Contra's co-founder story is sometimes confused with Match.com ad. ❤️ I got a text message from this guy to meet him at the Jane on Filmore. I arrived and was looking for a tall, dark and handsome guy. We shared a meal and discussed our dreams. The reason for me coming to SF matched with what @ben_huffman was building. I wanted to match engineers with opportunities in great companies based on who they've worked with in the past. Ben had a grander vision of a future where people's work relationships shape their online professional identify and unlock new opportunities. When we realized that our goals were aligned we've committed to building this together. From there on we'd meet every morning, share breakfast, brainstorm on the whiteboard (very old school I know), work together, & take long walks way past sunset. Our friendship grew stronger and so did our conviction about the size of the opportunity. And once we realized how big this thing could be, we started recruiting our engineering, design, community team, ... all around the idea of giving everyone the freedom and opportunity to work independently We've since moved to SF permanently. We've hired a ton of extraordinarily talented & caring people. We've raised. We've built an amazing technology stack. With today’s release, we are giving people the tools to describe their proudest career moments, publicly thank the people with whom they’ve worked with, and begin accepting inquiries for future opportunities. This is the first Contra drop of many that will shape the new pr*fessional n*twork for your independent journey.

Before joining the Community team at Contra, I was a freelancer who desperately wanted to make new connections with clients and other freelancers. Though -- don't get me wrong, I didn't just want to network for the sake of networking. I wanted to make relationships with people who I could learn from and be inspired by. When using other freelancing sites, I realized I needed more from these platforms, not a quick one-off project with strangers (I don't dig transactional interactions). So it thrills me to say that I am apart of a stellar team who are changing the way people work. Flexible work is the now and the future, join us! 🥳 Find me on Contra: https://contra.com/samantha

It's been wonderful to be a Contra Ambassador. It made me re-visit all the perks of being an independent creative. I loved giving feedback about the platform as an avid user and a product designer. It's lovely to know Contra team cares so much about what they are building and I think its a brilliant start. Can't wait to see the platform growing and thriving.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a strong correlation between remote work and independent / flexible work. Today, most digital knowledge work can and will be done remote and async, unlocking a new category of work -🚀- Flexible. We are seeing fatigue from professional networks like LinkedIn, where the signal to noise ratio of your professional “connections” is completely out of whack. It's now more important than ever for the digital workforce to lean on our trusted networks to access opportunities. Thats where Contra comes in. Our team is solving a very personal problem that will open up new opportunities for digital workers everywhere. Check me out at https://contra.com/ben

We need to either love what we do or do what we love if we are to do anything well and stay happy and fulfilled. It may sound unrealistic but if you can get together with a group of people, or even just one person, who shares your passion and enthusiasm for something, this is exactly what happens as you go about building your thing. If this is what you want (and why wouldn't you?), how do you go about finding your tribe? How do you collaborate and work with them to build something - something that not only you deeply care about but also rewards you handsomely for your time, effort and skills? And most importantly, how do you make sure, you can arrange all of this around the life you want? I've worked as an independent for most of my career and Contra is something that I would've loved to have for as long as I can remember. I could've used a platform like Contra - a platform that could give me, instead of meaningless connections, the ability to collaborate and work with someone from anywhere in the world building things I love to build. A platform that would help me leverage my network of partners and collaborators to discover new opportunities I wouldn't have otherwise come across. A platform which wouldn't charge me a hefty commission despite providing no value to what gets built. That is exactly what we at Contra are trying to build. We're growing rapidly and with a lot of new features and capabilities coming up, now is the time to sign up and influence how Contra shapes up. Join us on our journey to build a platform that can bring true freedom and opportunity to work independently to every person all around the world.

