A new web portal dubbed Creatives and Coders is launching next week to help freelance designers and developers get jobs quickly and allow them get paid by mobile money, a move the founder expects to beat traditional job boards and job search engines.
The portal was developed by Dennis Bosire CEO Fortis-it and his developer team. Fortis-it is an IT startup based in Kenya serving clients in the UK and across the East Africa Region.
Bosire who earlier developed Habari App a news aggregator running on iOS told TechMoran he build the portal to solve a need.
He said, “over the last two years I’ve worked in 3 different digital agencies in the UK and Kenya, during this time, I noticed that we constantly needed developers and designers on a freelance or contract basis, either when there was too much work or a project that non of the developers could take on, perhaps due to the technology needed.”
He added, “Also, the leading job boards in the region had pathetic search options which make it very difficult to search for the right job (try searching web designer on brightermonday without choosing an industry). So we decided to come up with a solution.”
Here is what makes Creatives and Coders unique!
What Is The Name of Your Application?
Creatives and Coders.. its pretty much self explanatory. A home for all creatives i.e designers and computer programmers or coders. We connect here, find work and learn from each other or get our work done quickly.
When Was It Launched?
It hasn’t officially launched yet, we are planning to do so next week Monday November 5.
Who Are The Founders & Team & Their Backgrounds?
Denis Bosire: Director at Fortis-it.co.ke , Lead Ruby on Rails Developer, worked with several digital agencies in the UK and Kenya, always looking for the next big thing.
James Methu: 1st year University of Nairobi student, up coming graphics designer with a dream to make it big every day, not just some day.
Edwin Omariba: Lead iOS developer based in London, he released the first Kenyan news iPad app, he’s worked with clients such as the BBC, john Lewis and England Cricket Board.
What Inspired You?
Over the last two years I’ve worked in 3 different digital agencies in the UK and Kenya, during this time, I noticed that we constantly needed developers and designers on a freelance or contract basis, either when there was too much work or a project that non of the developers could take on, perhaps due to the technology needed. Also, the leading job boards in the region had pathetic search options which make it very difficult to search for the right job (try searching web designer on BrighterMonday without choosing an industry). So we decided to come up with a solution.
How Does It Work?
Like a typical job board, you visit the site and the homepage has a list of the latest and featured jobs listings, you can sort according to skills or employment types (contract, freelance or full time).
To apply for a job, you sign in and either view the employer’s email or other ways the employer has stated.
You can also upload a CV and let employers search our CV database.
For employers, you need to sign up to post a new job, currently its absolutely free and we aren’t offering featured listings yet.
How Unique Are You From The Competition?
Well, we are exclusively an IT job board, all the other job boards (except iHub Jobs) feature all industries.
We are also trying to feature more freelance and contract jobs rather than full time jobs, we want individuals who might need a website or a logo to be able to hire a freelancer easily.
Freelancer.com might be big but we are betting on being local and integrating mobile money payments will be a step ahead of them.
Who Are Your Target Users?
Job seekers: We are targeting coders and designers who are either in full-time employment or are freelancers
employers: Creative agencies and individuals who might need IT services.
What Drives You?
To be able to create jobs, or rather side jobs for techies and designers. Creativesandcoders.com is built by freelancers for freelancers. We know how difficult it is to get a side job. On our side getting the job listings has not been easy but there is no time to wait.
Future Plans?
Hopefully we’ll be able to create a useful CV database, offer premium services and be.
Any User Stats At The Moment?
We are still on beta, so user stats isn’t all that.. we don’t have a Facebook story unfortunately.
Any Stuff You Wanna Share With TechMoran Audience?
We have a lot of thinkers around the tech community, but what we really need are doers . Get your app/site or software out there and see where it goes. Creativesandcoders.com is open for use, utilise it.