44 karma · joined July 6, 2017
I think $3.5k is incredibly cheap, especially if you're really building a custom UI as well. That makes me think the quality is low.
I would consider: 1. Improving the website to something more high-end. The timeline asset in the header really doesn't inspire confidence - it all looks templat-ish and quickly stiched together. 2. Improve social proof by linking testimonial authors to their LinkedIn for easy validation. 3. Add something about you - name, experience, photo - works much better than a faceless, generic brand. 4. Consider a pricing cap so the price seems more realistic, perhaps by introducing sprints and charging by sprints.
Even assuming rates will start to drop H2 this year and cost of capital will be lower, some of the new-found productivity demand will be consumed by maturing AI tools.
tl;dr this looks like the new normal.
(Note: I run a service business with most of my clients being tech startups, so take this with a grain of salt.)
Alternatively, I'd recommend going through Dribbble, there's a ton of quality designers there, although the price points will be significantly higher compared to designers from fiverr, and 99designs.
I also recommend going through the "Google Branding Sprint" exercise as a first step, and then treating the outcome as a brief for whoever you end up hiring.