My partner and I just launched our first product, a booking platform for freelancers to get paid up front
We built this over the past few months from scratch. Interestingly we had both used a lot of no-code tools only to decide to go back to code land. For this we used:
- Next.js
- Mantine
- Stripe
- Render.com for hosting
- Cloudflare images for image hosting
Feedback welcome!
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Indie hackers selling to indie hackers?
I love the idea behind FRACTIONAL and while I'm not a freelancer - yet - I'm definitely looking forward to using this tool!
The landing page is simple and straightforward.
I understood the offer and the purpose behind the platform.
Though, a more detailed landing page will be better since it will educate, engage, convince and eventually convert page visitors.
Thanks so much for the kind thoughts Iveren! I appreciate it. We'll definitely be working on improving the landing page.
We just released new features today!
We're also working hard on two massive updates:
Keep your eyes open for these updates in the coming weeks :)
Chris + Jess, Founders
Hey @cjroth, would you like to refresh the design of your landing page. I'm available, would love to work with you.
Hey Deepak, we are doing it right now through Carrd and probably will stick with that until we outgrow it. Thanks for reaching out though!
Really great idea! As someone who does some freelance work and got jipped once by being too nice and doing the work first and getting the payment later, I like the payment first approach. Also setting up packages always did seem like the right thing to do - it's usually not time that people are buying/selling, but a product/solution.
Loved the landing page, easy to understand and really straightforward.
Perhaps a short gif/video showing the simplicity of creating and selling a package could also help on the landing page to showcase the product.
As others have mentioned, customization or embedding/having a widget that can be used on the freelancers site would probably help with adoption so people can maintain their freelancing brand.
Regarding pricing, it seems like good value. Though I would consider perhaps upping the % cut and lowering the fixed fee to 0 if that makes fiscal sense. This can help with getting smaller/budding/part-time freelancers that cannot guarantee consistent business - more of like a pay for what you sold kind of thing.
Note that in the demo the 80 hour package title and text don't match (says 40 hours in the text).
Overall really awesome stuff!
Thanks so much for the kind feedback Uri!
Glad that you like the landing page and see the value.
I totally agree about the embedding, pricing, and gif/video ideas - we've gotten a few comments about all of these and will be incorporating them in updates soon.
And fixed the 80 hour typo, thanks for catching!
I'm a freelancer offering a mix of services and Fractional seems like an excellent way to follow a package-based pricing model. Curious: do you have plans to accommodate payment modes other than Stripe?
I also wanted to know if I can embed my Fractional packages on my portfolio site.
Hey shreelekha! Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad that you like the concept. We don't support embedding YET but have had a few people asking for it, so we're adding it to the product roadmap!
Btw - just curious, what other payment method are you interested in using and is there any reason you don't want to use Stripe?
Also, if you would be willing to chat I'd love to hear more about how you find clients and structure your freelancing pricing - I'm at [email protected] if you want to talk.
Hi Chris! Your product genuinely intrigued me because I can relate to the problem by having been there myself.
Since then, I have been expanding and built a pretty successfull digital agency (Orphic)[https://orphic.ca]. We specialises in web development and we are reinvesting profit towards building a catalogue of embedable widgets that are highly customizable. This tool his built especially freelancer and digital agencies. We are hoping to launch in the next 4 months with a suite of widgets.
Fractional could be one of them. If you would be willing to chat I'd love to and it would be a pleasure for me to give you some insight of how we work at (Orphic)[https://orphic.ca].
Here's a link to the (tool itself)[https://my.themesondemand.com] so you can try it yourself (desktop only). Has you would expect the product is not done but the concept is there.
Hey I just checked out TOD - looks interesting, though a little hard to follow your vision for it yet (guessing that it's still early in the build process!). I'd be happy to chat as well - can you email me at [email protected]?
I understand your confusion about our vision. We're launching a landing page by the end of August before finalizing the product.
In the meantime, our proposition is as follow:
H1 - Empower your client websites with high-end, code-free widgets.
Subtile - Provide your agency with a top-tier collection of widgets to elevate websites and stay ahead of design trends. Enhance your offerings without added costs, propelling company growth.
Ah that makes sense, that's a really interesting concept - got your email and will reply when I get a chance :)
I am a freelancer working with upwork(top rated freelancer) for last 6 years and honestly we as a freelancer deserve something far far better than upwork. Really looking forward to it, signed up!!
Hey sidhacking, excited to hear that you signed up! I agree, Upwork feels like it is so oriented towards clients and doesn't treat freelancers that well. Btw I'm curious to hear more about what you don't like about Upwork?
Also, if you would be willing to chat I'd love to hear more about what you do and how you use Upwork - I'm at [email protected] if you want to talk.
