escalating cost of using these services. What once seemed like a straightforward fee structure has evolved into a complex system of charges. Clients now face not only commission fees but also various additional costs such as marketplace fees and payment processing charges. For businesses relying regularly on freelance talent, these mounting expenses can significantly impact their bottom line, often without a corresponding increase in value or quality of service.

On our marketplace, clients can build their own marketplace of invite-only freelancers. They can manage who is part of their freelance pool, who can bid on new services and projects, and ensure that only trusted and qualified freelancers are part of their network. This also allows freelancers to focus on building a powerful brand through a profile that showcases their portfolio, career history, client testimonials, publications, and more to earn trust before connecting on a potential project.

The reason that this could work is simple. Look at the chart below:

This is how some of the popular freelancing marketplaces (not all) typically structure the platform. It's a basic design in which one huge marketplace exists with a bunch of freelancers, and into which clients can submit their jobs. Then out of this huge marketplace, freelancers, sometimes without restrictions, can bid on those jobs, creating an inefficient process and poor experience.

Now compare this with our design below:

WorkSonata will become an ecosystem of invite-only freelance marketplaces that clients can manage. This naturally cuts down one huge marketplace to several smaller ones, with each one directly created by the client. This provides natural incentives that other freelance marketplace typically don't have.

For example, instead of trying to control for the supply-demand issues, usually due to low quality freelancers and projects, by forcing additional compensation or basic filters that can be easily bypassed, our clients will dictate the freelancers that they've vetted and trust beforehand, and allow these freelancers to participate in their own marketplace.

This provides several obvious benefits:

We are still finalizing our pricing strategy, but it will likely be a subscription + commission model. Our commission will only be around 5-7%, which we believe is fair and one of the lowest in the industry, and the subscription is to help certain clients and freelancers scale if they so need. We also plan to experiment in offering a subscription-only option to qualified members on a case-by-case basis.

Importantly, clients and freelancers will have free access and ability for core functions such as project posting, project bidding, account/profile creation, messaging, etc. We are looking to provide as much value as possible, while aiming to provide even more for the ones who are serious about growing on our platform.

We're currently in development, but are accepting new profiles to join our waiting list. Only those who are already signed up will have access to exclusive discounts as a way to show our appreciation for their early support. Sign up below: