Part-Time Tech

[Part-Time Tech Podcast, Episode 8] David Cherrie is CEO and Founder of startup Arcade.co. He hired Ernie as an interim and fractional engineering leader. We share our experiences on both sides of the engagement and how it worked out.

Show notes:

(0:00) Arcade and Background

(5:06) Struggles

(7:54) Turning to fractional hires

(13:06) Why fractional worked for Engineering

(14:55) Different levels of fractional

(18:26) Time forcing functions

(21:50) Compensation and Opportunity Cost

(27:30) Limitations and Candor

(34:12) Contract to hire and fractional

Part-Time Tech

· The Part-Time Tech Newsletter: https://parttimetech.io

· The Part-Time Tech Podcast (audio): https://bit.ly/part-time-tech-podcast

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/parttimetech_io

· Ernie LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ernestipark

· Ernie Twitter: https://twitter.com/eipark

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Arcade: https://arcade.co

#parttimetech #futureofwork #startups #startupfunding #entrepreneurship

[Episode 7 of the Part-Time Tech Podcast] This podcast originally appeared on the Human Cloud Podcast and Matthew Mottola was the host.

Ernie is the founder of this podcast and the Part-Time Tech newsletter. He shares his personal story and insights on the freelance economy from his conversations with talent, hiring managers, and founders in the freelance and flexible work space.

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Show Notes

3:51, Why Ernie made the switch

5:11, Why working this way makes sense for top talent

11:18, Impact of the pandemic

14:31, The corporate disconnect

20:43, The future of fractional leaders

40:51, The real tradeoffs between 1099 & W2

41:49, What do marketplaces have to do

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Part-Time Tech

· The Part-Time Tech Newsletter: https://parttimetech.io

· The Part-Time Tech Podcast (audio): https://bit.ly/part-time-tech-podcast

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/parttimetech_io

· Ernie LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ernestipark

· Ernie Twitter: https://twitter.com/eipark

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Human Cloud: https://humancloud.work/

#parttimetech #freelanceeconomy #freelancers #futureofwork #startups #startupfunding #entrepreneurship

This podcast originally appeared on the Human Cloud Podcast and Matthew Mottola was an incredible host. Their podcast and newsletter dive deep into the freelance economy and their audience is primarily businesses and freelance marketplaces. Check’em out!

[Episode 6 of the Part-Time Tech Podcast] Bradley Jacobs is the Founder and CEO of Mylance, a tool that helps fractional executives fill their pipeline and find their next lead, supported by a vetted community.

Bradley launched several markets at Uber as an operations guru. After executing that playbook several times for Uber, he realized he could do it on his own for other companies. After many rejections and ups and downs, he was able to grow a successful consulting business doing $25k/month. He eventually started Mylance to help other people with the challenges of consulting.

In our conversation, Bradley had some great insights on why consultants can be extremely valuable to companies, tactical advice on how to make the transition from full-time to independent, and great details on his own personal journey. This conversation is jammed with really practical advice, I think you’ll enjoy it.

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Show Notes

(0:00) Intro & Bradley’s Story

(3:20) Leaving the 9-5

(7:00) Becoming a consultant

(10:15) Positioning and value

(14:02) Experiments and side quests

(18:25) Starting MyLance

(21:35) MyLance today

(24:13) Focus on Needle Moving

(27:00) Specialize and Niche Down

(29:39) Everything’s made up

(35:25) Conclusion

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Part-Time Tech

· The Part-Time Tech Newsletter: https://parttimetech.io

· The Part-Time Tech Podcast (audio): https://bit.ly/part-time-tech-podcast

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/parttimetech_io

· Ernie LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ernestipark

· Ernie Twitter: https://twitter.com/eipark

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Bradley Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/

Mylance: https://mylance.co

#parttimetech #futureofwork #startups #startupfunding #entrepreneurship

[Episode 5 of the Part-Time Tech Podcast] Raphael Ouzan is a serial entrepreneur and founder and CEO of A.Team. A.Team is a startup and members-only network of builders (engineers, PMs, designers, marketers, etc) who can form teams to help companies solve some of their biggest problems. A.teams are dynamic and work contracts from months to over a year to help their clients build, test, and ship products.

We talk about his startup as well as how teams will change freelancing and how companies should think about dynamic workforces in a changing economic climate.

