Vadim Kuhay

A humble system designer, team builder, and player-coach

6 minute read

An image showing a developer enjoying his job versus a developer who simply comes to work
Figure 1. ASE Inc, DALL-E Hacker Dad, Cog Dad…​

Wizards versus muggles.

Most often people ask about corp-to-corp Time and Materials (T&M) rates in the USA, viewed as the simplest start for an Independent Developer (indie) career. However, it’s not the most financially rewarding option. Major US companies use Rate Cards to keep costs down. As a new indie, you can obtain contracts through specialized recruiters, consultancies, or directly from clients, and 'vendor onboarding' might be needed. Here’s a summary of rates based on data from the last 7 years:

  • Staff Augmentation: ~$60/hr - $110/hr

  • Expert Consulting: ~$90/hr - $185/hr

  • Niche Consulting: ~$225/hr - $385/hr

  • Organizational Development: ~$150/hr - $200/hr (for ASE subcontractors)

Part 1 A new frontier is here EARLY

Independent developers in Canada are commanding an eye-popping $450/hr for GPT-4 integration on long contracts. When will this wave hit US? The world is capitalizing on a US product. But the USA pickup is painfully slow.

Part 2: (We are here!)

In the aftermath, the lucrative commodification of war-coders emerges as an unanticipated industry windfall.
Yet the US coder is left in the dust again. Hacker capital of the world is Prague again.

Part 3: War in Europe spills to the U.S.

A closer look at Russia’s cyber strategy: Is it a well-thought-out maneuver or a vindictive blitz on the US economy spurred by envy of failure? Who should be worried? If the goal is destabilization, then why hit the weakest links first?
Also, Ukraine has something new in the making. Something that can change everything.

Part 4: The U.S. loses the world-tech leadership

The ripples across the Atlantic: How developments in Europe are impacting American lives.
Where is the internet Technologies (IT) market shifting? Are we over-hired in the U.S. IT?

Today, is part 2 or 4 (plus a followup in 2 years).

The Reality

The best way to start is by grabbing a hot trend with little competition. Right now, that’s GPT-4. In the past, it was mobile. That’s what Frugal-Fremmis is. Cliff Ennico (YouTube) explains it best!

Looking at the rates above, it’s clear - being able to offer end-to-end solutions means more money. Maturity matters a lot! Learn DDD/BDD to run discovery and customer’s domain modeling, DevOps and 12-factor-app to get manufacturing going with Continuous Deployment, use full-stack ecosystems like Kotlin Multiplatform to deliver, and learn basic business skills. Makers charge the top rates. A narrow-skilled "for-loop-JS-developer" will never make it, competing with offshore in the implied Cost Leadership Strategy (meaning cheap).

To nail it as an indie:

  1. Maker Mindset: Be imminent, inevitable, and unpredictable.

  2. Frugal-Fremmis: Don’t be a slave to your resume.

Going indie was the best thing we did. Over and over in fact! It’s not "serial entrepreneurship" — them are buzzwords. It’s serial accomplishment. I created way cooler stuff than I ever could in a cubicle, even when I was at Deutsche Bank or Pfizer with hundreds of coders at my disposal. It is, however, a little tougher than the cubicle. NDAs will limit how you promote yourself and there’s little safetynet. Still, with a little dedication, you’d be living the life of your dreams.

  • ✅ If coding’s your passion, and you’re not afraid of hard work, going indie offers income, growth, freedom, and satisfaction that no desk job can match.

  • ❌ But if hard work’s not your thing, and meetings are considered "good work," then sticking with a regular day-job might be a better choice for you.

The Essentials 🧠

The series began with a spotlight on the successes of independent developers in Canada[1], the way they like me to tell it, with pizzazz. But there’s something else going on here, something more important - the Frugal-Fremmis in GPT-4 craze - a rare opportunity to jump ship.

First question everyone asks: "How do I break free?" Start here: Starting a Business 101. Check out SBA and SCORE – your go-to lifelines. SCORE will connect you with mentors, advisors, and fellow trailblazers, like The Northern.

rdd13r at work
Figure 2. Be like this indie basking in creativity solving some problems.

Pro-tip: Setting up is the easy bit; finding clients and closing sales is the real deal. If you don’t want to hear about selling, then indie life is not for you. But let me ask you, what do you actually do when you interview for a job? Community is your other critical asset! If you don’t like to mingle, indie life is still possible, just needlessly harder.

Now, the golden question: "What’s the pay?" There’s more to it than just numbers. We’ll break it down.

US Billing Rates & Frugal-Fremmis

Once you get rolling, your business needs a compass - that’s your Agile Business Plan. Commit to stick through the highs and lows no matter what and build out your brand. Adapt. For instance, YouTube? It was a dating site gone wrong. Being an indie dev is a marathon, not a sprint. One must decide to commit. Your initial plan should include your revenue calculations. That calculation will depend on your Business Strategy (Google this.) You can hire 1000 people and skimp a dollar off on each, for example. But I can’t tell you about that. Why would we ever want to do that? I’ll tell you about the Indie Strategy: Start Small, Stay Small. If you do everything right and earn 7-figure income, why would you want a room full of unmotivated people waiting for you to tell them what to do? Indies do everything only with other indies.[2]

Disclaimer: We value personal growth over dirty profits. Indies are close-knit gang of 300+ devs just in our inner circle, all focused on making a quality difference for a few customers rather than skimming the surface shadily for many. We’re all about sustainability and lasting impact. There are over a hundred thousand indie devs in the world.

