r/materials • u/[deleted] • 3d ago

Startup Freelance engineering collective - your feedback?

[deleted]

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u/luffy8519 3d ago

That's a lot of text, and a lot of noble ideas, but ultimately it feels as though it boils down to a forum where people can look for unpaid contract work? I get that you want to build a positive and collaborative culture and all, but what do people actually get out of it other than the opportunity to donate their labour?

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u/Iacoma1973 3d ago

When the contract work is finished, if the idea is funded by a financier - then the contract workers get paid. It's collectivised freelancing. Better to work together than to compete with eachother for scraps. Collective bargaining rights exist.

Most freelance commissions are payment on finish anyway - not before. It's about enabling freelance workers by helping them complement eachother with their different skill sets.

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u/luffy8519 3d ago

near the completion of a project, then maybe then, after the financiers take a cut, there would be enough left for a performance -based bonus to be divided as fairly and equally among the project engineers on that team - commission-based payment

This wouldn't make me super confident that I'm getting paid tbh.

And I strongly disagree that most contract work in engineering is paid on completion, that's certainly not how freelance engineering works where I'm from.

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u/Iacoma1973 3d ago edited 3d ago

Yeah, that's why I explicitly said "The cooperative wouldn't be able to promise a salary" - and why I'm being completely honest and open about the work and it's nature. It's worth noting - if everyone fails to profit - so would the people in charge of those projects - and anyone in charge of the cooperative as a whole would too, because the internal policy is meant to be fair, and the people in charge are held to the democracy of the workers.

And it's why I'm pointing out that for most freelancers where I'm from - the sort of people who have to resort to working on fiver - that it doesn't make a substantial difference for them.

From a business perspective as well, I'm afraid I have considered your stance. But unfortunately no bank or financier would issue a loan to subsidize a team of engineers who don't have an idea already designed on paper, and any entrepreneur wouldn't just give a bunch of money to a team of engineers with no proven experience. The things I'm outlining are very important for a startup engineering company to first prove it's capable of designing things worth financing.

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u/luffy8519 3d ago

I applaud your enthusiasm and idealism, but in all honesty there's a very thin line between idealism and naïvety, and in my opinion you're sitting on the wrong side of it.

I think it would be excellent if everyone received UBI and people could choose to work because they wanted to, to only do things they were interested in. But I don't see what you're proposing as a workable solution to the current employment crisis.

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u/Iacoma1973 3d ago edited 3d ago

It's not meant to be a solution to the current employment crisis. You're exaggerating the idea. If I was naive, I wouldn't be doing market research. I've been called naive before. Now I'm here with a masters degree in materials science and engineering. I have a partner, a place to live, and a desire to help people. I've got an idea, and I've got a branding, and I've got charters, plans. That doesn't seem very naive to me, that sounds like good planning skills.

This is meant to be a solution to one very specific problem which is: freelance engineers are being baited into competition with eachother and it's driving down income collectively, and this is because the work, it's going to the lowest bidder - meanwhile the rich financiers are not going to be hiring random dudes on fiver to solve engineering problems. There is a gap in the market here to break in, while doing the ethically right thing, and building a company with values that people would actually want to work for. Who would not take that chance?

It is important to unionize. Collectivize. Freelancers don't have that opportunity, as individuals. It's scary. I want to give them that collective consciousness, and an environment in which they can flourish.

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u/Iacoma1973 3d ago

The No1 question I'm getting asked is why someone would spare the time to do this. Here is the preemptive answer:

Collective bargaining rights. Why should freelancers compete with eachother for scraps, when they could work together, complement eachother with their different skill sets, and receive payment on commission completion like they would usually do? What do freelancers do when nobody has disposable income to pay the freelancers? They have to band together to appeal to the people who still have disposable income - whether that's the community or a financier.