u/Dependent_Group_6538

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/theic/

I’ve been in tech for the past decade, mostly working in the Node.js ecosystem. Over the last two years, I’ve been leading a real-time voice application that manages a multi-agent system, similar to a virtual co-founder.

I’d be excited to join a voice app, agentic, or other AI-related project.

You can find some of the projects I’ve worked on with a team, as well as two personal side businesses I recently launched, here:
https://serhii-lahutin.vercel.app/

At the moment, I can’t work fully for equity or revenue sharing, so I would need at least some financial compensation from the beginning.

Happy to chat, cheers.

I know this is not a new concept, but I do not think it has ever been widely adopted. Its main limitation is that it works best for tasks with a fixed and clearly defined scope, rather than long-term contracts.

Here is how it works: a business posts a clearly defined task and provides a guaranteed prize pool. Several qualified developers create independent solutions following the same deadline and evaluation criteria. Every error-free solution that meets the requirements gets paid, while the highest-scoring developers receive larger rewards.

So, unlike traditional freelance platforms, there are no job interviews, proposals, or resumes. Developers are selected based on working, tested solutions rather than promises. This gives beginners the same chance of getting paid for good work.

Thoughts?😄

https://www.linkedin.com/in/theic/

I have 12+ years of experience in backend and full stack development, mostly in the Node.js ecosystem. For the last three years, I have worked on LLM integrations, real time voice applications, and multi agent orchestration. Before that I was working on a lead generation platform and fintech SaaS.

Here are the projects I worked on within a team + my 2 of my personal SaaS businesses.
https://serhii-lahutin.vercel.app/

I am available for a call and can tell / show you more.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/theic/

I have 12+ years of experience in backend and full stack development, mostly in the Node.js ecosystem. For the last three years, I have worked on LLM integrations, real time voice applications, and multi agent orchestration. Before that I was working on a lead generation platform and financial SaaS.

Here are the projects I worked on within a team + my 2 of my personal SaaS businesses.
https://serhii-lahutin.vercel.app/

I am available for a call and can tell / show you more.

I have 12+ years of experience in Software Engineering, mostly in the Node.js ecosystem. For the last three years, I have worked on LLM integrations, real time voice applications, and multi agent orchestration. Before that I was working on a lead generation platform and financial SaaS.

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/theic/

You can find web apps I built very recently using my custom Claude Code setup, as well as projects I worked on as part of a team, here:
https://serhii-lahutin.vercel.app/

I got screwed over by my business partner, fled the war, and now I desperately need work. At this point I am ready to accept much lower payment. I can build a production-ready project with payments, emails, and analytics connected. I can also fix infrastructure or integrate AI into existing projects.

I am available for a call and can tell / show you more.

I have 12+ years of experience in backend and full stack development, mostly in the Node.js ecosystem. For the last three years, I have worked on LLM integrations, real time voice applications, and multi agent orchestration. Before that I was working on a lead generation platform and financial SaaS.

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/theic/

You can find web apps I built very recently using my custom Claude Code setup, as well as projects I worked on as part of a team, here:
https://serhii-lahutin.vercel.app/

I got screwed over by my business partner, fled the war, and now I desperately need work. At this point I am ready to accept lower payment. I can build a production-ready project with payments, emails, and analytics connected. I can also fix infrastructure or integrate AI into existing projects.

I am available for a call and can tell / show you more.

I have 12+ years of experience in backend and full stack development, mostly in the Node.js ecosystem. For the last three years, I have worked on LLM integrations, real time voice applications, and multi agent orchestration. Before that I was working on a lead generation platform and financial SaaS.

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/theic/

You can find web apps I built very recently using my custom Claude Code setup, as well as projects I worked on as part of a team, here:
https://serhii-lahutin.vercel.app/

I got screwed over by my business partner, fled the war, and now I desperately need work. I can build an MVP with payments, emails, and analytics connected. I can also fix infrastructure or other issues in existing projects.

I am available for a call and can tell you more. I just want to work.

TL;DR:
How do you guys find work if you have to start from zero? What would a platform that respects both sides look like from your perspective? Maybe my broke ass can somehow help the community make that dream come true. 😬

---
I have occasionally used Upwork since 2015 and other platforms since 2012. Even though it saved me a few times, I have seen people’s frustration grow year after year.

Now I am in a situation where I urgently need a job, even a short term. I cannot use my Upwork profile because I lost access to my bank account and do not have my papers ready. So far, I have managed by using crypto and my wife’s bank account. I am afraid I will get blocked for breaking the ToS, or that I will not get paid and will just lose time.

I am trying to remember my experiences, and I feel like freelance platforms in general do not solve the main problems, except for being a place where the two sides meet.

- You still have to interview people, and even that does not give you enough confidence in the applicant.
- You can still be scammed, and I was. Escrow will not help you much.

It is a rather complex question, I guess, like electing a new president (I have thoughts on that too).

Now I am browsing forums like its 2010 and trying to prove that I can do something I know I have done dozens of times. I hope I’ll be able to climb out of this financial hole I got myself into, but I also want to help other desperate, love-working people along the way.

5 months ago we left Ukraine because of the war. My wife, two dogs and me, no plan and no time to prepare. We ended up in a small village in Portugal where almost nobody speaks English and the average age is 60+, and I spoke exactly zero Portuguese.

I tried a few apps, expecting Google Translate and ChatGPT voice mode to cover my needs. The first one is too literal and often creates awkward situations by changing the meaning completely. ChatGPT is better, but it's slow and turn-based, which doesn't work well with the fast-speaking locals. I needed something that just let me talk to a real person, right now, understand the context of the conversation and reply fast.

So I built a quick prototype in a week, using the new real-time translation model from OpenAI and another one from Microsoft. It was great at first, but then I realized those audio models are too sensitive to audio quality. One wrong move and it generates gibberish, just like Google Translate before.

Then my sister (I'd worked with her on another project before) asked why I wouldn't just build a custom pipeline. And I thought, really, why not? 😁 That's when I took the best STT and TTS models I know and connected them with a multi-language LLM. Turns out transcription quality is the key, and I started using the app every day.

What it actually does:

1. Live two-way voice translation. Both people just talk normally and it speaks the translation out loud, back and forth.
2. Camera translation for signs, labels, menus and documents. It's not like Google Lens, it uses Nano Banana to generate a new image with everything translated on it.
3. Quick text translations that come out the way a local would actually say it, not word for word.
4. Live dubbing: just connect another tab in your browser and it will dub any audio/video input with a live voice.

There's also a Practice mode with an AI tutor, which is like a simulation of a real conversation so you can rehearse the awkward one before you have it (ordering coffee; the call with the landlord; the appointment), and it quietly brings back the words you got wrong last time. But the real help you get the minute you install it is the translation.

I'm a developer, around 12 years, the last 3 fully on real-time voice and multi-agent systems. The hard part here is the live pipeline (speech in, translation, speech out) feeling fast enough to hold an actual conversation, so that's where most of the work went.

It's free to start, no card. We're launching on Product Hunt today, link in the comments.

If you've moved somewhere without the language, I'd genuinely like to hear what your worst communication moment was. And any feedback on the app is welcome, good or brutal. Cheers.