Ask HN: As a skilled developer, how do you make pocket money with little time?

Re:Ask HN: As a skilled developer, how do you make pocket mo... by philip1209 on Friday June 02, 2017 @05:00PM (#14473266)

Cool - we've been taking a very manual approach to optimize our process so far, and are finally just starting on a web app! We have a lot more work to do in automating the process and creating a great user experience. We're users of our own product too - I'm working 10 hours a week through Moonlight to afford rent.

Our mission is to help engineers earn what they want, and for some people - that means working more time for more money, but for others that means working just a few hours per week.

I see that Turtle focuses more on web development. I think this is a good way to go about it - but for Moonlight specifically, I knew there was a problem when a friend of mine making $400K/year as a security researcher couldn't find a way to apply his skills in contract work. He wanted to travel and contract for a bit, and was having to look at webdev contracts at $50/hour. So, instead of focusing on building products for non-technical clients, we're focusing on more specialized tasks like dev-ops and algorithms for technical clients.

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Re:Ask HN: As a skilled developer, how do you make pocket mo... by vlokshin on Friday June 02, 2017 @06:15PM (#14473698)

ah very cool.

Our customers are technical and non-technical. There is a lot of web and mobile app development work, but we've had some interesting projects on there already (ML, AI, even an app to stop your cat from locking up your keyboard when you watch movies.... haha).

I really like your focus. It's ridiculous that the infrastructure doesn't exist for a professional making 400K / year to make 100K / year for 25% the time (assuming skill is stagnant. if it improves, rates should adjust).

Drop me a line if you ever want to chat -- vlad (at) turtle.ai

Good luck!

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Re:Ask HN: As a skilled developer, how do you make pocket mo... by toexitthedonut on Saturday June 03, 2017 @04:06PM (#14478216)

Hi philip1209, I just applied to your Moonlight site as a software developer. With that said, my experience has all been in web development, and have some personal experience writing native desktop apps. Would I have a problem finding work in your platform as a web developer? I also like the idea of working for more technical clients. I believe that finding high-rated clients is one of the bigger problems that freelancers have in using most common freelancing websites.

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Re:Ask HN: As a skilled developer, how do you make pocket mo... by philip1209 on Saturday June 03, 2017 @07:27PM (#14479060)

No, it should be fine. But the projects will be more pointed and for a more technical client. So, rather than "build me a thing", the projects should be more specific - like "build me a thing in Redux with this low-fidelity mockup."

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