Super Bowl Sunday is nearly here, and TV deals are hitting retailers all across the web, ready to upgrade any party. For example, Best Buy has slashed $1,100 off the price of this 65-inch Samsung 4K TV, marking over half off the normal sticker price and bringing it down to just $900.
This TV is normally priced at $2,000, in no small part due to its premium-level processing power, AI 4K upscaling, a wide range of smart features, and the company’s rich, vivid 4K OLED display. Users will also find other common features such as HDR, gaming modes such as Motion Xcelerator Turbo, audio sync, and many others.
Additionally, this Tizen TV comes with One UI, as well as more than 2,700 free channels, 400 premium Samsung TV Plus channels, and a long-term update promise that makes it more future-proof than many other TVs.
All that to say: if you were already considering dropping close to $1,000 on a 4K TV and this size is right for you, this might be a good time to pick up a significantly higher-end model without breaking the bank.
✅Recommended if: you’re interested in going with some of the best Android TVs but you wanna keep it under a $1,000 price point; you need a TV with powerful AI processing, 4K, and a wide range of other features; you want a TV with 4 separate HDMI inputs, as well as other connectivity options such as USB-A and optical digital audio.
❌Skip this deal if: you’re looking for something more affordable and you don’t want all the premium bells and whistles; you need a TV with a built-in headphone jack; you’d prefer something smaller or larger than 65 inches, or you want to upgrade to this TV’s 77-inch configuration.
The Samsung Class S84F TV is definitely in the premium-level segment, offering 4K OLED displays with a 120Hz refresh rate, high-level AI upscaling features, and the smart Tizen platform for a wide-ranging set of free channels. Backed by the NQ4 AI Gen2 CPU and 20 AI neural networks, this model also features upscaling for lower-resolution content, effectively making everything 4K.
It also comes with four HDMI inputs with eARC audio return, two USB-A inputs, and features like Color Booster Pro, Active Voice Amplifier Pro, and Adaptive Sound Pro. The smart TV also runs a version of One UI that’s well-liked by buyers, while purchase includes seven years of automatic OS upgrades.
The prequel series primarily centers on lowborn knight Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his young squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), following their time at a tournament at Ashford Meadow. However, despite A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ focus on Westeros’ smallfolk, it’s not long before the Targaryens show up to bring drama (and tons of “ae” names) to the tourney.
If you’re wondering how all these new members of the House of the Dragon are related to one another, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we’ve laid out the Targaryen family tree as it stands heading into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1. For simplicity’s sake, we’ve pruned some of the branches to show how these family members tie back to House of the Dragonand Game of Thrones, and we’ve focused on the major Targaryen players you’ll meet early on. Read on to meet your newest crop of Targaryens — and see how they all connect.
Behold, the Targaryen family tree. Credit: Ian Moore / Mashable
King Daeron II Targaryen
The current head honcho of Westeros is King Daeron II Targaryen, the great-grandson of House of the Dragon‘s Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen. You won’t actually meet him in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, but his reign has molded the Westeros you’ll see in the series.
By this point, almost 80 years after the events of House of the Dragon, Westeros is experiencing a period of peace, and it’s all thanks to King Daeron II. He put an end to the Blackfyre Rebellion, a bloody coup attempt by legitimized Targaryen bastards, and he also managed to bring Dorne peacefully into the Seven Kingdoms. They don’t call him “Daeron the Good” for nothing!
Bertie Carvel and Sam Spruell in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” Credit: Composite: Mashable / Images: Steffon Hill / HBO
King Daeron II has four sons with his wife, Dornish Princess Myriah Martell: Baelor, Aerys, Rhaegal, and Maekar. For the purposes of this show, you really only need to care about the first and fourth sons, Baelor and Maekar.
Prince Baelor “Breakspear” Targaryen (Bertie Carvel) is the eldest of Daeron II’s sons. Not only is he heir to the Iron Throne, he’s also Hand of the King. Like his father, he’s deeply respected and viewed as wise and just. He has two sons with his wife Jena Dondarrion: Prince Valarr (Oscar Morgan) and Prince Matarys, but only Valarr appears in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Notably, Baelor doesn’t have the Targaryens’ silver hair, but instead favors his Dornish side with darker hair.