The landing page is lit Chris. Loved it!! However, I would suggest moving the demo button next to Learn More button. So, If I don't want to read, I can see the demo and understand what fractional is.
Thanks Just! Good feedback on the demo button - I agree, we should make it more prominent.
Cool, All the best 🎉
Is this more like a middle-man type of product? Or is similar to fiverr, upwork, etc. Little bit confused onto what problem you guys are trying to solve.
Hey Ailuropoda, we are not really in the same category as marketplaces like Upwork or Fiverr (we're not a marketplace). Basically we combine the client booking (reserving your time for a project), legal contracts, and payments into a unified checkout flow that we think will help freelancers spend less time trying to push potential clients through the finish line to become paying customers. We're not a middle man (we don't hold onto funds between clients and freelancers) - we're really more of a booking/payment platform. I appreciate the feedback that our messaging is a bit confusing - we're working on figuring out how to communicate our value better. Thanks!
For me, the information at the top is a bit confusing. But after you explained it, that makes more sense. Maybe some sort of video or image showing the product would help.
Yeah I agree, I think we're going to add either a video or a true demo account once we release a couple more features that are missing. Thanks so much again for the feedback.
I like the site. I'd make the demo option a bit more prominent as the first thing I want to know is how this will look to my clients.
Next thing, when I look at your site I think wow - this is pretty cool. When I look at what I'm supposed to show my clients I think...not as cool. I'm not a web guy but if this can be embedded into other sites as a widget or whatever, then I think it would be better aligned with what your customer is wanting. I wouldn't want to send my customer from a site that looks like your homepage to a site that looks like your demo page if the goal is to get them to trust me and pay me for my services up front. I feel like the jarring transition erodes some trust that I'll be around next month for them to use whatever they're paying for.
Also, at first I thought charge more. Your pricing isn't aligned with the value you're creating, it's aligned with the web aspect which is the least interesting part. What you're selling is: "Get paid for client work up front and stop relying on marketplaces". Charge for the value of that, not the value of a generic product page and Stripe integration. Getting paid upfront is worth so much more than $12/mo.
But, then I thought this is just a feature that almost anyone can build themselves. Almost every low-code website builder has OOB product page templates that can easily be adapted to sell buckets instead of hours and it's easy enough to integrate Stripe into anything - so what are you really doing for me?
Also, how many clients am I getting that are buying a bucket of hours off the web without having spoken to me? And why can't I just send them to my own site rather than having you collect on my behalf?
I like what you're trying to do - but for you to succeed you have to figure out how to generate the value of GETTING customers to pay up front vs ENABLING them to pay up front.
Thanks so much for the feedback Cory! I appreciate it and will definitely use it to make the product better and improve our marketing. Our goal is not to be the first point of communication between our clients and their users, but something more like Calendly where someone that already has a landing page or is already in communication can use it for the payment and contract signing steps. Really appreciate the thoughts.
Ah, I see. So then ENABLING is the point. In that case, I think you're going in the right direction. I'd still consider enabling the payment page to match your customer's website so that the transition isn't so obvious. Ideally, I'd want that right embedded in my website so my client can click and buy without having to make another decision.
Agreed - I think we'll be adding both embedding and customizing the appearance at some point soon. Thanks again for the feedback :)
The title of this post "My partner and I just launched our first product, a booking platform for freelancers to get paid up front"
"sell packages, not time"
"Get paid for client work up front and stop relying on marketplaces with your own public booking page for clients."
"sell packages" of what ? potatoes ?
"not time" ? you can sell time ? sell me one hour :)
"Get paid for client work up front"
get paid for what ? who is paying who ? this is vague and confusing
" stop relying on marketplaces " ? hum. So your site won't become a marketplace ?
"with your own public booking page for clients"
who is the public ? who are the clients ? clients aren't the public ? confusing message.
Your site name doesn't add. Fractional dotvip ? A math club only for fractions ? A strip club with a vip area ? try to add the word "pay" to it like fractional-pay dotcom :)
The message "Fractional helped me double my annual income." on bottom of home page is super vague ... double your income ? how ?
What do you sell ? really ? i didn't got it. Your message is not clear. Let me try to guess this.
Is this a site where freelancers open an account (like fiver dotcom) and booked by clients that paid in front using stripe ?
My next question is who is going to pay you in front for a job you didn't start ?
Let me give an hint that could work or not:
A client needs something to be done. So freelancers divide the work in fractions (smaller pieces) and put a price on it and they don't advance to next fraction until the previous one is fully paided with Strip or whatever.
Fractional pays. Got it ? :)
I wish you and Jess (the co-founders) the best of luck to your site/project
Pedro