Freelancers have the opportunity to put their fingerprint on many great projects. But finding rewarding work and clients that click can feel like dating, with constant profile adjustments in the hopes of finding a match.

Looks like Contra gets the dance and is harnessing the power of the freelancer community. This professional network feels kind of like a cross between LinkedIn and Upwork, with a layer of Adobe Portfolio. In other words, Contra lets freelancers pull together a collaborative, aesthetically pleasing portfolio, support fellow freelancers with referrals, offer services, and get paid.

On the other hand, matchmaking works too, and that’s where Huddle comes in. On Huddle, the hirer defines what they need and Huddle matches the project with a pop-up team, which means less sweat from freelancers trying to perfect their image because Huddle knows the value they bring to the team.

For makers, they have a Founder Community in beta. Since many founders aren’t ready to hire a team, each month they accept a few ambitious founders into their community to get support from their builders-in-residence for a small membership fee.

Other tools for freelancers and hiring managers:

Storetasker 2.0 matches you to a trusted Shopify Expert within a few hours for projects big and small.

Side Hustle Stack is a database of platform-based work opportunities — helpful for developers looking to add to their income.

Notion Pack gives freelancers out-of-the-box templates for working with clients.

FloTask and Borawork are project management platforms specifically designed for freelancers.

The Self-Employment Tax Hub provides free resources that help freelancers sort through the confusion around financials like taxes.

LaborX Gigs lets you create fixed-price gigs and get paid in cryptocurrency (NFT shopping, anyone?)

Zaprite is an invoicing platform enabling you to be paid in bitcoin.

May the stars align between more founders and freelancers.