Freelance Software Development

Hire freelance software developers or partner with a proven firm like ours? Explore your options!

Hiring an in-house software development team is slow and expensive. Freelance marketplaces like Fiverr, Upstack, and Upwork connect you with thousands of inexpensive independent software developers, but what are the hidden costs of freelancing?

Software Development Team Roles.

When hiring freelance software developers, you have some degree of control over the makeup of your team. For example, if you really want freelance QA testers, you can find them.

On the other hand, product and project managers are rare in freelance marketplaces like Fiverr, Upstack, and Upwork. Without product leadership, you’re left with a team of mercenaries blindly following your orders.

With Founders Workshop, you work with product leaders who’ve been on the client side of software development. We collaborate with you on ideation, problem solving, and go-to-market strategy, and leverage critical thinking and creativity to make your product better.

Learn more about each role.

Talent: Entrepreneur in residence
Talent: Product management
Talent: Project management
Talent: UX/UI design
Talent: Engineering
Talent: QA testing

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes

Budget, Schedule, and Process.

As the saying goes, the cheapest developers are often the most expensive.

With software development, you get what you pay for. An internal product development team can take six months or more to assemble and $1 million a year plus equity to maintain.

Hiring freelance software developers is far less expensive but brings risk to your project. As independent contractors, freelancers are mercenaries with no product development process, no post-launch support program, and no vested interest in your success.

Founders Workshop leverages our proven 5D Process and deep bench of dedicated software development professionals to de-risk your project.

Labor cost
Equity dilution
Time to begin work
Proven process
Post-launch support

$80-350k for 3-6 months
No
2 weeks
Yes
Yes

Cheap
Usually not
Months of hiring, trialing, firing, and rehiring
Usually not
Usually not

Language, Culture, and Time Zone.

Freelance marketplaces like Fiverr, Upstack, and Upwork are home to thousands of independent software developers. Some are located here in the U.S. Others are spread across geographies from Eastern Europe to India and the Philippines.

If your freelancers are overseas, you may experience challenges related to time zone, language, and even culture.

For example, most U.S. businesses value creativity and critical thinking, punctuality for meetings, and direct communication when issues arise. That’s not the case in many cultures. No one culture is better or worse than ours. They’re just different.

Regardless of their location, freelancers also come with a cultural risk of ghosting — and taking your code with them.

With Founders Workshop, your point of contact will be in the U.S. and your technical team will be based in culturally-relevant parts of Latin America.

Language barrier
Culture barrier
Time zone barrier

No
No
No

Maybe
Maybe
Maybe