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Harsher than his brother (but with much more silver hair), Maekar (Sam Spruell) is the Prince of Summerhall. He also has six children compared to Baelor’s two, and several of them will play a larger role in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Maekar’s children: Daeron, Aerion, Aemon, Daella, Aegon, and Rhae
Finn Bennett in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” Credit: Steffon Hill / HBO
Maekar and his wife Dyanna Dayne have six children together: Daeron, Aerion, Aemon, Daella, Aegon, and Rhae. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms primarily focuses on his sons, leaving Daella and Rhae out of the story.
His first son, Daeron (Henry Ashton), is also known as Daeron the Drunken, and he has the prophetic dragon dreaming gift of select Targaryens. House of the Dragon‘s Helaena Targaryen is similarly gifted.
Maekar’s second son, Aerion (Finn Bennett), fits the bill of the classic “mad” Targaryen. Thinking he’s a dragon in human form, he dubs himself “Aerion Brightflame” and wears a fiery helmet that is, admittedly, pretty sick. Still, his fashion choices can’t make up for his cruelty and sadism.
Game of Thrones fans have already met Maekar’s third son Aemon: He’s none other than Maester Aemon from Castle Black. Don’t expect to see him in Season 1 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, though, as he’s currently studying to be get his maester chain in Oldtown. However, his existence in the world of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms serves as a reminder of how the show connects to Game of Thrones, whose events are a little under a century away.
As episode 3 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms reveals, Maekar’s fourth son, Aegon, is none other than Egg himself. He’s been journeying with Dunk this whole time, and he’s shaved his head bald to hide his trademark Targaryen hair. Based on the show so far, Aegon has missed out on the sadistic streak of his brother Aerion, or of many of his Targaryen ancestors. Instead, he’s curious, loyal, and protective of the smallfolk he and Dunk meet at Ashford Meadow. Yes, he’s young, and there’s certainly time for the world to harden him, but for now, he’s a good Egg.
UPDATE: Feb. 1, 2026, 10:47 p.m. EST This story was originally published on Jan. 18. It has been updated to reflect the reveal of Egg’s true identity as Aegon Targaryen.
Artificial intelligence startups have captured investors’ imaginations, but most fail within a few years. Studies in 2025–26 show that roughly 90 % of AI‑native startups fold within their first year, and even enterprise AI pilots have a 95 % failure rate. These numbers reveal a startling gap between the promise of AI and its real‑world implementation.
To understand why, this article dissects the key reasons AI startups fail and offers actionable strategies. Throughout the article, Clarifai’s compute orchestration, model inference and local runner solutions are featured to illustrate how the right infrastructure choices can close many of these gaps.
Quick Digest: What You’ll Learn
Why failure rates are so high – Data from multiple reports show that over 80 % of AI projects never make it past proof of concept. We explore why hype and unrealistic expectations produce unsustainable ventures.
Where most startups misfire – Poor product‑market fit accounts for over a third of AI startup failures; we examine how to find real customer pain points.
The hidden costs of AI infrastructure – GPU shortages, long‑term cloud commitments and escalating compute bills can kill startups before launch. We discuss cost‑efficient compute strategies and highlight how Clarifai’s orchestration platform helps.
Data readiness and quality challenges – Poor data quality and lack of AI‑ready data cause more than 30 % of generative AI projects to be abandoned; we outline practical data governance practices.
Regulatory, ethical and environmental hurdles – We unpack the regulatory maze, compliance costs and energy‑consumption challenges facing AI companies, and show how startups can build trust and sustainability into their products.
Why do AI startups fail despite the hype?
Quick Summary
Question:Why are failure rates among AI‑native startups so high? Answer: A combination of unrealistic expectations, poor product‑market fit, insufficient data readiness, runaway infrastructure costs, dependence on external models, leadership missteps, regulatory complexity, and energy/resource constraints all contribute to extremely high failure rates.
The wave of excitement around AI has led many founders and investors to equate technology prowess with a viable business model. However, the MIT NANDA report on the state of AI in business (2025) found that only about 5 % of generative AI pilots achieve rapid revenue growth, while the remaining 95 % stall because tools fail to learn from organisational workflows and budgets are misallocated toward hype‑driven projects rather than back‑office automation.
Expert insights:
Learning gap over technology gap – The MIT report emphasizes that failures arise not from model quality but from a “learning gap” between AI tools and real workflows; off‑the‑shelf tools don’t adapt to enterprise contexts.
