Show HN: Real-time freelancer marketplace with per-second billing
gigs.questHi HN! I'm launching Gigs.Quest, a platform where startups can hire freelancers instantly through live video rooms.
Problem: Traditional freelancing platforms are slow. You post a job, wait for proposals, interview candidates, negotiate rates, then finally start work. For quick tasks, this is overkill.
Solution: Create a room, describe what you need, and qualified talent joins live within 5-12 minutes. Collaborate via HD video and screen sharing. Pay per second ($0.02/sec = $72/hr). All sessions recorded.
Why this works: • For startups: Get immediate help without hiring overhead • For freelancers: Monetize expertise without bidding/proposals • Trust: All sessions recorded, transparent earnings, Stripe-backed payments
Real use cases from beta: • Debugging production outage (saved 3 hours vs hiring process) • Quick design mockup review (12 min session, $14 cost) • Architecture consultation for new feature (45 min, $54)
Tech details: • Pre-authorization holds that scale (start at $5, double at 80% usage) • LiveKit for video infrastructure • Convex for real-time database • Stripe Connect for instant payouts
Challenges I'm working on: 1. Quality control (how to prevent low-quality participants?) 2. Discovery (how do freelancers find rooms?) 3. Pricing (is $72/hr the right rate?)
I'd love feedback from both sides of the marketplace. What am I missing?
Live at: https://gigs.quest
I think participants should be able to set their rates. They might start low and increase it as their reputation grows.
Quality is a tough problem, and I don’t think anyone has managed to solve it. Someone can ace an interview and still be a crappy employee. I think this could sort itself out with time and reputation building, so maybe don’t worry about it.
For finding rooms, it seems like freelancers should be able to describe what they are looking for, and then you match that to a room’s description/ purpose. AI could potentially be beneficial here, as the matching should be fuzzy.
Really appreciate this thoughtful feedback! You've identified some key improvements:
*Variable rates*: Love this idea. Right now it's flat $72/hr, but you're right – a junior dev shouldn't charge the same as a senior architect. Thinking through implementation:
Option A: Participants set their own rate ($30-$200/hr range?) - Pro: Market finds equilibrium - Con: Chefs don't know cost upfront (pre-auth becomes tricky)
Option B: Skill tiers (Junior $45/hr, Mid $72/hr, Senior $120/hr) - Pro: Predictable pricing for chefs - Con: Who decides the tier?
Leaning toward Option A with a visible rate display before participants join. What do you think?
*Quality & reputation*: Totally agree – even Google/Meta make bad hires sometimes. Your "let it sort itself out" approach makes sense. I'm thinking:
- Public profile showing: total earnings, # sessions, avg session length - No ratings initially (avoids gaming/fake reviews) - Let the market decide: if someone consistently gets kicked or has 2-min sessions, that's a signal
The earnings transparency might be enough – someone with $10k earned across 200 sessions is probably legit.
*Room matching with AI*: This is brilliant and solves the discovery problem elegantly. Currently participants just see a list of open rooms. Your idea:
1. Freelancer creates profile: "React expert, 5 yrs exp, good at performance optimization" 2. Chef creates room: "Need help with Redux state management causing re-renders" 3. AI matches and notifies relevant freelancers: "New room matches your skills"
This could use semantic search (embeddings) to match "Redux performance" to "state management optimization" even if terms don't overlap exactly.
Quick prototype question: Should I prioritize variable rates or AI matching first? Which would have more immediate impact?
Thanks again – this is exactly the kind of feedback I need.
Ask me anything. My first launch