mattbarrie

Only Silicon Valley could turn software development into degenerate gambling.

Only Silicon Valley could turn software development into degenerate gambling.

AI’ll be back.

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/macro-voices/id1079172...

Macrovoices link https://www.macrovoices.com/1347-macrovoices-446-matt-barrie

It's pretty amazing but can get a bit lost/into a bugged state.

there's no paywall? just tried

Of course apples problems are all supply related, not demand

My guess is paypal is going to apple and ebay to alibaba.

Works great until the remove server goes down and no-one can log in anymore.

Big raises like this are primarily secondary. Probably someone like lightspeed selling out (was mentioned in leaked email http://www.businessinsider.com.au/snapchat-ceo-evan-spiegels...).

I wrote a response to that

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140801044817-921366-marc-an...

I wouldn't bet on it.

Maybe you are not aware of the new EU VAT on digital downloads, which is taxed in the country of purchase, not country of sale.

http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/nov/2...

The way discussion on taxation is going globally I wouldn't be surprised if more legislation heads this way, or at the very least a presence test is applied to see if the company has a physical office in country.

There are very specific laws regarding the hawking of shares to the general public without variously being registered securities or having an offering document. While I could see this take off, I doubt it would be used by legal companies unless it could fit within some crowd funded equity carve out.

Hello csomar

I would be happy to get someone look into this for you if you email me your username to matt@freelancer.com. Did you supply your ID?

Regards Matt

Hello mmisu

Freelancer CEO here. I thought I'd address some of the issues you brought up.

We did increase the membership plan to $50/mo from $29/mo simply because the volume of projects have skyrocketed and as a result the volume of jobs performed by standard members had likewise increased. The $50/mo standard membership give a 50% discount on commissions to 5% from 10%, so there is tremendous value there. We have lots of users earning six figures (up to almost $1m per annum), so these memberships are quite reasonably priced for the benefits.

We removed the buyers name but not the feedback. We did that after an overwhelming number of requests from employers to take it off. The problem has been that freelancers have been spamming and harassing employers by guessing their contact details (e.g. trying similar skype names).

Of course we care about the coder's experience and we actively solicit ways to improve the site from our users. Your comment of "if you pay $2 your bid will be better placed than a bid of a coder with a better rating/history" is exactly how Google and Facebook works in terms of a small number of paid listings above organic results. We order freelancers from the best to the worst feedback in the organic results in the bid list. We have three slots available for paid sponsored bids above this. This gives people an opportunity who may be new but really want to stand out in the bid list a chance to break in to the market. We think this is a very fair way of doing things.

We don't tolerate spam projects for free work, how would that make sense? Our primary business model is to charge a commission for introductions- after both parties have talked, discussed the project details, pricing and a prepayment (milestone payment) has been made, not before.

We do offer financing protection for buyers and sellers through our milestone payment system, dispute resolution and arbitration systems. Your comment that we offer "no financial protection" is incorrect.

Regards Matt

What was the biggest thing you did to grow big so fast?

Dustin and I just spoke on the phone and hopefully all remaining issues are being resolved.

Whitewhidow, I have looked into your account and the limitation has now been cleared.

Whitewhidow. I looked into your situation and it has been resolved at our end now.

Whitewhidow, can you please email your issue to matt@freelancer.com and I will personally look into it?

This was reposted on /r/programming so I have copied here my reply to that thread:

---

Hello everyone.

This is Matt Barrie, Chief Executive of Freelancer.com.

I see this has been reposted again in /r/programming. I think that we are being treated a little harshly here when the facts behind this case are not fully known, and nor are we able to provide them to you due to privacy issues.

Dustin did successfully withdraw funds the first time only a few days before. This has been omitted from his article.

On Thursday 24/4 he queued a substantially larger withdrawal for processing which was queued according to our normal timetable for Monday 28/4. This larger withdrawal triggered our KYC process (Know Your Customer) which required provision of identification. Documents were provided on this day but did not pass our process. I personally looked into this and it was for good reason that the anti-fraud team rejected them.

On Sunday 27/4, further documents were provided (still not completing the KYC process), but at the same time Dustin posted his article on Medium.com which blew up both here on Reddit, and HN.

By this stage it was early Monday morning here in Australia, and this issue was brought to our attention (thank you to those of you that emailed me). I personally looked at the accounts and was present when the team called (at about 7pm NY time) both Dustin (who didn't answer) and the employer to resolve the matter. The employer told our team "he does not wish to cooperate or assist us in any request" along with several expletives. We informed the employer on that call that in that case we were likely to refund the payments back to his credit card and that he would have to pay direct.

Our team then investigated the project itself- and became concerned enough with the nature of the project (which was against our Terms of Service) to cancel it, refund all the fees- for both Dustin and the employer- and refund all payments back to the employer's credit card.

I hope that you all understand that we have robust anti-fraud procedures in place designed to protect you in the event that your credit card is stolen. We don't subvert those processes because a post makes its way to Reddit or HN.

Over 5.8 million projects have been posted on Freelancer.com. We are a public company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. We are not in the business of "actively delaying payments to contractors". This is a ridiculous assertion from OP.

NO payment was delayed in the above process with Dustin. We process withdrawals for Monday EDT. We were attempting to resolve this issue Sunday evening EDT.

Both Dustin and his employer were, to say the least, unhelpful in getting this resolved.

Regards Matt

Both my site (Freelancer.com) and Paypal have similar issues. Both are subject to fraud on a daily basis, and we have to weigh up the security of our marketplace and the protection of our users versus customer support issues that become public very quickly in today's world.

Hello campuscodi

With 11 million users you are bound to get a few complaints about something, however we are very proactive about finding these issues and resolving them. I personally am dealing with this issue and I have looked at the circumstances and I stand 100% behind my anti-fraud team.

Regards Matt

All funds have been returned to the employer's credit card and the employer has been called to inform them to pay directly.

Hi Angilly

1) I cannot comment on the specifics as I hope you can understand. 2) We don't ID check all the accounts at signup. That would be logistically impossible. We have 11 million users.

Regards Matt

Hi there. I am the CEO of Freelancer.com.

We accept driver's licenses as identification: http://www.freelancer.com/news/articles-verification-309.htm...

This is incorrect.

If you can supply me your username I will be happy to personally look into your issue.

A passport is not required.

We accept driver's licenses as identification: http://www.freelancer.com/news/articles-verification-309.htm...

Thanks Elle. I have responded in this thread.

Regards Matt

Hello

I am the Chief Executive Officer of Freelancer.com and I have personally investigated this situation.

While I sympathise with Dustin's situation, he has failed to complete our Know Your Customer (KYC) process, which involves the provision of bona fide photo identification. We take the security of our marketplace and the protection of our users very seriously and have robust checks and balances in our anti-fraud procedures.

I have looked at all the details for this case, and our support team have done exactly the right thing in this instance.

We have decided to refund all funds associated with the project back to the employer's credit card (who is also located nearby in New York) as well as all fees associated with this. The employer has been called and informed that he will need to pay Dustin directly.

We will also be investigating the nature of this project further.

Thank you also to those of you that took the time to email me to bring this personally to my attention. My email address is matt@freelancer.com and I am happy to receive emails about any issue, even if it is to just drop me a note saying hello.

Regards Matt

EDIT: Let me add that we accept driver's licenses as identification: http://www.freelancer.com/news/articles-verification-309.htm...

Read the fine print on those "guarantees".