[leknarf]

We started Lambda (http://getlambda.com) as an Elance/Odesk competitor for precisely these reasons. Most of the people looking for developers on the big offshoring platforms aren't the types of clients we'd want to work with ourselves.

The big problem is education. We speak with a surprising amount of people who've never hired a developer before. They often don't understand the difference between Wordpress dev and someone who's been doing high-performance numerical computing. If they tried to hire a dev on Elance, it would almost certainly be a frustrating experience for both parties, since they're unable to write a reasonable job description.

Our solution has been to take a very unsexy approach: anyone who wants to hire a dev through our service needs to first hop on a phone call and tell me a little about what they're looking for. Sometimes we reject potential clients outright (particularly if they have poor expectations about price) other times we suggest they hire a different type of dev than they initially thought they needed.

Unless Elance is willing to start offering this sort of concierge service, it's unlikely to grow into the sort of place where qualified devs will want to find qualified clients.

[krapp]

Good luck - I just applied.

Although your 100/hr minimum rate does cause me a bit of concern. I'd find it difficult to justify that rate for most of the work I do, which is PHP and javascript development.

[greendata]

For me the $100/hr minimum is an excellent filtering mechanism for serious clients. As a consultant I think there's a place for this, a place for Elance, a place for Odesk, and a place for AWS Mech Turk (AWS's horribly named labor market).

[hatchoo]

Are you open to US-based developers only?

I'm an experienced developer and I find odesk and freelancer a waste of time in the attempt to bid against lowballers.

[leknarf]

Sorry, it's US only right now. In fact, it's mostly local work (NYC or SF) so even US-based remote devs are at a disadvantage.