Sergio Pereira has been a Software Engineer and CTO for 13 years. Sergio has built tech products for several fast growing startups, such as Bulk MRO, StudentFinance and Candidly. For the last 7 years, Sergio has managed fully remote teams, either full time or working as a Fractional CTO. He is also a public speaker on remote work and managing tech teams, having spoken at major tech conferences and being an instructor at O’Reilly, Udemy and Gumroad.

We talk about what it takes to be a fractional CTO, how Sergio navigates chaos while building diverse engineering teams, the benefits of being a content creator, and his view on how to get jobs as a fractional engineer.

Swarm just released the ⁠Amber store⁠! ⁠Learn more⁠ about our vision of the future of work.

00:00 Starting out is very challenging

00:30 Who is Sergio?

02:40 It was never his dream to go fractional

03:45 How Sergio started out

04:40 What does it mean to be a Fractional CTO?

05:50 Why clients hire fractional over full-time

07:25 What clients ask Sergio

08:50 What kind of chaos does Sergio prefer?

11:25 It gets fun once you're over the hump

12:35 How to build a great team (fave part)

14:33 Sergio started hiring remote very early

16:20 What he learned after interviewing 1000+

19:25 How he manages diverse workforces

21:05 Why Sergio believes in written communication

22:27 Sergio's Remote Work Academy

24:41 Don't settle for the office!

26:50 How remote work will change the world

27:24 How Sergio manages Remote Work Academy

28:18 How Sergio became a content creator

31:45 Why Sergio wants to stay a content creator

32:25 Serendipity just by showing up online

33:00 How Sergio gets clients through Twitter

34:15 Sergio's advice for fractional workers

Karthik Puvvada, often called 'KP', is the founder & CEO of Build In Public Fellowship. It's an online program and community to help founders and creators put themselves out there and build in public fearlessly. He also runs a SaaS startup “LeaderBird” which helps people be more consistent on Twitter by gamifying the journey. He previously ran programs at Day One (funded by Gary Vee) and On Deck.

You can find his writing here, check out his podcast and follow him on Twitter here.

We talk about the how’s and why’s of building in public, how to increase your luck surface area, becoming a top Hunter on Product Hunt, finding your authentic content niche, and creating value while having fun.

Swarm just released the Amber store! Learn more about our vision of the future of work.

00:00 Share as you go

Frances To is an Independent Designer who specializes in creating bespoke websites, digital products, and interactive stories on Webflow. Since the start of Frances’s independent design practice, her work has been recognized by Awwwards, CSS Design Awards, Typewolf, and Buried Signals.

We talk about Frost Condensed Sans, a typeface made by the Frost Design team, which Frances is part of; the benefits of being a multidisciplinary designer; learning the language and domain expertise of your clients;  the power of introspection; and why scratching your itch matters for your fractional career.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube! :)

This podcast is brought to you by ⁠Swarm⁠ — ⁠social network⁠ for top tech freelancers looking for fractional work. Follow us for new Fractional episodes on ⁠Twitter⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠LinkedIn⁠, and ⁠Facebook⁠!

00:00 - Why not make it yourselves?

Angela Salud Chua is the founder of Toffeenut Design Studio, an independent collectives studio based in the Philippines. She has been designing products with tech leaders for over a decade, helping with ideation and strategy, and building award-winning products that scale.

We talk about fostering relationships and referrals, defending design decisions as a female Asian senior designer in Western teams, why doing unsolicited redesigns make sense, creating a fun mix of projects as a fractional worker, choosing a non-work-centric life, tips for new freelancers, and so much more.

0:00 Introductions

This podcast is brought to you by Swarm — social network for top tech freelancers looking for fractional work. Follow us for new Fractional episodes on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook!

Dan Mall is a husband, dad, teacher, creative director, designer, founder, and entrepreneur from Philly. He runs Design System University, where he creates, collects, and curates curriculum, content, and community to help enterprise teams design at scale. Previously, Dan ran design system consultancy SuperFriendly for over a decade. Dan writes about design systems, process, and leadership and other issues on his site danmall.com, in his weekly newsletter, and on Twitter and Instagram.

We talk about Dan’s network-based model for Superfriendly, creating leveling and growth paths for freelancers, intentionality behind your freelance work lifestyle, his top two tips for new freelancers, figuring out what he wants as he continues his fractional journey, the commodification of designers in the advent of AI, figuring out your value, and a lot more.

This podcast is brought to you by Swarm — social network for top tech freelancers looking for fractional work. Follow us for new Fractional episodes on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook!

00:00 - “Work happens to you” vs. Intentionality
00:30 - What is Fractional?
00:52 - Who is Dan Mall?
01:21 - Topics Overview
01:57 - Dan introduces himself
02:50 - What is SuperFriendly?
03:59 - Dan’s superpower: Being a connector of people
04:40 - Daily networking habit
05:30 - I believe freelancers can simultaneously…
06:20 - The dichotomy of freelancing vs. working in a team
07:45 - Aligning incentives
08:38 - Matching opportunities to what people are good at
09:25 - How did Dan get where he is? What were his beliefs?
11:37 - Mental health as a 9-5 freelancer???
12:50 - The general zeitgeist = reaction mode
13:25 - I want the power dynamic to be in favor of the service provider
15:40 - I would rather ____ than sacrifice time with family
16:34 - How do you get to a position of privilege as a freelancer?
17:33 - One great thing anyone can do at any stage in their career
18:06 - No one can invalidate your journey
18:58 - Creating runway in order to do what I really want to do
20:47 - Shutting down SuperFriendly
22:49 - Dan’s new thing: Design System University
23:41 - Different people learn in different ways
24:41 - The Frequency Illusion Effect
26:00 - What are ways I can teach people in a more accessible way?
26:51 - What are you learning about yourself?
27:29 - 95% intrinsic motivation, 5% extrinsic motivation
28:00 - Wallpapers for my phone that say, “Are you having fun?”
29:14 - If you can’t even answer what you want…
29:46 - Facing your own reality
30:16 - Will AI replace our jobs?
30:48 - How AI works into design systems
31:30 - Craft vs. Commodity
32:55 - The hope despite commoditization
33:22 - ChatGPT lies
34:24 - ChatGPT is a remix machine
36:23 - Before you take away a job, figure out the replacement first
38:03 - AI will design for us. What do we do then?
39:06 - I’m seeking fun
39:36 - Message to freelancers and independent workers
40:13 - You’re not cheaper as a freelancer. You’re more valuable.
41:29 - Your value is so much more than “cheaper”