Show Notes

(0:00) Intro and Raphael's Background

(5:40) Best of Freelancing and Teams

(7:02) Who Hires A Teams

(10:25) Builders on A.Team

(14:12) How A Teams are Used

(16:05) Building a dynamic workforce

(20:02) Changing markets and work preferences

(22:35) Companies as networks and communities

(24:45) Experimenting with your early team

(28:25) Parting Thoughts

Part-Time Tech

The Part-Time Tech Newsletter: https://parttimetech.io

The Part-Time Tech Podcast (audio): https://bit.ly/part-time-tech-podcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/parttimetech_io

Ernie Twitter: https://twitter.com/eipark

Ernie LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ernestipark

Raphael Ouzan

Sign up for A Team as a builder or a company: https://bit.ly/3lPvmgh (affiliate link)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/raphaelouzan

#parttimetech #futureofwork #startups #startupfunding #entrepreneurship

[Episode 4 of the Part-Time Tech Podcast] Sahil Lavingia is the founder of Gumroad. He shares about how equity works at Gumroad, their next product, Flexile, and why Sahil opted out of the unicorn chase. Sahil lays out both practical and philosophical visions for what flexible companies like Gumroad could look like in the future.

Watch Part 1 of this interview here: https://rss.com/podcasts/parttimetech/735066/

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Show Notes

(0:00) Intro

(0:30) Equity at Gumroad

(2:51) Dividends through Flexile

(6:30) Thinking long term with compensation

(9:24) What is Flexile

(11:55) Flexile’s Ideal Customer

(15:29) Innovation in Work

(19:56) Lowering the stakes

(24:50) Work isn’t everything

(26:09) A different way to build companies

(31:45) Building a high probability portfolio

(34:28) Opting out of Unicorn Chasing

(37:35) Impact and What People Aren’t Doing

(43:10) The Bleeding Edge

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Part-Time Tech

The Part-Time Tech Newsletter: https://parttimetech.io

The Part-Time Tech Podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/parttimetech/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/parttimetech_io

Ernie Twitter: https://twitter.com/eipark

Ernie LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ernestipark

Sahil Lavingia

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1WGeo5mOqJJIcFnO3OFY7A

Gumroad: https://gumroad.com

Flexile: https://flexile.com

Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company: https://sahillavingia.com/reflecting

No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees: https://sahillavingia.com/work

#parttimetech #futureofwork #startups #startupfunding #entrepreneurship #indiehackers #softwareengineering

Sahil Lavingia is the founder of Gumroad, a service that allows you to sell digital goods online. Sahil raised millions from top VCs for Gumroad but failed to make become a unicorn. The company eventually switched gears to a profitable model, and over time, became a business with only part-time employees. Sahil shares about this journey, how Gumroad operates, and insights on business and life.

Part 2 lands next week! Follow the show to get notified when it drops!

(0:00) Intro

(0:40) Sahil's Journey and Gumroad

(8:41) Recession and Changing Environment

(11:34) Arriving at Part-Time

(18:25) What Founders Really Want

(25:32) Tradeoffs

(33:28) How Part-Time Changes Gumroad

(37:00) Efficiency and Overhead

(42:56) Who Works at Gumroad

(49:46) Setting Expectations

(54:35) Part 2 Teaser

The Part-Time Tech Newsletter: https://parttimetech.io

The Part-Time Tech Podcast (audio): https://rss.com/podcasts/parttimetech/ ·

Twitter: https://twitter.com/parttimetech_io

Ernie Twitter: https://twitter.com/eipark

Ernie LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ernestipark

Sahil's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1WGeo5mOqJJIcFnO3OFY7A

Gumroad: gumroad.com

Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company: https://sahillavingia.com/reflecting

No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees: https://sahillavingia.com/work

Bella Wu is an American Product Manager who started her career at HubSpot. She decided to move abroad to Germany where she discovered how part-time work is enabled by labor laws and worked part-time herself.

In our first episode of Part-Time Tech, we speak to Jeffrey Chupp. Jeffrey is a software engineer based in Georgia that went from conventional full time work to part-time contracting. He now typically works four days a week and spends the other day doing 'moonshot' projects, or spending more time with his family - all while making more money than he used to full time.