Lack of clear problem definition – RAND’s study of AI projects found that misunderstanding the problem to be solved and focusing on the latest technology instead of real user needs were leading causes of failure.
Resource misallocation – More than half of AI budgets go to sales and marketing tools even though the biggest ROI lies in back‑office automation.
Overestimating AI capabilities: the hype vs reality problem
Quick Summary
Question:How do unrealistic expectations derail AI startups? Answer: Founders often assume AI can solve any problem out‑of‑the‑box and underestimate the need for domain knowledge and iterative adaptation. They mistake “AI‑powered” branding for a sustainable business and waste resources on demos rather than solving real pain points.
Many early AI ventures wrap generic models in a slick interface and market them as revolutionary. An influential essay describing “LLM wrappers” notes that most so‑called AI products simply call external APIs with hard‑coded prompts and charge a premium for capabilities anyone can reproduce. Because these tools have no proprietary data or infrastructure, they lack defensible IP and bleed cash when usage scales.
Technology chasing vs problem solving – A common anti‑pattern is building impressive models without a clear customer problem, then searching for a market afterwards.
Misunderstanding AI’s limitations – Stakeholders may think current models can autonomously handle complex decisions; in reality, AI still requires curated data, domain expertise and human oversight. RAND’s survey reveals that applying AI to problems too difficult for current capabilities is a major cause of failure.
“Demo trap” – Some startups spend millions on flashy demos that generate press but deliver little value; about 22 % of startup failures stem from insufficient marketing strategies and communication.
Expert insights:
Experts recommend building small, targeted models rather than over‑committing to large foundation models. Smaller models can deliver 80 % of the performance at a fraction of the cost.
Clarifai’s orchestration platform makes it easy to deploy the right model for each task, whether a large foundational model or a lightweight custom network. Compute orchestration lets teams test and scale models without over‑provisioning hardware.
Creative example:
Imagine launching an AI‑powered note‑taking app that charges $50/month to summarize meetings. Without proprietary training data or unique algorithms, the product simply calls an external API. Users soon discover they can replicate the workflow themselves for a few dollars and abandon the subscription. A sustainable alternative would be to train domain‑specific models on proprietary meeting data and offer unique analytics; Clarifai’s platform can orchestrate this at low cost.
The product‑market fit trap: solving non‑existent problems
Quick Summary
Question:Why does poor product‑market fit topple AI startups? Answer:Thirty‑four percent of failed startups cite poor product‑market fit as the primary culprit. Many AI ventures build technology first and search for a market later, resulting in products that don’t solve real customer problems.
Market demand vs innovation – 42 % of startups fail because there is no market demand for their product. AI founders often fall into the trap of creating solutions in search of a problem.
Real‑world case studies – Several high‑profile consumer robots and generative art tools collapsed because consumers found them gimmicky or overpriced. Another startup spent millions training an image generator but hardly invested in customer acquisition, leaving them with fewer than 500 users.
Underestimating marketing and communication – 22 % of failed startups falter due to insufficient marketing and communication strategies. Complex AI solutions need clear messaging to convey value.
Expert insights:
Start with pain, not technology – Successful founders identify a high‑value problem and design AI to solve it. This means conducting user interviews, validating demand and iterating quickly.
Cross‑functional teams – Building interdisciplinary teams combining technical talent with product managers and domain experts ensures that technology addresses actual needs.
Clarifai integration – Clarifai allows rapid prototyping and user testing through a drag‑and‑drop interface. Startups can build multiple prototypes, test them with potential customers, and refine until product‑market fit is achieved.
Creative example:
Suppose an AI startup wants to create an automated legal assistant. Instead of immediately training a large model on random legal documents, the team interviews lawyers to find out that they spend countless hours redacting sensitive information from contracts. The startup then uses Clarifai’s pretrained models for document AI, builds a custom pipeline for redaction, and tests it with users. The product solves a real pain point and gains traction.
Data quality and readiness: fuel or failure for AI
Data is the fuel of AI. However, many organizations misinterpret the problem as “not enough data” when the real issue is not enough AI‑ready data. AI‑ready data must be fit for the specific use case, representative, dynamic, and governed for privacy and compliance.
