Startups are cash-poor, prone to bankruptcy, and full of insane deadlines requiring people to pull small miracles just to make payroll.<p>Would love to hear more about what makes them ideal freelance clients. As a former contractor/freelancer, I specifically made a point of staying far, far away from these kinds of clients.
I am in the exact same line of work as the author. I can't imagine working the way he describes.<p>It's great that he's made this lifestyle work for him, but I'm not convinced I'd like to be one of his clients. A technology company with a developer on staff one day per week? Coordinating a project is difficult enough when everybody is full-time. ("Sure thing, I'll tackle that bug in six days" is not a recipe for a functional sprint.)<p>My solution has been to charge hard at whatever milestone I've committed to, working as a de facto team member, and then taking the next month off. This works well with my lifestyle, since I try to take each project in a new city and I live cheaply.<p>What I would say to the author: you want fulfilling? Participate in the optimistic urgency of a new tech venture fully - then take your time off when you've finished. If you can't afford to spend that much time away from developing your startup, then how can you expect your clients to wait while you take time off from theirs?
I think startups are a viable option for many types of freelancers now.<p>I've been freelancing in mentoring start-ups for the last 6 months. Everyone told me startups have no money and that it's a fruitless pursuit but here i am talking to 1 new startup almost every single day.<p>I always give them the first session free (no time limit) and more than two-thirds come back for a paid session.<p>I've mentored around 60 startups in the last 3 months alone (all around the globe).<p>Most fun i've ever heard. Incredibly rewarding. In fact, i'm now working on building an actual mentoring platform.<p>I spend the rest of my time consulting small to medium size companies.
I'm also thinking about doing some freelance work right now.<p>One thing I'm unsure about is if it's wise to do consulting in the same space my startup is in (fitness & health data aggregation and analysis), or if I should stick to unrelated technical work (java, elasticsearch, angularjs), to avoid potential trouble with non-compete agreements and such.
I've been doing this for the past 7 years, from big data to social sites, to single page apps to chat/video applications and more. I have to say its been the best way to learn about different technology and to solve new problems. Also the fast pace environment is something I like.
How do you find these clients? I ve done this kind of work arrangement, and like it, but replicating this kind of arrangement doesnt seem to be so easy, at least to me.