For freelancers
Freelancing for startups vs agencies vs marketplaces
As a freelancer, where your clients come from shapes your whole working life — the kind of work, how much control you keep and how you get paid all differ depending on the route. The three common ones are working directly with startups, subcontracting through agencies, and finding work on marketplaces.
This is a straight comparison of the three, so you can weigh which suits you — and see where a matched marketplace changes the trade-offs.
Freelancing directly for startups
Working straight with startups gives you the most direct relationship: you deal with the founder, see your impact, and often turn one good task into repeat work. The work is varied and the feedback loop is short.
The trade-off is that you carry the client relationship yourself — the finding, the trust-building, the payment terms. That's manageable, but it's on you, and it's the part freelancers most often want help with.
Working through agencies
Agencies can bring a steadier stream of work without you doing the client-finding, which is genuinely valuable when you want to focus purely on the craft. Someone else handles the pipeline.
But you usually give up direct client contact, a share of the fee, and a degree of control over how the work is scoped and delivered. You're one step removed from the people you're actually building for.
Marketplaces — open bidding vs matched
Marketplaces widen your reach beyond your own network, but they're not all the same. Open marketplaces run on bidding: you write proposals, compete against a crowd, and often undercut on price to be seen. Our comparisons of LiftOff with those models spell out the difference — see LiftOff vs Fiverr (/liftoff-vs-fiverr) and LiftOff vs Upwork (/liftoff-vs-upwork).
A matched marketplace like LiftOff aims to keep the direct-with-startups upside while removing the client-finding grind. Its AI-powered matching engine invites you to startup tasks that fit your skills, style and availability; you register interest and can appear on a curated shortlist of up to five freelancers, chosen on fit rather than lowest bid. Payment is funded up front and released through Stripe Connect when the startup approves your work — so you keep the direct relationship and get protected terms without doing the whole pipeline yourself.
How to choose the right route for you
Decide how much client contact you want
If direct relationships and repeat work motivate you, favour working with startups — directly or through a matched marketplace. If you'd rather never handle clients, agency subcontracting may suit you better.
Weigh steady flow against keeping the full fee
Agencies trade a slice of your fee for a smoother pipeline. Going direct or via a marketplace keeps more of the fee but asks more of you in finding work — so pick the balance that fits your finances.
Check how you actually win the work
Open-bidding marketplaces reward proposal volume and low prices; matched marketplaces reward fit and track record. Choose the model that plays to your strengths rather than your patience.
Look at how and when you get paid
Payment terms vary hugely across routes. Favour arrangements where the money is committed before you start and protected until the work is approved, as LiftOff's funded, Stripe Connect payouts are.
Mix routes to smooth the peaks and troughs
Few freelancers rely on a single source. Combining direct startup clients, the odd agency project and a matched marketplace gives you both reach and resilience.
Build a LiftOff profile to get matched with startup tasks on fit — without the bidding.