Problem

While running our web agencies, we noticed that as DIY (do-it-yourself) software was becoming more prolific, the freelancers helping users would tend to ignore the users who were "half-way done", in favor of the projects where they were overhauling everything from scratch.

It made sense -- these users had the smallest budgets, the smallest scopes, and were the most particular about the deliverable. Since we'd built referral partnerships with so many other freelancers in the space, we ended up getting to the point where we had a few of these leads a day "Can you help me finish my website?"

Given the volume of requests, there must be a way to help these people...

Solution

We discovered that by jumping on a Zoom call with clients and "pairing" with them in real-time, we were able to be many times more efficient than the typical async work where you define the scope in advance and execute with feedback cycles.

Instead of guiding the clients on how to finish their projects, we used Zoom's remote control feature to take over their computers. This enabled us to move far faster.

Clients loved the service!

Most freelancers charged anywhere from $50-100/hr. So what we did was offer this on-demand service to clients at roughly double the typical hourly rate. This ended up being more than fair, since working in real time was so much quicker. In fact, for web design, it took the average cost to build a website down from ~$2000 to $600!

Clients fairly unanimously were blown away be the process and addicted for the duration of their project.

To handle the intense volume of client leads, we created a dedicated marketplace platform called Sixty where we could onboard other freelancers to.

Impact

5500+ on demand sessions
3000+ clients including Creative Artists Agency, Stanford University, Hinge, and CitiBike
300+ freelancers
72 apps supported: from Wordpress to Segment to Google Sheets

Team:

David Head - CEO
- Built v1 web app using Squarespace, Google Sheets, Zapier, and Acuity Scheduling to prove concept
- Recruited and led founding team
- Led fundraising from Y Combinator
Alex Tapper - COO
- Led freelancer community recruitment
- Led sales and support operations
Andrew King - CTO
- Built v3 web app in Ruby on Rails
- Recruited and led engineering team
Naomi Martin - Community Lead
- Managed support operations across clients and freelancer community
Brendan Kennedy - #1 Freelancer
- Worked with over 800 clients
- Highest grossing freelancer
Josh Brody - Senior Full Stack Developer
- Engineered features in Ruby on Rails
Isaac Summers - Full Stack No-Code Developer
- Built v2 web app in Bubble.io
Collin Petruno - Senior Backend Developer
- Engineered features in Ruby on Rails

On-Demand Web App Help