Data quality and readiness – Gartner’s surveys show that 43 % of organizations cite data quality and readiness as the top obstacle in AI deployments. Traditional data management frameworks are not enough; AI requires contextual metadata, lineage tracking and dynamic updating.
Dynamic and contextual data – Unlike business analytics, AI use cases change constantly; data pipelines must be iterated and governed in real time.
Representative and governed data – AI‑ready data may include outliers and edge cases to train robust models. Governance must meet evolving privacy and compliance standards.
Expert insights:
Invest in data foundations – RAND recommends investing in data governance infrastructure and model deployment to reduce failure rates.
Clarifai’s data workflows – Clarifai offers integrated annotation tools, data governance, and model versioning that help teams collect, label and manage data across the lifecycle.
Small data, smart models – When data is scarce, techniques like few‑shot learning, transfer learning and retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) can build effective models with limited data. Clarifai’s platform supports these approaches.
Quick Summary
How does data readiness determine AI startup success? Poor data quality and lack of AI‑ready data are among the top reasons AI projects fail. At least 30 % of generative AI projects are abandoned after proof of concept because of poor data quality, inadequate risk controls and unclear business value.
Infrastructure and compute costs: hidden black holes
Quick Summary
Question:Why do infrastructure costs cripple AI startups? Answer: AI isn’t just a software problem—it is fundamentally a hardware challenge. Massive GPU processing power is required to train and run models, and the costs of GPUs can be up to 100× higher than traditional computing. Startups frequently underestimate these costs, lock themselves into long‑term cloud contracts, or over‑provision hardware.
The North Cloud report on AI’s cost crisis warns that infrastructure costs create “financial black holes” that drain budgets. There are two forces behind the problem: unknown compute requirements and global GPU shortages. Startups often commit to GPU leases before knowing actual needs, and cloud providers require long-term reservations due to demand. This results in overpaying for unused capacity or paying premium on-demand rates.
Training vs production budgets – Without separate budgets, teams burn through compute resources during R&D before proving any business value.
Cost intelligence – Many organizations lack systems to track the cost per inference; they only notice the bill after deployment.
Start small and scale slowly – Over‑committing to large foundation models is a common mistake; smaller task‑specific models can achieve similar outcomes at lower cost.
Flexible GPU commitments – Negotiating portable commitments and using local runners can mitigate lock‑in.
Hidden data preparation tax – Startups magazine notes that data preparation can consume 25–40 % of the budget even in optimistic scenarios.
Escalating operational costs – Venture‑backed AI startups often see compute costs grow at 300 % annually, six times higher than non‑AI SaaS counterparts.
Expert insights:
Use compute orchestration – Clarifai’s compute orchestration schedules workloads across CPU, GPU and specialized accelerators, ensuring efficient utilization. Teams can dynamically scale compute up or down based on actual demand.
Local runners for cost control – Running models on local hardware or edge devices reduces dependence on cloud GPUs and lowers latency. Clarifai’s local runner framework allows secure on‑prem deployment.
Separate research and production – Keeping R&D budgets separate from production budgets forces teams to prove ROI before scaling expensive models..
Creative example:
Consider an AI startup building a voice assistant. Early prototypes run on a developer’s local GPU, but when the company launches a beta version, usage spikes and cloud bills jump to $50,000 per month. Without cost intelligence, the team cannot tell which features drive consumption. By integrating Clarifai’s compute orchestration, the startup measures cost per request, throttles non‑essential features, and migrates some inference to edge devices, cutting monthly compute by 60 %.
The wrapper problem: dependency on external models
Quick Summary
Question:Why does reliance on external models and APIs undermine AI startups? Answer: Many AI startups build little more than thin wrappers around third‑party large language models. Because they control no underlying IP or data, they lack defensible moats and are vulnerable to platform shifts. As one analysis points out, these wrappers are just prompt pipelines stapled to a UI, with no backend or proprietary IP.
No differentiation – Wrappers rely entirely on external model providers; if the provider changes pricing or model access, the startup has no recourse.
Unsustainable economics – Wrappers burn cash on freemium users, but still pay the provider per token. Their business model hinges on converting users faster than burn, which rarely happens.
Brittle distribution layer – When wrappers fail, the underlying model provider also loses distribution. This circular dependency creates systemic risk.
Expert insights:
Build proprietary data and models – Startups need to own their training data or develop unique models to create lasting value.
