How the fractional talent marketplace works
Side.work is a fractional talent marketplace: you describe a senior role and the weekly hours, get a ranked shortlist of verified specialists, sign a contract with an hours cap, approve hours each week and pay one invoice. The whole path runs in one place.
Find my specialists
Describe the role
Day 1, two minutes
Pick the role, the hours a week and the budget. Side.work drafts a brief with outcomes for the first 30 days, and Growth and Scale teams can rewrite it with AI.
Read your shortlist
Day 1, right away
Specialists are ranked by function, skills, free weekly hours and rate fit. Every card shows the reasons for the match, the weekly availability bar and the checks the profile passed.
Send intros and talk
Day 1 to 5
An intro opens a conversation with the specialist inside Side.work. Agree the scope on a short call, then keep the thread for every decision.
Sign a contract
Week 1
Hourly rate or monthly retainer, a weekly hours cap, a start date, a notice period and the NDA and IP assignment. The specialist accepts it in their dashboard.
Approve hours each week
Every Friday
The specialist logs hours against the cap. You approve or question each week. Hours above the cap cannot be submitted.
Pay one invoice
Monthly or weekly
Approved hours plus the platform fee land on one invoice. Side.work pays the specialist, who keeps 100 percent of the agreed rate.
For specialists, the same path from the other side
Specialists set their weekly window and rate, pass the checks, and show up in shortlists where their hours and rate fit. They reply to intros, apply to published roles, accept contracts, log hours and get paid after the company pays the invoice.
Find work on the sideWhat the checks cover
- Work email confirmed
- LinkedIn profile checked
- Portfolio links live
- Payout identity verified
Checks are shown on each profile one by one, so you see exactly what was confirmed.
Side.work against the usual ways to get senior help
The same goal, a senior person on a hard problem, reached four different ways.
| Side.work | Agency or staffing firm | Full-time hire | Generic freelance site | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost on top of the rate | Published fee, 5 to 12% | Markup, often 20 to 100% | Salary, benefits, equity | Service fees, bidding time |
| Time to a first conversation | Shortlist in minutes, intro the same day | Days, after a sales call | Months of recruiting | Days of sorting proposals |
| Seniority | 8+ years, checks on every profile | Varies by consultant | You decide, at full cost | Mostly junior and task work |
| Commitment | 5 to 20 h a week, notice you set | Retainers and minimum terms | Full time, hard to unwind | Per task |
| Contracts and payments | Built in, one invoice | Through the agency | Payroll and HR | Partly, per freelancer |
Fractional executives, explained
What is a fractional executive?
A fractional executive is a senior leader, such as a CFO, CMO, CTO or COO, who works for a company part time, usually 5 to 20 hours a week, on an ongoing contract. The company gets the judgment of someone who has done the job before, without the salary, equity and hiring time of a full-time executive.
When does a part-time senior hire make sense?
It fits when the problem is senior but the workload is not yet full time. A seed or Series A company preparing a round needs a fractional CFO for the model and the board pack, not a finance department. A B2B team with a stalled pipeline needs a fractional CMO to set the plan and coach the people already there. An engineering team that keeps missing releases often needs a fractional CTO for architecture and process, a few hours a week.
How many hours a week should you book?
Five hours a week covers advice, reviews and a weekly check-in. Ten hours is enough to own a deliverable, such as monthly reporting or a channel plan. Fifteen to twenty hours means the person also does hands-on work. Start lower and raise the cap when the work proves itself; on Side.work the cap lives in the contract and the timesheet.
What does it cost?
Senior fractional executives typically charge $175 to $300 an hour. Senior engineers, designers and marketers usually sit between $90 and $190. At 10 hours a week, a fractional CFO costs roughly $7,600 to $13,000 a month, compared with a full-time CFO salary that often passes $250,000 a year before benefits. Each role page has the full table.
How is Side.work different from an agency?
An agency or staffing firm hires the specialist and resells their time, usually with a markup you do not see. Side.work shows you the specialist's own rate and adds a published fee of 5 to 12 percent, depending on the plan. You choose the person, set the hours cap and end the contract with the notice you agreed. Read fractional CMO vs marketing agency for a worked example.
Can employed people work on the side for you?
Many senior professionals take side work next to a main job or their own practice. Specialists on Side.work confirm that side work does not conflict with their employment terms, and every contract includes confidentiality and IP assignment. Specialists who want to start can read find work on the side.
Twelve senior hours a week can change a quarter
Tell Side.work the role, the hours and the budget. Your shortlist is ready before your coffee is.