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Ask HN: What do you do and what's your consulting rate?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you do and what's your consulting rate?

#34
post #13
post #9

I do occasional consulting in cryptography and security design, and anything related to FreeBSD/EC2. $300/hour with discounts for open source, startups based in Canada, longer engagements, and anything which particularly piques my interest.

$300/hr for your time is a steal.

Feel free to steal from me. ;-)

As a practical matter: If I were a full time consultant I probably would charge more, but I would also be spending some of my time making sure I had a full pipeline of gigs lined up. The fact that my marketing process is about as lean as it gets -- people send me emails from time to time -- means I don't have to cover that sort of overhead.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do and what's your consulting rate?

#37
Cloud security reviews and audits, either by account/resource numbers which has a minimum of $500 for a single account with a reasonable number of resources or by the hour ($500) for which I have a 4 hour minimum. The small biz stuff is a breeze to audit and create reports on so I keep the lower rate available. I also do insider threat specific IR work which is typically done on retainer and starts at $10k but averages the $15-20k mark per incident. That work is rare but time sensitive. Hours spent can be as little as 5-6 for initial triage but I usually spend about 12 in a single stretch on average with a few hours of debrief for the client. That work is exhaustive and exhausting but is rarely boring.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do and what's your consulting rate?

#38
post #9

I do occasional consulting in cryptography and security design, and anything related to FreeBSD/EC2. $300/hour with discounts for open source, startups based in Canada, longer engagements, and anything which particularly piques my interest.

You interested in being a sub contractor?

Only half joking...

Seriously though, one of the most powerful tools in consulting is a deep rolodex of unique talent. You never want to be in the position of telling a client you can't help them. You should always be honest, but you should also be prepared.

Someone could probably put together a pretty nice consulting association/firm with contacts made here on HN.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do and what's your consulting rate?

#40
post #17

I’ve shifted to bidding fixed rate on projects around a defined scope. It’s a lot more work upfront to define a clear statement of work, but it has allowed me to stay above USD$200/hr without customers batting an eye - whereas my rate was consistently a sticking point in negotiations. My consulting mostly focuses around IT/digital strategy and the work product usually involves connecting together incumbent systems, a…

>It’s a lot more work upfront to define a clear statement of work, but it has allowed me to stay above USD$200/hr without customers batting an eye - whereas my rate was consistently a sticking point in negotiations.

I don't know why I'm reading this thread 15 minutes before I study the back of my eyelids for 8 hours, but the truth in this statement oddly stoped my academic pursuits dead in my tracks.

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