Use open models and local inference – Clarifai offers open‑weight models that can be fine‑tuned locally, reducing dependence on any single provider.
Leverage hybrid architectures – Combining external APIs for generic tasks with local models for domain‑specific functions provides flexibility and control.
Leadership, culture and team dynamics
Quick Summary
Question:How do leadership and culture influence AI startup outcomes? Answer: Lack of strategic alignment, poor executive sponsorship and internal resistance to change are leading causes of AI project failure. Studies report that 85 % of AI projects fail to scale due to leadership missteps. Without cross‑functional teams and a culture of experimentation, even well‑funded initiatives stagnate.
Lack of C‑suite sponsorship – Projects without a committed executive champion often lack resources and direction.
Unclear business objectives and ROI – Many AI initiatives launch with vague goals, leading to scope creep and misaligned expectations.
Organizational inertia and fear – Employees resist adoption due to fear of job displacement or lack of understanding.
Siloed teams – Poor collaboration between business and technical teams results in models that don’t solve real problems.
Expert insights:
Empower line managers – MIT’s research found that successful deployments empower line managers rather than central AI labs.
Cultivate interdisciplinary teams – Combining data scientists, domain experts, designers and ethicists fosters better product decisions.
Incorporate human‑centered design – Clarifai advocates building AI systems with the end user in mind; user experience should guide model design and evaluation.
Embrace continuous learning – Encourage a growth mindset and provide training to upskill employees in AI literacy.
Regulatory and ethical hurdles
Quick Summary
Question:How does the regulatory landscape affect AI startups? Answer:More than 70 % of IT leaders list regulatory compliance as a top challenge when deploying generative AI. Fragmented laws across jurisdictions, high compliance costs and evolving ethical standards can slow or even halt AI projects.
Patchwork regulations – New laws such as the EU AI Act, Colorado’s AI Act and Texas’s Responsible AI Governance Act mandate risk assessments, impact evaluations and disclosure of AI usage, with fines up to $1 million per violation.
Low confidence in governance – Fewer than 25 % of IT leaders feel confident managing security and governance issues. The complexity of definitions like “developer,” “deployer” and “high risk” causes confusion.
Risk of legal disputes – Gartner predicts AI regulatory violations will cause a 30 % increase in legal disputes by 2028.
Small companies at risk – Compliance costs can range from $2 million to $6 million per firm, disproportionately burdening startups.
Expert insights:
Early governance frameworks – Establish internal policies for ethics, bias assessment and human oversight. Clarifai offers tools for content moderation, safety classification, and audit logging to help companies meet regulatory requirements.
Automated compliance – Research suggests future AI systems could automate many compliance tasks, reducing the trade‑off between regulation and innovation. Startups should explore compliance‑automating AIs to stay ahead of regulations.
Cross‑jurisdiction strategy – Engage legal experts early and build a modular compliance strategy to adapt to different jurisdictions.
Sustainability and resource constraints: the AI‑energy nexus
Quick Summary
Question:What role do energy and resources play in AI startup viability? Answer: AI’s rapid growth places enormous strain on energy systems, water supplies and critical minerals. Data centres are projected to consume 945 TWh by 2030—more than double their 2024 usage. AI could account for over 20 % of electricity demand growth, and water usage for cooling is expected to reach 450 million gallons per day. These pressures can translate into rising costs, regulatory hurdles and reputational risks for startups.
Energy consumption – AI’s energy appetite ties startups to volatile energy markets. Without renewable integration, costs and carbon footprints will skyrocket.
Water stress – Most data centres operate in high‑stress water regions, creating competition with agriculture and communities.
Critical minerals – AI hardware relies on minerals such as cobalt and rare earths, whose supply chains are geopolitically fragile.
Environmental and community impacts – Over 1,200 mining sites overlap with biodiversity hotspots. Poor stakeholder engagement can lead to legal delays and reputational damage.
Expert insights:
Green AI practices – Adopt energy‑efficient model architectures, prune parameters and use distillation to reduce energy consumption. Clarifai’s platform provides model compression techniques and allows running models on edge devices, reducing data‑centre load.
Renewable and carbon‑aware scheduling – Use compute orchestration that schedules training when renewable energy is plentiful. Clarifai’s orchestration can integrate with carbon‑aware APIs.
Lifecycle sustainability – Design products with sustainability metrics in mind; investors increasingly demand environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.
