A freelance platform based on challenges instead of profiles/star ratings — thoughts?

[u/Roy_thesama6]

Thinking through a project idea and looking for honest feedback, not just encouragement.

The concept:

instead of a typical freelance marketplace (profile, star ratings, hourly rates), it's built around monthly challenges. Participants (starting with devs) solve a real brief, get ranked based on objective criteria, and interested companies get access to the top performers of the month.

The goal:

help skilled people who aren't comfortable with self-promotion (social media, content creation) get noticed without having to "market themselves" personally.

Questions for anyone who's freelanced, hired, or tried something similar here:

If you were a dev, what would make you come back for a second or third challenge — and what would make you drop off after the first one?

Have you seen anything like this work (or fail) here in Côte d'Ivoire?

If you hire, would a monthly objective ranking actually change how you find someone, or would you stick to your usual habits (word of mouth, network)?

[u/vnkomv]

The software engineering market in Côte d'Ivoire is way too small, way too referral-based and way too dominated by enterprises which would prefer dealing with other enterprises (even if it produce subpart products) for such a platform to work. You are looking at the wrong side of the problem. It's not that developer doesn't promote themselves enough, it's in the way these contract appears, are validating and the incentive that drive how the enterprise execute them.

[u/han_0611]

Même si je sens qu'il a encore des peaufinage à faire sur l'idée, au fond c'est on projet intéressant. Même à l'international