What: Braintrust connects skilled tech experts — software developers, designers, and user-experience mavens — with clients.
Expected pay: You set it
Husl$core: $$$$$
Commissions & fees: 10% paid by the client
Where: Nationwide (remote)
Requirements: 5+ years of technical experience; interview and skills assessment
Review:
Braintrust is a fledgling marketplace for tech talent. Built by freelancers for freelancers, the site lets you set your own rates and get 100% of the fee. Clients pay a 10% platform fee, on top of the freelancers’ rate, to Braintrust for the connection.
Freelancers also set their own payment terms. You are paid through Stipe or TransferWise on a schedule you work out with your client.
Site structure
The site is a non-profit that’s owned and operated by the freelancers who use it. When freelancers sign up, they’re screened by the freelancers who are already in the network. If you get accepted, Braintrust will encourage you to help screen other newcomers too. The incentive for doing that is a cryptocurrency that represents ownership in the platform.
But owning a piece of Braintrust does not mean you’ll earn dividends. After all, the site is set up as a non-profit. However, these shares are supposed to give you more say in how the site develops. You get tokens for screening and referring both other freelancers and clients to the platform.
This piece in BusinessInsider explains more.
Recommendations
Braintrust is new, operating publicly just since mid 2020. As a result, it likely has fewer clients than better-established competitors, such as Upwork, Toptal and Catalant. That said, Braintrust’s fees are more freelancer-friendly
Other sites we like for skilled tech talent: Catalant, WorkingNotWorking and FreeUp.
What their users say:
We’ve found only a handful of fairly vague reviews. If you work with this network, please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
1/6/2021
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What sets Braintrust apart from other freelance sites are its attributes for equity, equality, opportunities with top notch clientele, monthly Roundtables with approved technical talent and the executive team, ability to have a voice in the roadmap and current structure, and a sense of being a member of a Community setting the path forward for Blockchain and decentralized finance with a better, fairer payment process.
Because Braintrust is relatively new, like any “startup” it takes time to match the vision with reality- freelance opportunities have rapidly increased from Q2/Q3 2020. Some areas Software Engineering related have many opportunities to bid on while Project Management, Marketing and Other categories have been lagging far behind. By adding to its team, Braintrust is upping its game by landing new clients and additional opportunities from existing clients with more jobs spread out amongst the skill base and Talent Members can also submit companies with opportunities and earn Braintrust Tokens.
Evolution takes time and two to five years from now, Braintrust’s model will be the norm.
I’ve been doing work for a couple clients, both through Braintrust. It’s a great platform for finding top companies looking for good talent. In addition, I’ve been able to do the work remotely, without compromising good communication with the team.
I’m able to negotiate rates directly with the clients and keep much more of it than other platforms.
In terms of the people on the Braintrust platform, in addition to good talent (at least in terms of the software engineers since that’s what I’m most familiar with), I’ve noticed that their people skills are excellent. So in addition to doing fun and challenging work, it’s been enjoyable with the people around me…
In other talent networks or freelance platforms I feel like I’m talking to autobots, funneled into aggregated list serves, and then spammed with unrelated information that does not align with my search. Braintrust is a talent run network. When I contacted Braintrust, I contacted real talent, people just like me. They were able to best help me best navigate the network to suit my personalized needs, for the benefit of all involved. They’re also just really cool folks, so that helps, too. I’m happy I found them.
I am new talent on Braintrust. From day 1, I appreciated the level of professionalism of the staff from Shirley and Michelle to others, and I told them so on Slack. Even the talent BT attracts is of a higher calibre. I value the opportunity to set my own rates without sacrificing a % or fee, as on other platforms.
I am looking forward to engaging BT clients to service them with my 30 years of world-class visual design and strategies that have earned me many thanks from industry leaders.
Lots of talk, little action. Don’t waste your time.
After several weeks, I was finally invited to a 15-minute ‘screening’ interview. We established a time to meet, and then I was stood up for the meeting.
I reached out and got an email from the screener. No apology or explanation, but asked me to set up the next meeting.
I get that startups have hiccups, and I get that freelance engineers don’t always make the best recruiters, but really not a great first impression.