I built Sharply — a professional home for every kind of freelancer, not just tech

I built Sharply, a professional home for every kind of freelancer, not just tech

Hey IH 👋

I'm James, and I just launched Sharply (sharply.me), a directory that gives any freelancer one clean, shareable profile to be found by.

The itch: I used to freelance, and the answer to "where do I send someone to see my work?" was always bad. A scattered mess of Instagram, a Linktree, and a half-finished portfolio site. The alternatives were bidding marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr that take a cut and race everyone to the bottom on price.

So Sharply is a directory, not a marketplace. You own your profile, clients contact you directly, no middleman.

The other thing I cared about: it's for every kind of freelance work. Trades, wellness, events, writers, designers, photographers, tutors. Not a dev marketplace with other categories bolted on. A welder's craft gets the same respect as a developer's.

What it does today:

- One shareable profile and portfolio, a single link to send anywhere

- Clean link-preview cards when you share it

- Search, so clients can actually find you

- Optional featured listings for extra visibility

Stack, for the curious: Laravel (Blade + React islands), MySQL, Stripe, a bit of OpenAI for search, on a cheap VPS behind Cloudflare.

Where it's at: just launched, so I'm focused on getting the first profiles up.

I'd love feedback, especially from freelancers outside tech. Does the profile feel like something you'd actually share? What would make you use it over a Linktree or your own site?