Ben Huffman built a freelance platform with NO fees. Every investor told him it was the stupidest idea they’d ever heard.
Now Contra has 1M users and a $120M run rate.
We talk about living in the pain cave (the place your ideas live before anyone believes in them), building mission-driven companies, avoiding the “marketplace commodity problem,” and why community-led growth might be the future of creative work.
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https://uxtools.coCHAPTERS: 00:00 – The “pain cave” explained
01:12 – Investors called it the “worst idea ever”
04:51 – Why rejection always feels personal
07:32 – Building for the younger version of yourself
10:47 – The humanity problem with commission fees
13:41 – Early internet communities (Themeforest, torrent sites, Newegg)
15:30 – Solving the marketplace commodity problem
18:44 – Going “feed first” to foster authentic connections
20:28 – Becoming an independent discovery engine
24:08 – Partnering with creative tools like Framer
27:26 – Why open networks might win over closed platforms
30:28 – Building leverage as an independent creative
33:53 – The “Hollywood model” for creative projects
37:55 – Resumes are dead, project-based identity is the future
40:39 – Small core teams + specialist networks
43:17 – How indie communities share work and clients
46:05 – Branding yourself to get discovered
48:01 – The story of a 19-year-old making $50K/month from design
50:31 – How Contra makes money without fees
52:21 – Almost out of the pain cave