Braintrust: Marketplace for Tech Talent

What is Braintrust?

Braintrust is a young marketplace that was launched for software engineers, designers and mobile app developers to find clients. However, it now also helps find work in other areas, including content creation, human resources, law, finance and accounting.

How it works

The site is a cooperative that’s owned and operated by the freelancers who use it.

When freelancers sign up, they’re asked to create a profile that explains what you do; how long you’ve done it and where you’ve worked. At the end of this process, you’ll be asked to apply to jobs to complete the site’s screening process.

The final screening step apparently involves a 15-minute video interview. This helps the site use AI tools to connect you with appropriate clients.

Once approved, you can apply to jobs listed on the site or wait for the site to invite you to apply to a job that it believes appropriate for your background and skills.

Braintrust review

Built by freelancers for freelancers, Braintrust encourages freelancers to sign up and create a profile to nab temporary projects. You set your own rates and get 100% of the rate you set. Braintrust adds 15% onto client bills to pay for its matchmaking service.

Launched with great fanfare in 2020 (after two years in “stealth” mode), the site created its own cryptocurrency to give freelancers who work here a piece of the operation. The more involved you are with the platform, the more Braintrust Tokens you receive.

To be sure, this Braintrust Token has little economic value. But, at least in theory, it gives the most involved freelancers a bigger say in how the organization is run.

AI matching

However, since launch, a lot has changed. Braintrust aimed to solve the high cost of finding both talent — and jobs for talent — by creating a non-profit platform that heavily relies on AI to match job-to-talent. But AI hiring tools are now ubiquitous. Meanwhile, Braintrust appears to be charging freelancers for ancillary services, such as handicapping their chances of getting particular positions. The “fee” to do this is paid in Braintrust Tokens, but there was no way to determine the cost of these without signing up with a crypo trading platform.

Moreover, several freelancers who have signed up with the platform complain that there is little pricing power anymore. And, jobs are scarce.

Pay

Theoretically, freelancers set their own rates. If a client advertises a job at a lower rate, you have the option of countering with your hourly rate. However, you might not get the gig.

Freelancers also set up their own invoicing schedule here. If you want clients to pay weekly; bi-weekly; monthly, or based on hours or progress, you simply negotiate that with your clients. However, the site does not guarantee that you’ll get paid on the schedule you set. It says only that freelancers get paid as soon as Braintrust gets paid.

You are paid through Stipe or TransferWise.

Recommendations

We still like this platform, but think the job prospects are a little less rosy than they were when we first reviewed it in 2021. In 2025, it’s an average side gig platform — still worth signing up with. But you may also want to also check out Catalant, WorkingNotWorking and FreeUp.

You can sign up for Braintrust here.

What their users say (from Reddit)

Good and bad experience here. I worked with them for a big well-known financial company for a few months, pay is really good, though of course everything is 1099 and like some other commenters said, it’s a net 30 payment term.

The opportunities are great, but towards the end how my contract ended left a sour taste in my mouth. I suddenly received an email about 2/3 of the way through my contract term, letting me know my last day is on X day. I was shocked, though I had an inkling what it was. Sure I had some performance issues but I thought it was resolved. Apparently not. What was strange was there was no warning or chat between me and the team I was working on.

Ghosted…10x

• Generic video screening process, 3-4 questions to gauge your conversational skills, otherwise you can’t apply for jobs…I took the bait ~15 mins, approved, can now apply to jobs.
• Required to fill out profile, work history, yada-yada, nah, just added a short blurb & updated my resume which they nicely embed….forgot about it.
• Then I get “You’ve been invited by client ___”, wow nice, BofA with a good rate, I apply and it remains “In Review”
• A day later “You’ve been invited by client ___” now a random startup with shit rates, I apply with my rate, about 50% higher, it remains “In Review”.
• This goes on for days up to 10 ‘Invitations’, I keep applying with my rate, even though the role is advertised much lower, same results. I say fuck it, last ones I apply using the client’s shit rates, about 50% lower than my regular rate….same results, “In Review” ghosted LOL, so I’m not even getting noticed accepting the client’s proposed shit rates LMAO.
• The kicker, I’m now getting hounded to buy some boost feature buying some Altcoin/token they control LOL

(from Glassdoor):

I got brought on a few months ago and left after a week. Their work load is literally piecemeal and YOU are treated as a tool in a toolbox. There is ZERO guarantee you’ll get picked for a project or job. And, if the stars align for you and you do get picked for a project, there’s zero guarantee you’ll get paid. Their company is run through a Discord channel and they incentivize you by giving you “points” towards assets that, frankly, everyone should have access to (software, clients, etc.).

Completely disruptive network that is changing the recruitment game. It is fun to be a part of. Leadership team is approachable and constantly looking for suggestions and feedback.

The onboarding is very slow and takes months.

The Braintrust team and community are an amazing group of professionals dedicated to making real change in the lives of working freelancers (and work in general). Everyone is very driven, yet collaborative, honest, transparent, and all good humans!

From Reddit

Good and bad experience here. I worked with them for a big well-known financial company for a few months, pay is really good, though of course everything is 1099 and like some other commenters said, it’s a net 30 payment term. The opportunities are great, but towards the end how my contract ended left a sour taste in my mouth. I suddenly received an email about 2/3 of the way through my contract term, letting me know my last day is on X day. I was shocked, though I had an inkling what it was. Sure I had some performance issues but I thought it was resolved. Apparently not. What was strange was there was no warning or chat between me and the team I was working on.

Honest thoughts so far:

• The prospects on there are legit…but you’re presented as a commodity and you’re completely beholden to their hiring practices. I’m talking net60 payment terms. Yikes.
• If you don’t already have some serious experience with enterprise clients, you’ll have a really hard time landing a client on BT.
• The utility of the BTRUST token is really obscure, and seems more like a gimmick than an actual way to to prioritize new platform features.
• They say there’s no fees for talent, but there obviously are – when you are hired, the client only pays one price, so the Braintrust client fee cuts into what would have been your compensation otherwise. It’s not a big deal (I expect to pay a finders fee), it’s just misleading.
• They say they’re building “the way work should work”, but they’ve ported over pretty much all the same problems from Upwork, Fiverr, etc.
• You can’t actually have a conversation with prospects unless they allow it, so there’s a strange power dynamic that gets in the way of the sale.
• They took a LOT of investment money last year ($10m) which flies in the face of their “owned by the talent” angle. I think they’re going to grow too quickly and bend the knee to investors vs. listening to talent, and they network will become increasingly unhealthy for talent.
• The support staff are genuinely really kind, and will bend over backwards to get you on contact with a prospect who’s a good fit.
• The community is fun, and there’s lots of other freelancers to chat with.

Updated 3/18/2025