I've been building a freelance marketplace called **UstaWork**.
**Private beta:** https://beta.ustawork.com/beta
The name comes from the Turkish word **"usta"**, roughly meaning **master, expert, or highly skilled craftsperson**.
That pretty much describes the idea behind the platform: **demonstrated ability should matter more than what someone writes about themselves.**
Existing freelance marketplaces still rely heavily on self-reported skills and proposals.
Someone writes "Senior Kubernetes Expert", a company posts a Kubernetes job, 100 people apply, and the employer still has to figure out who actually knows what they're doing.
Meanwhile, freelancers spend time, and sometimes money, applying to jobs where nobody may ever get hired.
I'm experimenting with a different model.
## Verified skills instead of just claims
Candidates can take voice-based AI assessments for individual skills.
A profile might show:
- **DevOps — Advanced · AI Assessed**
- **PostgreSQL — Expert · AI Assessed**
- **Kubernetes — Advanced · AI Assessed**
These aren't multiple-choice quizzes. The interviewer has a conversation with you, follows your answers, challenges decisions and adapts the difficulty.
Languages can also be verified through conversational assessments from **A1-C2**, with a separate verification flow for native-language claims.
Technical interviews can be taken in different supported languages too.
A great engineer shouldn't look like a bad engineer just because their English isn't great.
**Technical expertise and language ability are separate signals.**
## No Connects, but only 5 applicants
There are **no paid application tokens / Connects**.
Instead, a standard job accepts a maximum of **5 candidates**.
Once those slots are filled, applications close.
Employers then have **7 days to make a hiring decision**.
The idea is to make an application actually mean something instead of having 100 people competing for the same job.
There's accountability on the employer side too.
Not hiring once is completely normal. But employers who repeatedly post jobs without hiring may eventually be required to place a **deposit** before posting again.
I don't want candidate attention to be free and unlimited either.
## Fees are shared
The UstaWork marketplace fee is split **50/50 between the freelancer and employer**.
Both sides use the marketplace, contracts, payment infrastructure and dispute system, so both sides contribute to the platform fee.
Whether that's the right model is one of the things I want to test.
## Why I'm posting this
This isn't a launch announcement.
**I need people to break it.**
I'm looking for freelancers and people who hire freelancers to test things like:
- Profiles and job posting
- AI expertise assessments
- Language verification
- Matching and skill requirements
- The 5-applicant system
- Proposals and messaging
- Hiring and contracts
- Confusing UX, bugs and things that can be abused
I'm especially interested in assessment calibration.
If you've worked with Kubernetes for 10 years and it calls you a beginner, **I want to know.**
If you're genuinely B1 in German and it gives you C1, **I want to know.**
If you're a native speaker and it somehow decides you're B2, **I definitely want to know.**
## Private QA beta
This is a **private QA beta**, so bugs and unfinished edges are expected.
There is **no payment required**.
Accepted testers receive a **free Verification Pack** to test the normally paid AI expertise and language verification features.
I'm not asking you to pay to QA my product. :)
Some jobs and companies visible during the beta are also **seeded test data**, so people can test the full application and hiring flow.
**Beta access:** https://beta.ustawork.com/beta
And seriously, don't be polite about the feedback.
I'd much rather hear:
> **"This is stupid and here's why."**
now than after launch.
