Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips

AI Developer | Freelancer | Consulting

Freelancing: for promotions

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

Land your first client this week:

Open LinkedIn.

Search past colleagues who became founders or managers.

Message 10 of them: "I'm taking on consulting work. If backend/scaling ever bites you, I can help."

That's it.

Warm leads beat cold pitches every time.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

Land your first client this week:

Open LinkedIn.

Search past colleagues who became founders or managers.

Message 10 of them: "I'm taking on consulting work. If backend/scaling ever bites you, I can help."

That's it.

Warm leads beat cold pitches every time.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@catalinmpit I hit the Gym!

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

Full-time at ₹80L looks great.

Until you realize:

One client relationship.
One performance review.
One layoff away from zero.
Three clients at ₹35L = ₹1.05Cr.
More money.

Three separate reasons you don't panic when the market turns.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@arpit_bhayani I see a lot of junior developer sdon't write the code AI writes.

We had to optimize an API that took 7+ minutes recently.

When we removed db calls inside loops, without any architectural change, the latency came down to 30 seconds.

Read the code that AI writes!

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

The math nobody shows developers:

One full-time job: ₹1Cr/year. One boss. One point of failure.

Three consulting clients: ₹60L each. ₹1.8Cr total.

More money.

Spread risk.

If one leaves, you still have two.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

Most engineers never start consulting because they wait to feel "ready."

You don't need a brand.

You don't need 10k followers.

You need one problem, one client, one invoice.

Start there.

The rest compounds.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

10 years of backend work taught me one freelancing truth:

Clients don't pay for code.

They pay to stop worrying.

The engineer who says "I've got this" wins over the one with the fancier stack.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@__itsmesiya Exactly.

And the trick is getting clients to tell you what the problem's worth before you name a number.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

Nobody tells you this about consulting:

Your rate isn't tied to your skill.

It's tied to how expensive the problem is that you're solving.

Fix a $10k issue, charge $10k.

Learn to find those problems.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@Astrodevil_ Nice!

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

How is everyone doing?

Been a long time!

Planning to get back on X.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@paumrch Hello!

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@Astrodevil_ Someone told me X is cool again. So...

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@madsbrodt I hope so. Good to meet you again.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@SankarMeenakshi Good good.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@merishabh_singh I have ~11 years of experience as a backend developer/lead.

I have worked mostly in startups.

Would love to connect to discuss potential opportunities.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@ethanlim [email protected]

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@merishabh_singh Interested in Senior/Lead backend engineer roles.

[Sunil Kumar | Freelancing Tips @sunilc_]

@nirajsheladiya bus karo niraj bhai 👏👏