Launching autistic-friendly freelancing platform

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Hi everyone,

I'm Arik. Ever since my son was diagnosed as autistic I explored what will be his main challenges and unemployment was a very common one. After long research, I have decided to launch a freelancers' platform for autistics and aspies which will remove the stress associated with having a job interview as well as the socializing involved with a workplace, and most importantly help with the unemployment problem. I'm now assembling the first batch of freelancers to whom I will connect companies that hire freelancers for different projects. If you are serious about doing it, please submit your details on spectroomz [dot] com (on the top menu) - I can't post links as a new member

You can also reach out to me via arik@spectroomz.com with any question, or ask here.

Best!
Arik

Cool. I was just on your website taking the remote jobs questionnaire.

How do you plan to promote your platform, especially in the shadow of the freelance giant Upwork?

Upwork has had a lot of trouble with scammers ripping off clients. Do you have plans to prevent this?

Hi starkid, thanks for checking it out.

1. I have a pretty good marketing experience promoting tech projects, but you are right, they are a GIANT. As a giant, their ability (and motivation) to focus on the needs of a specific community is limited. I intend to cater to the autistic community and find companies who are open to giving autistics and aspies a chance, in the hopes that they'll get great results and come back because of such results.

2. Can you share more about the type of scams?

I'm very early in the process, and I don't have answers to many questions, I'm figuring things on the go.

Thanks again!

The freelancers get upfront money from the clients and never deliver the work or deliver incomplete/inappropriate work. A lot of them lie about their skills and experience and just waste clients' time and create extra pages of worthless profiles for clients to browse through. Of course, clients should not give money upfront, but some do anyways.

This doesn't completely apply to your platform because you won't have millions of freelancers.

It's great to see this!

Suggestion:

Allow not just individual freelancers but also small teams and consulting firms to offer services.

For example, my boyfriend and I work as a team.

Last I checked, Upwork has no way of allowing teams to offer services. It's all just individual freelancers, either individually or via "agencies." Ditto for all similar platforms that I'm aware of, last I checked.

Elance did allow teams to offer services, but then it got bought up by Upwork.

Got it, thanks Mona!

To solve this problem, Elance used an escrow system. The client would tentatively pay money to Elance, which held on to the money until the work was done to the client's satisfaction, at which point the escrow money would be released to the contractor. A lengthy project could be divided up into milestones, with the contractor getting paid after each milestone.

The escrow system was a good way to ensure that neither the client nor the contractor got ripped off.