Operational discipline, marketing and execution
Quick Summary
Question:How do operational practices influence AI startup survival? Answer: Beyond technical excellence, AI startups need disciplined operations, financial management and effective marketing. AI startups burn through capital at unprecedented rates, with some burning $100 million in three years. Without rigorous budgeting and clear messaging, startups run out of cash before achieving market traction.
Unsustainable burn rates – High salaries for AI talent, expensive GPU leases and global office expansions can drain capital quickly.
Funding contraction – Global venture funding dropped by 42 % between 2022 and 2023, leaving many startups without follow‑on capital.
Marketing and communication gaps – A significant portion of startup failures stems from inadequate marketing strategies. AI’s complexity makes it hard to explain benefits to customers.
Execution and team dynamics – Leadership misalignment and poor execution account for 18 % and 16 % of failures, respectively.
Expert insights:
Capital discipline – Track infrastructure and operational costs meticulously. Clarifai’s platform provides usage analytics to help teams monitor GPU and API consumption.
Incremental growth – Adopt lean methodologies, release minimum viable products and iterate quickly to build momentum without overspending.
Strategic marketing – Translate technical capabilities into clear value propositions. Use storytelling, case studies and demos targeted at specific customer segments.
Team diversity – Ensure teams include operations specialists, finance professionals and marketing experts alongside data scientists.
Competitive moats and rapid technology cycles
Quick Summary
Question:Do AI startups have defensible advantages? Answer: Competitive advantages in AI can erode quickly. In traditional software, moats may last years, but AI models become obsolete when new open‑source or public models are released. Companies that build proprietary models without continual innovation risk being outcompeted overnight.
Rapid commoditization – When a new large model is released for free, previously defensible models become commodity software.
Data moats – Proprietary, domain‑specific data can create defensible advantages because data quality and context are harder to replicate.
Ecosystem integration – Building products that integrate deeply into customer workflows increases switching costs.
Expert insights:
Leverage proprietary data – Clarifai enables training on your own data and deploying models on a secure platform, helping create unique capabilities.
Stay adaptable – Continuously benchmark models and adopt open research to keep pace with advances.
Build platforms, not wrappers – Develop underlying infrastructure and tools that others build upon, creating network effects.
The shadow AI economy and internal adoption
Quick Summary
Question:What is the shadow AI economy and how does it affect startups? Answer: While enterprise AI pilots struggle, a “shadow AI economy” thrives as employees adopt unsanctioned AI tools to boost productivity. Research shows that 90 % of employees use personal AI tools at work, often paying out of pocket. These tools deliver individual benefits but remain invisible to corporate leadership.
Bottom‑up adoption – Employees adopt AI to reduce workload, but these gains don’t translate into enterprise transformation because tools don’t integrate with workflows.
Lack of governance – Shadow AI raises security and compliance risks; unsanctioned tools may expose sensitive data.
Missed learning opportunities – Organizations fail to capture feedback and learning from shadow usage, deepening the learning gap.
Expert insights:
Embrace controlled experimentation – Encourage employees to experiment with AI tools within a governance framework. Clarifai’s platform supports sandbox environments for prototyping and user feedback.
Capture insights from shadow usage – Monitor which tasks employees automate and incorporate those workflows into official solutions.
Bridge bottom‑up and top‑down – Empower line managers to champion AI adoption and integrate tools into processes.
Future‑proof strategies and emerging trends
Quick Summary
Question:How can AI startups build resilience for the future? Answer: To survive in an increasingly competitive landscape, AI startups must adopt cost‑efficient models, robust data governance, ethical and regulatory compliance, and sustainable practices. Emerging trends—including small language models (SLMs), agentic AI systems, energy‑aware compute orchestration, and automated compliance—offer paths forward.
Small and specialized models – The shift toward Small Language Models (SLMs) can reduce compute costs and allow deployment on edge devices, enabling offline or private inference. Sundeep Teki’s analysis highlights how leading organizations are pivoting to more efficient and agile SLMs.
Agentic AI – Agentic systems can autonomously execute tasks within boundaries, enabling AI to learn from feedback and act, not just generate.
Automated compliance – Automated compliance triggers could make regulations effective only when AI tools can automate compliance tasks. Startups should invest in compliance‑automating AI to reduce regulatory burdens.
