Frequently Asked Questions.

Braintrust is the first decentralized talent network that connects highly skilled technical freelancers with the world’s most reputable brands like Nestle, Porsche, Atlassian, Goldman Sachs and Nike. Braintrust’s unique business model allows talent to retain 100% of their earnings and enables organizations to spin up flexible, skilled teams on-demand at a fraction of the cost of traditional staffing firms. This new business model that limits fee extraction and enables community ownership is uniquely enabled by a blockchain token.

Braintrust uses blockchain technology to transparently distribute control of its network to the community members who contribute to building it. By distributing control globally based on user contributions (like referring talent, vetting talent, and referring clients), Braintrust’s blockchain-powered model aligns the incentives of the network itself with the people building it, rather than relying on a centralized platform that would otherwise extract disproportionate value in the form of high fees from its knowledge workers.

Not only does this put more control in the hands of the community, it helps grow the network rapidly.

What makes Braintrust unique is its model: the marketplace is decentralized and user-controlled. Other platforms like Toptal, Upwork, Gigster, etc., take 20-40% of what the talent makes on the platform and ownership is highly concentrated among a few people and investors. Braintrust takes 0% of what the talent makes, and it’s controlled by its token governance community. This approach enables Braintrust to attract and retain higher-quality talent. Blockchain technology is what enables Braintrust to cut out the middlemen and keep incentives aligned. This dramatically reduces costs for employers and increases the earnings of talent, and therefore attracts the best people in the world while distributing value more equally to the talent in the network.

Braintrust’s talent community primarily focuses on large, complex technology and design projects spanning software, machine learning, data analytics, and related functions. Examples might include creating a health insurance shopping platform for a major insurance carrier, or the staffing of five full-stack engineers for a transportation company.

Get connected to great projects by completing your profile, applying to a job, then completing our screening process. Once you have been approved, your job applications will be shown to clients. Start the process here: https://www.usebraintrust.com/join

Finding talent on Braintrust is simple and easy. Create your account, post your job, and you'll instantly see the top candidates for the role. From there, you can interview, hire, and onboard your next Talent!

Braintrust has over 600,000 community members, with knowledge workers and project contributors across the world, and is growing each day.

Braintrust attracts top tech talent from companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and more—and currently specializes in developers, designers, researchers, product and project managers, digital marketing, and IT talent. Read more about role types offered here.

Braintrust serves both Contingent/Contractors and Direct Hire FTE placements.

Currently, approximately 50% of talent on Braintrust are based in the U.S. and 50% are based in 100+ different countries around the globe.

Braintrust’s highly skilled, vetted talent attracts enterprises and organizations across the business spectrum. In the last year, Braintrust has seen its enterprise user pool more than triple and includes leading enterprises such as Pacific Life, Nestle, and TaskRabbit. 

Braintrust offers a Bring Your Own (BYO) service. This service allows you to integrate your contractors into Braintrust without the usual high fees of traditional agencies. Your talent keeps 100% of their earnings, offering you more competitive rates. Braintrust's approach provides transparent pricing, on-demand reporting, and hassle-free invoicing and compliance. For custom pricing options tailored to your needs, it's recommended to discuss directly with Braintrust.

The Braintrust network first launched in October of 2018, coming out of stealth in June of 2020.

Braintrust is founded by serial entrepreneurs Adam Jackson and Gabriel Luna-Osasteski. They have spent the past two years building the first decentralized talent network uniquely enabled by a blockchain token. Following network launch, the Braintrust community will direct its future growth and development.

Braintrust is not officially affiliated or directed by any single entity. Currently, its network of contributors come from over 15 countries around the world.

With a small core team, Freelance Labs has built the Braintrust platform. Following public launch of the BTRST token, Freelance Labs will be one of many participants in the global Braintrust network.

The Braintrust Technology Foundation is a not-for-profit entity that is solely focused on promoting the mission and goals of the Braintrust network. While it is one of the founders of the Braintrust network, following public launch it is expected to play a diminishing role in the future growth and development of the network.