I have always wanted to be a contra ambassador since I got to know about Contra - even If I don't get paid for it. I am a sucker for anyone or anything that helps me have a great work-life balance and that's exactly what I see with the Contra community - with as simple as reading through the motivations, checking through approved opportunities, learning from others and yea the small-wins inspiration too. Shout-out to Zoë and Samantha. Go Contra🚀

It is incredible to be a part of something that is changing how we work. I know the struggles of being an independent, but also how exhilarating and rewarding it is to work the way you want. Contra is working to enable the future of flexible work by giving independents the tools they need to collaborate and succeed. I so strongly believe in the statement that we work to live and not vice versa. Thrilled to be working on a product with such an important mission and impact 🌟

I believe everyone should have the opportunity to build their career around the life they want. While it won’t be easy, Contra is genuinely trying to create a better platform for flexible work. The team has big plans — this is just the beginning. Looking forward to getting feedback from the amazing Product Hunt community 💛

I found out about Contra through Instagram and I'm so glad that I did! I've only been part of this community for about a week and the people I've interacted with have already given me so much to be grateful for- I've gathered feedback on my work from professionals, gained access to book, video and course resources relating to my field, helped people out with their queries, and so much more! I cannot wait to see what more this platform has in store for me!

As an independent designer, I must involve myself in communities that will encourage positive growth and showcase my work to the right audience. Contra has given me that and more. With a refreshing take on the current industry, Contra encourages its members to build a career around the life they want. The Contra team knows the future of work is flexible, so they created a platform that reflects that. With Contra, I can curate and promote my work, collaborate with other members, and find opportunities to take my career to the next level. The best is yet to come!

Flexible work no longer means you need to sacrifice stability. Our goal at Contra is to not only help folks navigate their independent journey to find higher quality, fulfilling work, but to thrive while doing it. We could not be more elated to help solve this problem together with the PH community.

I remember the "click" moment I had when speaking to @kuizinas for the first time. The world was in a deep state of change, most of my friends had lost their traditional jobs and were frantically looking elsewhere for something to do, a tool that could help them put their skills and experiences in a spotlight. Traditional platforms are oversaturated with a marketing approach, spammy posts and soulless information. This tends to give the upper hand to social whales that can leverage their massive connections and resources, while leaving talented professionals on the sidelines. In a world where rapid change is needed, the current way of things was inefficient to say the least. That's when @kuizinas told me about Contra, and it just "clicked". This is the solution. A platform built by independents for independents. A platform that treats people's work with respect, a "platform" in the most true and pure form. No hidden fees, no complex requirements, no spam. Contra is a professional temple, true and assertive. Nobody knows how the future plays out, but I'm 100% Contra is in it. It's only natural, it's only innovation doing what it knows best. Solving problems. Only that in Contra, we also do it with style 😏

When I first joined the Contra community, I couldn't have imagined what the team at Contra were really up to. Now, after many months of growth, and the several opportunities for community members to partake in every step of the growth process (ambassadors and other programs), I see how much those early stage decisions meant for positioning the product in today's independent working ecosystem. Contra didn't just build the best freelance platform, but equally encouraged new and old freelancers alike, on how to stay on top of their game and own their stage. That is it for me; the community support and constant desire to help everyone grow. Best place, hands down!

It is amazing to see how Contra has managed to its community even before the, they have totally debunked the theory of not creating the hype. Hope that it goes as planned. Fingers crossed, Good luck Contra Team.

Love the design, Contra makes freelancing fun and exciting!

So unbelievably excited about this launch 🎉 Contra is building the infrastructure for the future of how we work & the 🤠 team is honored to be on the journey!

We want to be able to own our future, so independent work fits right in the life we all want. I've been lucky enough to be involved with Contra to see the product and the community grow over time. I'm excited about this launch so that all the independent workers out there can come together to find work and collaborate! Kudos to the team!

This is awesome

Definitely looking at exploring this platform, big fan of remote working communities and Contra is certainly on top.

It is difficult to wrap it up in just a sentence, but if meant to be, I would say: It is insane not to be with this bunch of upbeat people driving change; and it is fun @kuizinas good you "matched" with Ben.