If freedom sits well with you and I didn’t scare you away yet, then here’s more to explain about mature companies. In general, consulting is a bad business model because your time is limited. But if you must, to get going, consider specialty work. I can tell you that in competence coaching your happy customer will never recommend you! Witnessing what you do coaching developers, they will properly understand it as a market enabler. Who wants to recommend an enabler to competitors? The best of Frugal-Fremmis - GPT-4 integrations today.

The optimal strategy for marketing is to establish a Sales Funnel that focuses on your natural customers and then go out and close that sale. So, a prospect is your potential buyer. Your pool of prospects will always divide into 4 customer (buyer) groups:

  • Natural Customers: people who will always buy from you.

    • Your friends, family, people who like you or like your brand.

  • Never Customers: people who will never buy from you.

    • People who dislike you won’t buy cure for cancer from you.

  • Subjective Customers: emotional sells you execute to close; >80%

    • Ordinary people buy on fears and passions!

    • Convert these people to natural customers.

  • Objective Customers: people with a solution.

    • People who sought you out for the perceived value fit.

Dirty secret #1: People buy on fears and passions!

Other Ways

But, there are smarter ways to use your time, like Fixed Price Solution Contracts (FPs). Some folks are scared of them, but they can be goldmines if done right. For my first two startups, FPs were the main moneymakers. They can be tough for indies, though. My boss is picky about using them.

Licensing Products is a better option! Some indies I’ve met started with these instead of sleeping in the cubicle. These beat FPs and rank second in profitability and efficiency.

  • A well-crafted uDemy course: $3,000/month - $5,000/month - A significant upfront time investment. Some maintenance time.

  • Archetype Publishing: ~$7,000 -$22,000 - May need a preexisting customer; Maintenance time.

  • Model Publishing: ~$11,000-$31,000 - Must employ end-to-end ML Ops; Maintenance time.

  • GPT-4 Canned Integration (Frugal-Fremmis): - NEW! Wide-open invitation. Discover your rates.

  • Self-Publish a Book: I can’t advice because mine linger 70% finished for years.

FYY: To periodically check mature companies rate cards we interrogate staffing agencies and scrape the web for sites like these: Geomotiv Rate Survey - example 1, Cleveroad Rate Survey - example 2, YouTeam Salary Benchmark - example 3, etc. No need to bother with most licensing work as it’s not 1-to-many model. Instead, one drives traffic.

The Best Way - Value is not what you think!

Subscriptions!!! Value is the other side of any Selling. But if selling is about fears and passions, then what is Value? Can one subscribe to value?

Dirty Secret #2: Value, just like beauty — is in the eyes of the beholder!

So, what is better, a lot of value with one customer or a little value with many? Please ponder this idea. I will not write too much on this because my boss and I hadn’t made it work yet. But some of our peers we’re learning from already make 8-figure income. Don’t get your hopes up, those are few, and I can tell you from our experience it is a little harder than it looks. And the high-time is passing quickly. Right now, coming out of my paternity leave, I have not one but two startups talking to me about seeding. Both rock a subscription model. Soon this market may too become saturated.

Dirty secret #3: Jenuinely care: hush, listen and let the custmer buy from you.

Take note that I am working myself out to help independent developers get going, and I haven’t mentioned coding even once. Don’t get me wrong — I adore coding. That’s what I am. From time to time I sleep it off like a bear, eat healthy breakfast, and go whoop some youngsters at a hackathon or a competition. I have so many handles for these sites that there’s a password book just for that. Even my son competes on some of my handles! However, that is not what matters most for you! Ability to make a product end-to-end is expected. To apply growing your dentistry practice, you must already be a dentist. So, coding acumen is akin to a carpenter’s miter saw and muscle memory to use it. Customers are hungry for the final product, not the tools used to create it with.

Also take note of the value of a community in indies' life.

Conclusion

People tend to fail attaining independence because of:

  • Lack of teaching about real life business dynamics. This is remedied by personal leadership development.

  • Personal laziness and complacency that cubicle life affords.

Then:

  • Pillar #1: Be a Maker possessing end-to-end expertise convertible to value.

    • One must be able to deliver the ask.

  • Pillar #2: Be Opportunistic, not a slave to your resume. Frugal-Fremmis is always open by default.

    • Move along with life, learn, adapt, and produce.

  • Dirty Secret #1: People buy on fears and passions!

  • Dirty Secret #2: Value, just like beauty — is in the eyes of the beholder!

  • Dirty Secret #3: Jenuinely care: hush, listen and let the custmer buy from you.

I hope that you will find my own shared life-experiences useful on your journey to independent life.

Get the Scoop! 🚀

Happy Monday folks! Here’s the 411 in a nutshell. Generative AI frenzy is still getting bigger 🚀 and not aging as I thought it would by now. Canada’s crème de la crème a-la-hackerdom seem to have us dusted, a little bit, and are raking 💰 with super simple GPT-4’s REST integration. It is all localized and telling the size is not possible. Also, I don’t yet see a US equivalent. If anyone does see some signs of life here, please talk to me? 😬 I’ll have more news in a little while as ASE is slowly coming back into operation.

Also see editorial[3].

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