Sponsor
We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing.

Overview
In this episode of the Hello Blink Show, Harris and Shawn interview Matt Liberty. Matt shares his experience with finding contractor work and how you should go about referrals and selecting the best candidate. Listeners will hear his advice as Matt discusses his company, Jetperch, and their tool, Joulescope. 

One Powerful Quotation

• 20:47 Matt: “Overall, trying to find better ways to do your job, find better ways to value your work and value the parts and work you have and how to negotiate with local people as well to do it. I found that working through these freelancing sites has helped me figure that out better and be better positioned.”

Key Topics

• 1:31: Shawn opens the show by asking Matt about his self-employment experience as a software consultant. 
• 2:06: Matt explains why he developed Joulescope as a way to measure the dynamic range of battery power. 
• 5:32: Harris inquires with Matt about his go to market and direct sales strategy. Matt describes how his operations and contract manufacturing work. 
• 8:59: Harris asks Matt about his scaleability and why working with distributors is a roadmap to get back to working with engineering. 
• 9:44: Matt describes his freelance process discerning that his manufacturers/designers act as his engineers, and smaller projects were relegated to others with varying degrees of success. 
• 10:53: Matt notes his success with freelancers has been with designing his logos for Jetperch and Joulescope. 
• 12:14: Shawn follows up with Matt on his experience with hiring freelance engineers.
• 14:16: Matt shares what he believes is the biggest challenge. 
• 15:29: Shawn asks Matt about his experience with managing freelance, software engineers. 
• 17:32: Harris surmises that the risk benefits of freelancing are not worth the hidden and unseen costs. 
• 19:06: Matt explains the differences in using Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelance.com for finding artists and freelance engineers. 
• 22:47: Matt highlights why finding your community and leveraging relationships can can develop key strategic partnerships. 
• 25:16: Matt explains the tradeoffs with screening and hiring, qualified talent as full time employees versus paying freelancers for one time transactions. 
• 27:28: Shawn asks Matt his recommendation on a project management framework with freelancers. 
• 30:37: Harris asks Matt why you should consider using freelancing for accelerating the growth of your business. Matt encourages listeners to delegate responsibilities to those with the skills you need. 
• 34:51: Matt adds to Shawn’s commentary that the scaleability of your business can determine the amount of work to give your partners. 
• 36:28: Matt shares the percentage of managing his product engineering and customer service.
• 38:00: Shawn and Harris wrap up the show, and Matt shares his contact information. 

List of Resources
Website - Jetperch LLC.
Website - Joulescope
Website - Contextual Electronics Forum
Website - Shopify
Website - Upwork
Website - Fiverr
Website - Freelance
congruentgraph on Fiverr

Guest Information
Matt Liberty is the creator of Joulescope, the easy-to-use, affordable test instrument for low-power design, and also the founder of Jetperch LLC, a software and hardware engineering consultancy. Matt was the primary inventor of Hillcrest Labs' Freespace® motion control technology, and he was granted 27 US patents. Matt has a broad engineering background encompassing digital signal processing, PCB development, FPGA development, and software development in C, C++, and Python.

Twitter
LinkedIn

Host Contact Information
shawnhymel.com
kennyconsultinggroup.com
LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel
LinkedIn - Harris Kenny
Twitter - Shawn Hymel
Twitter - Harris Kenny

License Information
“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Special Guest: Matt Liberty.