tbird24
tbird24 on Hacker News
I run a fractional jobs site. Lots of non-technical customers are interested in ai. What problem does Chroma solve for these non-technical users?
Are you trying to insult my design skills or my Webflow skills?
Yup, I see these examples all the time. You're spot on.
Fair, but I find, and I think this thread is evident, that a lot of folks are actually proactively seeking part-time work for one reason or another. If done correctly, you can actually make more money than an equivalent full-time role.
I'm personally not a huge fan of the over-employment trend, although I do see some arguments for it. A lot of the companies that are looking to hire on fractional jobs are quite explicit that they don't want folks that have full-time jobs (aka are over-employed) because of the negative connotations and consequences.
I'm familiar with Higher Fraction. I believe that the core difference is just that they're an agency that takes a percent markup on your hourly rate, so typically it's 20%.
I think the best software engineers don't need to do this, though, and they can find clients directly through their network or even through places like Fractional Jobs where we connect you directly with clients, and it's your relationship to own.
Here's the thing, and I'm open to thoughts here. But I've found that candidate A can be a great fit for company B, but a terrible fit for company C. I think a match is way more subjective than folks tend to give it credit for, and a rating system (like Uber) makes it seem more objective than it actually is. It works for things like Uber, where you can have hundreds of ratings very quickly, and so it converges on a natural truth. But with fractional clients, I think the N is so small that there's might just be too much noise.
Thoughts?
Which ad blocker? I will test this.
Totally agree! We've featured a number of Fractional CISO roles.
Thanks! Most of the clients hiring engineers tend to be non-technical, especially those hiring Fractional CTOs of course. But sometimes we'll work with CTOs to hire a contractor for their team too.
I think the devs that have the most success have the following qualities:
- They can clearly show their work history (Linkedin, Resume, Github, custom site, etc.)
- They have some baseline level of knowledge/experience in relationship management, i.e. they can talk the talk. You do have to do a bit of "selling", especially when looking for contract work.
Posted by
tbird24 on Monday August 18, 2025 @05:10PM
from the show-hn dept.
https://www.fractionaljobs.io
I'm Taylor, I spent about a year as a Fractional Head of Product. It was my first time not in a full-time W2 role, and I quickly learned that the hardest part of the job wasn't doing the Product work (I was a PM for 10+ years), it was finding good clients to work with.So I built Fractional Jobs.The goal is to help more people break out of W2 life and into their own independent careers by...
It's exactly what it was labeled, an experiment. We tried it once months ago, and I didn't like it. So we killed it.
Happy to hear it, we put a lot of work into closing the loop with everyone.
This is exactly correct. We're not saying somehow somebody is cheating the system (e.g. by not paying taxes), we're showing how it's a lot more transparent.
You are correct, though we actually don't charge for a job posting. Companies pay us a referral fee if they hire a candidate we send to them.
[founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io here] You're generally correct, though people will certainly use the word fractional in a much more... how do we say... "aspirational" way, if you catch my drift.
This is exactly correct :). I'm going to feature this comment in tomorrow's newsletter
[I'm the founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io] You'd hire a Fractional CTO when you don't have the need for (or the budget for) a full-time CTO, but still want that level of technical expertise. It's really as simple as that.
If you have a senior engineer that can flex into that role and that's good enough for you, then great. We help a couple companies a month hire Fractional CTOs though for the reasons I stated above. When it works, it can work exceptionally well but its NOT right for every use case.
Hey CJ, I'm the founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io . Very cool to hear about your experiences on the hiring side. I'd love to ask you more questions about your ideal SOW, as I'm working on something to directly improve this for hirers (so would love your feedback).
LMK if you're interested and the best way to contact you (or you can reach me at tc at fractionaljobs dot io)
Hey Dave, I'm the founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io , if it's helpful you can book a time with me through the website and I can talk you through the pros / cons of hiring a Fractional CTO (and then help you hire one if you want our help).
You can click the "Hire Fractional" button on the website to book a time with me.
FWIW you're describing a great use case for a fCTO.
[Founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io here] Engineering = Software Engineers through CTOs, Product = Product Managers through CPOs.
And other nuances, like Engineering will also capture Security roles too.
[I'm the founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io] Fractional is not quite the same as part-time, so we do not post all part-time roles. Generally speaking, we filter for the following criteria:
- Senior-level role, think 6+ years experience at least, but ideally 10+
- Compensation is likely $100 / hr or more
- Within a common function area (Marketing, Finance, Engineering, etc.)
Bottom line, these are the 17 we think are the best fits for our fractional community of 10,000+.
Does that make sense?
The word fractional implies a level of expertise / seniority. But yes, it's a fancy word for part-time.
[I'm the founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io] We get paid in two ways, 1) companies pay us a flat "referral fee" if they hire a candidate we send them, 2) through sponsorships of our newsletter.
We are not involved at all after the contract is signed. We believe in independent fractional hiring vs. a middleman. Therefore, we don't take any % from the fractional or the company, aside from the referral fee mentioned above. No restrictions on relationship, do as y'all please.
I used to do fractional work myself, and I designed this structure with myself in mind, if that makes sense.
So cool! Founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io here, bilsbie thanks for posting this.
If anyone has questions about Fractional Jobs, fractional work, etc. lmk and I'll do my best to answer all of them.
What kind of role are you looking for? I'm the founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io, I may be able to give you a better sense of why these aren't working for you.
Founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io here, yes you're right. But we spend dozens of hours a week sourcing the whole web for open fractional roles. So it's not that
this board doesn't have the ones you want, it's that there just aren't that many available yet.
But we're doing everything we can to accelerate this. We have about 5 new jobs launching tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing. We get new roles every week tho! Hiring part-time engineers is growing very quickly in popularity.
I'm the founder of
https://fractionaljobs.io - we help talent (e.g. engineers) with senior-level fractional gigs. We've placed maybe 5 lead engineer or CTO roles in the last couple of months.
Happy to answer Q's if you have any.