Energy‑aware orchestration – Scheduling compute workloads based on renewable availability and carbon intensity reduces costs and environmental impact. Clarifai’s orchestration can incorporate carbon‑aware strategies.
Data marketplaces and partnerships – Collaborate with data‑rich organizations or academic institutions to access high‑quality data. Pilot exchanges for data rights can reduce the data preparation tax.
Modular architectures – Build modular, plug‑and‑play AI components that can quickly integrate new models or data sources.
Expert insights:
Clarifai’s roadmap – Clarifai continues to invest in compute efficiency, model compression, data privacy, and regulatory compliance tools. By using Clarifai, startups can access a mature AI stack without heavy infrastructure investments.
Talent strategy – Hire domain experts who understand the problem space and pair them with machine‑learning engineers. Encourage continuous learning and cross‑disciplinary collaboration.
Community engagement – Participate in open‑source communities and contribute to common tooling to stay at the cutting edge.
Conclusion: Building resilient, responsible AI startups
AI’s high failure rates stem from misaligned expectations, poor product‑market fit, insufficient data readiness, runaway infrastructure costs, dependence on external models, leadership missteps, regulatory complexity and resource constraints. But failure isn’t inevitable. Successful startups focus on solving real problems, building robust data foundations, managing compute costs, owning their IP, fostering interdisciplinary teams, prioritizing ethics and compliance, and embracing sustainability.
Clarifai’s comprehensive AI platform can help address many of these challenges. Its compute orchestration optimizes GPU usage and cost, model inference tools let you deploy models on cloud or edge with ease, and local runner options ensure privacy and compliance. With built‑in data annotation, model management, and governance capabilities, Clarifai offers a unified environment where startups can iterate quickly, maintain regulatory compliance, and scale sustainably.
FAQs
Q1. What percentage of AI startups fail? Approximately 90 % of AI startups fail within their first year, far exceeding the failure rate of traditional tech startups. Moreover, 95 % of enterprise AI pilots never make it to production.
Q2. Is lack of data the primary reason AI projects fail? Lack of data readiness—rather than sheer volume—is a top obstacle. Over 80 % of AI projects fail due to poor data quality and governance. High‑quality, context‑rich data and robust governance frameworks are essential.
Q3. How can startups manage AI infrastructure costs? Startups should separate R&D and production budgets, implement cost intelligence to monitor per‑request spending, adopt smaller models, and negotiate flexible GPU commitments. Using local inference and compute orchestration platforms like Clarifai’s reduces cloud dependence.
Q4. What role do regulations play in AI failure? More than 70 % of IT leaders view regulatory compliance as a top concern. A patchwork of laws can increase costs and uncertainty. Early governance frameworks and automated compliance tools help navigate this complexity.
Q5. How does sustainability affect AI startups? AI workloads consume significant energy and water. Data centres are projected to use 945 TWh by 2030, and AI could account for over 20 % of electricity demand growth. Energy‑aware compute scheduling and model efficiency are crucial for sustainable AI.
Q6. Can small language models compete with large models? Yes. Small language models (SLMs) deliver a large share of the performance of giant models at a fraction of the cost and energy. Many leading organizations are transitioning to SLMs to build more efficient AI products.
Back in the bygone decade, hiring remote freelancers for tech projects was a risky undertaking, and even more so if you hired them from shady sites. The good thing is that there are now dozens of good, reputable, easy-to-use platforms with secure payment processing and decent project management systems to help you connect with pre-vetted professional electrical engineers and designers.
Some freelancing sites focus heavily on tech and engineering projects, such as Cad Crowd, a platform specializing in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) and MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) industries. As the name implies, it places heavy emphasis on the use of CAD (computer-aided design) to bring ideas of electronic products, both consumer-grade and industrial equipment, from sketches to reality and even to the mass-manufacturing stage. In general, for the vast majority of electrical engineering and design projects out there, Cad Crowd most likely has you covered.
But because it’s always a good idea to shop around and compare your options, the following list can be a good starting point to take a glance at what’s available and how each platform can cater to your needs.
Specialized platforms
A major benefit of specialized platforms is the predefined focus on a given industry or business sector. In the case of electrical engineering and design, some of the first names that usually come up in the search are as follows.
