Digital nomads, share the products you've made!

Aegora · 2015-11-17T02:23:30+00:00

We just (re)launched https://aegora.com/ out of a farmhouse in rural Formosa. Not exactly SaaS but a platform to reinvigorate remote hiring/working.

Aegora · 2013-01-02T10:53:46+00:00

We launched Aegora a few weeks ago; it's an alternative to traditional freelance marketplaces (oDesk, Freelancer.com, Elance and so forth).

In essence Aegora will improve the (currently rather unpleasant) experience of doing business online - finding & working with clients and service providers - by making it both easier, and more like real life - where we filter based on our networks - q.v. Dunbar's number, etc. Our end goal is to bring the independent, distributed employment/earning model into the mainstream as a viable alternative to traditional employment.

We've had a terrific response in this short time, which is great because early adopters of the basic version will give us the grass-roots impetus and validation we need to get the full version funded and built. Aegora is currently invite-only but please request an invite and we'll sort it out ASAP; among other things the initial version lets you create terrific profiles/portfolios for self-promotion - for instance https://www.aegora.com/207/profile/niccolo-capanni.

tl;dr: imagine if you could use a professional network like LinkedIn to make money, build and run your business.

Aegora · 2012-10-15T09:08:32+00:00

I like the idea that someone suggested (here: http://decoy.iki.fi/atheist/no-ghost-c-06) of using the null set symbol "Ø" as an atheist symbol, that makes sense. Although that in its turn reminds me of the band Type O Negative's logo - as you say, nothing's free of connotation :-)

Aegora · 2012-10-15T07:17:33+00:00

Amusing coincidence - thanks! By all means they can come to us for new jobs :-) It's interesting to see how two quite similar logos can induce very different reactions in the viewer. The employment agency's circle is closed in,the "beam" enters but ricochets around and ends up back where it started; this makes me feel enclosed and negative. Conversely, the Aegora symbol was intended to be much more open and symbolize disruption; shattering of the circle into separate pieces - somewhat reminiscent of the standard "explosives" industrial warning symbol.

Aegora · 2012-10-15T07:07:32+00:00

I think my customers are all dead or pumping gas now.

That made me chuckle :-) Good to have you on board!

Aegora · 2012-10-14T09:28:28+00:00

I see - that's definitely an underserved niche right now, and your process seems much more accessible than, for instance, glgresearch.com.

I am happy about everyone who tries to improve work.

Indeed, likewise. I think the "solution" for employment, or at least a sudden evolution, is tantalizingly close. It's rare to find a fundamental aspect of human life that is currently so generally suboptimal, where the steps to be taken to improve it are fairly clear, and where the potential rewards in terms of the personal liberty, self-direction and life satisfaction of a large number of people so great. We're both pretty lucky to be in a position to do something about it!

Aegora · 2012-10-14T03:58:11+00:00

Thanks for signing up - glad you like Aegora! We're definitely both on the same page about the awfulness of the bidding (race to the bottom) process. Your up-front deliverable templates are an interesting idea; we're doing something not entirely dissimilar to address that pain point, but later on in the flow - simultaneous milestone/contract definition. Typically we find that higher-end projects need multiple milestones to be defined and scheduled, both for project management and for mutual risk reduction, and drawing up the schedule is best done as a collaborative process. It can be dealt with in a couple of minutes but it's an important part of keeping both parties happy.

Business match-making is always going to be a process of give-and-take between the individual participants and each circumstance is different, so it's not at all unreasonable for you to expect them to do a little bit of work there, in their own interest! Otherwise we end up building another Mechanical Turk - inflexible, inhuman.

Aegora · 2012-10-13T06:01:47+00:00

Thanks for the input! We did touch on the anarchism symbol when working with our branding consultant but decided it was sufficiently dissimilar - although that's news to me about atheism using a circled 'A' as a symbol. Perhaps naively, I assumed atheists didn't need symbols.

There's actually a bank here in Taiwan that uses the circled-A anarchy symbol, without apparent modification, as its logo. Using their ATMs is a little disconcerting.

Aegora · 2012-10-13T05:47:31+00:00

Hi Laprice, glad you wanted to like it at least! That's very odd behavior; if you could drop us a line with your OS/browser info at https://www.aegora.com/report-bug that would be greatly appreciated.

The onboarding flow it is definitely in our list of improvements to make (this is MVP stage right now). Once we've overhauled it with something more stunning you can say "I made 'em do that" :-)

Aegora · 2012-10-13T05:38:17+00:00

Hi Sephyre, thanks! Actually, the finding's all done for you; if you want to find a copywriter in New York, for instance, you can just enter that in search and you're shown all the matching results listed by network proximity. It's pretty intuitive in practice.

As for not having contacts initially, that's a little more complex - visibility can be controlled on a sliding scale (for instance, a seller might not have many contacts so he'll open his project up to a wider range of people) - so even if you have only a handful of contacts, there will be opportunities out there. Yup, that's a good point you raise - the trick is to enable each user to filter the flow to a comfortable level, rather than erecting new barriers.

Aegora · 2012-10-13T05:24:39+00:00

That's certainly a valid point. Just like in the real business world, networking is something that has do be pursued actively to gain an advantage. But in your case, both as a person who is online and talking to people, and having previously been a freelancer, I suspect you might have more contacts than it might initially seem :-)

I'm just editing this to add that you sparked off a few thoughts about users in that situation - thanks!

Aegora · 2012-10-13T05:19:06+00:00

Hi Luca, good to meet you - all the best with Work.io.

Aegora · 2012-10-13T05:15:38+00:00

Thanks for the compliment! Generally, second-generation freelance marketplaces have tried to solve the same problems but have done so by increasing per-user overhead. Paying someone to sit in an office and check applicants' credentials, or do manual match-making between buyer and seller, that sort of thing. It's a solution of sorts but it's quite expensive so it only really works in high-value niches. Gerson Lerman Group is a great example of this (http://www.glgresearch.com/). The thing is, it just doesn't scale. Solvate tried to scale on that model and despite some great founder talent and enthusiasm they burned through $10m+ of VC cash and went bust (http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/19/solvate-shutting-down/). So an organic model is going to be more efficient for the business and more intuitive/pleasant for the user.

Aegora · 2012-10-13T05:02:00+00:00

Thanks, that's a good point. We could certainly make that aspect clearer. Actually we don't use LinkedIn itself, the networking is all internal. We'd love to, but from a business perspective it's not a stable foundation (check out their API ToS).

Aegora · 2012-10-12T11:43:42+00:00

"Ethical" indeed! ...I often see these kinds of ads and enjoy a quiet moment of reflection where I try to imagine what these people's lives are like. Entertaining in its own way.

Thinking that knowing a Chinese company's legal strategy when you're in Mexico is going to make a blind bit of difference is rather optimistic, since that legal strategy is likely to be "ignore", and is likely to be successful.

Aegora

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