{ height: 1%; } - Ruby on Rails and User Interface Design: Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise

Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise

Richard White — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 06:01:00 +0000

I’ve often alluded to some big plans for SlimTimer and it’s finally time to peel back the curtain a bit.

Earlier this year, I sat down with social application guru and world class freelancer Stowe Boyd to talk about SlimTimer and where I was planning on taking it. He thankfully convinced me to drop some of my preconceived notions and to make a push to take things to the next level.

And that’s what we aim to do, take things to the next level by building a totally new application.

We’re taking what we’ve learned from SlimTimer about lightweight time tracking and applying those principles to the other side of the coin: finances. The application, affectionately named Underpaid Genius, will offer time tracking, budgeting, invoicing and financial analytics tailored to the needs of freelancers and small consultancies (who make up 3/4 of SlimTimer’s users):

More traditional Customer > Project > Task hierarchy
Set hourly rates or flat prices for Projects and Tasks
Time Tracking (derived from SlimTimer)
Tracking of time budgeted vs actual time spent
Financial Analytics
Financial Dashboard
Invoicing

... and other cool super secret features which we’ll talk about more when we get closer to launch.

I’m very excited these days because, in addition to getting Stowe on the team, I managed to talk Lance Ivy, the technical lead for ActiveScaffold, into signing on to be our project code wizard. This means I know we’ll have some uber clean code on the backend but more importantly it means I’ll be free to focus exclusively on the user experience which completely rocks!

This news has major implications, all good, for existing SlimTimer users?

We should have a better level of service for SlimTimer and be able to update things more frequently with an extra developer on the team.
We’re planning on monetizing the service so we have no plans to stop working on it or drop it even after Underpaid Genius launches.
When Underpaid Genius launches we’ll provide a way for you to painlessly transfer your data if you so choose, so you can continue blissfully using SlimTimer.

So get excited, but hold tight and we’ll keep you posted.

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Jimm

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:49:20 +0000

Very interest post! :)

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Mara Alexander

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:55:53 +0000

I love SlimTimer, but if you’re not going to put in SPAM control (looks up to “jap anal” and 94 other trackback SPAMlinks), then you might want to take the “I designed this blog” from your pseudo-resume.

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Raj

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:51:51 +0000

I am not a current user of SlimTimer However I would like more reviews on this application before I start using it. It sounds great but just need a little more convincing.

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Matt

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:09:08 +0000

Hi Richard,

I’ve been a bit slow to catch up with the Freemium evolution. Good for you!

Would love to throw the ‘non-profit’ topic into the mix if backpack-style payment plans are also coming to the original SlimTimer app.

I don’t know if you already had thoughts about non-profits, but I would love to contribute ideas on the various approaches if you are interested. I’ve been project/IT managing for non-profits for over 7 years now so I can bring some of that perspective to it.

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Andrew

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:59:11 +0000

I’ve been waiting for this! Wonderful.

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Jimmy Z

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:34:06 +0000

I’m really excited about Underpaid Genius. Currently, we’re using SlimTimer for time tracking, but have been struggling to keep up with our quickbooks, spreadsheets, and everything else we use to track our finances and invoice our clients.

This is very exciting news!

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Michele

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:14:35 +0000

Sounds very interesting! Let me know if you need any help (even though I’m sure you won’t need any… ;) ).

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Philip

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:16:06 +0000

Richard, Underpaid Genius sounds great!

One quick question. Are you guys going to have an API for Underpaid Genius, like you have with SlimTimmer?

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Richard White

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:51:21 +0000

Addison is correct, SlimTimer is to Underpaid Genius what Backpack is to Basecamp. We plan to keep developing and running both at the same time.

Will: If you’re happy with your current SlimTimer/Freshbooks setup there’s no reason for you to change. Just keep on keeping on.

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Mike McCaffrey

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:10:17 +0000

Ditto Addison. Let SlimTimer be a gateway drug.

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Gianni Chiappetta

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:57:25 +0000

Sounds great, I’ve been so frustrated not being able to properly integrate all of my tools but it sounds like you guys are going to come up with a great solution. I was thinking of making a SlimTimer dashboard widget, maybe I’ll wait until Underpaid Genius :)

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Will

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:25:04 +0000

I am a freelance web developer, and I’ve been using SlimTimer for a few weeks now, mainly because of its simplicity. I already have a nice invoicing program (Freshbooks) and don’t look forward to having to either move to a new application or give up SlimTimer. Please keep SlimTimer separate and don’t quit developing it! I’d pay for it in a heartbeat!

"Announcing Underpaid Genius: A Freelancer's Paradise" by Addison

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:00:30 +0000

So, are you thinking of having two different applications running at the same time, SlimTimer and Underpaid Genius? Are you going to charge for both?

If this is the case, being SlimTimmer a “basic” version of Underpaid Genious, do you think it would make sense to use the same scheme being used by Tada list/Basecamp? TadaList (SlimTimer) would be free, while Basecamp (Underpaid Genius) would be “freemium”?