Any software contractors or freelancers looking for work (part 2)?

Yes, indeed there are quite a few marketplaces like this - I hadn't seen FreeUp or Indie Contractors from that list. In terms of the market, I am actually hoping to capture some of the market of recruitment agencies that place daily rate or hourly rate contractors. So the intention is to target "high quality work" as you describe it - the recruitment that's still traditionally done offline or on job listings boards, and not freelance marketplaces.

I think in a lot of regional markets, the biggest problem for this kind of recruitment has been that there is more demand than supply of non-Junior engineers. Developers are tied up in jobs that they like so that the hardest part of recruitment is to convince them to switch, or find the right moment that they would be convinced to switch. This is why recruitment agencies are expensive - it's a hard sales job. The idea of "talent pools" is meant to be a unique solution to this - it's to change the mindset from a switch is a rare thing to switching whenever I'm done with a piece of work or a period is the norm, and just another dimension of flexible working.

Even if the market is flooded with talent now (maybe?), I think trying to change the mindset so that flexible working also means being on multiple talent pools for multiple companies and switching regularly would be unique.

Thanks for creating a profile, and letting me know about the fields - they were definitely meant to be optional, will take a look. The next step at the moment is really me working behind the scenes trying to sign some companies up. It's still early days and I need to work on getting some companies on board with this. Once I do, I plan to suggest matching profiles manually while I build a solution for them to browse profiles. But the step after that will be that you'll get invited to talent pools of companies if any are interested.

Thanks, I appreciate it! I just want to make sure I understand your suggestion - is it to allow startups on DevelopmentKitchen to pay contractors/freelancers using equity as well as cash?

Thanks for setting up a profile! At the moment, the next steps are for me are to keep building. But I mean this at more than just at a technical level with the web application. I will be looking to get companies on board one by one and allow them to choose profiles they may be interested in to invite to their pool. So, you may not hear anything for a while but hopefully you will get an invitation to join a pool. I also plan to keep posting updates here on IndieHackers.

In terms of legal, I'm trying to take it one step at a time. If you are familiar with contracting and employment, and especially cross-border, you will probably know there is a ton of legal issues involved - employment law, tax law, immigration law, etc. Long term vision is to try and make it really seamless for both contractors and companies - that means take care of the employment and accounting details depending on where both parties are, the work being carried out, and a whole range of other factors. But this is obviously very difficult - lots of individual circumstances and laws make this nearly impossible. At least initially and for a long time, I think the approach will be something slightly better than let everyone deal with making their own tax submissions and payments, etc. But again, it'll be take it one step at a time, based on the countries where I see traction.

It's the "Looking for work? Software contractors and freelancers can sign up here" link under the "Start your talent pool" button. You make a very good point of course that the page is written in the language of companies. In my own head, presenting the solution from that side flowed more easily, and I thought it was still clear for freelancers/contractors to understand. But the intention is to create a separate page entirely for freelancers and contractors that tells their side of the story. I'm working on that page and having done the page for companies, it's a lot easier to write.