Cad Crowd
More than 100,000 CAD designers find a home at Cad Crowd, where they offer a comprehensive range of engineering and design services for just about every product category in existence, including electronic devices design services. Common projects include PCB layout and schematics, embedded firmware, enclosure design by 3D modeling, product visualization, animated renderings, test and simulation, and DFM analysis. Thanks to the platform’s focus on specific niches, you have an easier time choosing a freelancer or two from a higher concentration of relevant, qualified, pre-vetted professionals to handle even the most specific and highly personalized electronics design projects.
As a specialized platform, Cad Crowd facilitates a number of services you rarely see in its more generalized counterparts, such as innovation licensing, patent filing, design for assembly, reverse engineering, FEA (finite element analysis), and more. Cad Crowd also provides effective project management tools along with technical support to help improve communication and collaboration between clients and engineers.
EngineerX
Similar to a lot of freelancing platforms all across the web, EngineerX is at its core an agency to help you match your electrical design project with a qualified engineer from its database. Of course, the single biggest differentiating factor between EngineerX and about 99% of all the other platforms is that it focuses solely on engineering projects, including electrical, robotics, automation, test engineering, mechanical design, quality assurance and control, Value Analysis and Value Engineering (VAVE), and process engineering. EngineerX prioritizes long-term collaboration, as in hiring an engineer permanently, but it also caters to hiring for short-term projects.
Another freelance agency, Field Engineer, maintains a network of at least 75,000 vetted engineers spread across 200 countries worldwide. The platform focuses on telecom/hardware deployment, connecting clients with engineers specializing in RF design, computer hardware, satellite communications, system integration, and more. The platform says that every registered freelancer has been checked and verified for their qualifications as well as liability insurance. You can’t directly browse for freelancers on the site; instead, you must first post a job and wait for qualified engineers to apply for it. After reviewing the candidates, you assign one of them to the project and manage the work via a dashboard. Engineers typically charge an hourly rate.
A service marketplace built to bridge the gap between engineers, subcontractors, and clients, Trees Engineering also functions as an agency that works primarily to match your project with qualified freelancers. The platform offers two hiring options: either hiring freelancers to handle specific engineering tasks or subcontracting engineering services to an external provider. It focuses on industrial EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) projects and includes a lot of disciplines on the service page. One of those disciplines is electrical, for which the platform lists nearly 1800 freelance engineer profiles. Each profile is attached with comprehensive information about certifications, employment history, daily rate, experience levels, education, etc.
A niche freelancing platform serving the MEP industry, Sumer Innovations is a welcome addition to the already vast online talent marketplace landscape. It does offer freelance engineering assistance, engineering outsourcing, and CAD drafting support for clients, but the scope of services is, of course, limited to the architectural and construction industries. Therefore, hiring electrical engineers and drafting professionals from the platform makes sense if your electrical product is part of the required system in a building. These might include products like lighting, water sprinkler automation, HVAC components, and basically any device to be installed in a smart home. Sumer Innovations is based out of Colorado and is currently licensed to provide professional engineering services in all 50 states in the US.
If your next project has anything to do with electrical/electronic product development and all the processes it entails, X-PRO CAD has the right freelancers to get the job done. The platform’s scope of specializations includes electrical engineering, consumer products design, reverse engineering, and CAD services, among others. As for the workflow, it’s as simple as it can get: you describe the project, get matched with a pre-qualified freelancer picked by the platform, deposit the payment, and receive the deliverables.
It’s apparently one of the world’s largest independent online communities for electrical engineers. All About Circuits came about in 2004 with nothing but an open-source textbook and a forum, but now it has grown into a busy platform for electrical and electronic engineers to share expertise and experience. It’s neither a freelancing platform nor a job board, but the forum portion, especially the “job and career advising” section, welcomes posts about open projects, paid jobs, and general guidance on employment-related matters. Whether you’re looking for PCB-design specialists or electrical/electronic product design professionals, All About Circuits is a nice place to be.
In simple words, Ennomotive is a crowdsourcing platform where you can post a project (or challenge) and ask the community to propose ideas and solutions to solve issues. Ennomotive hosts a global network of more than 25,000 professionals and startups specializing in sustainability, mechanical engineering services, and IoT innovations. You can post the project as an “open challenge” and offer a reward for any member who can solve technical issues or suggest a viable workaround. The reward can be a sum of money or a collaboration agreement.
A joint venture between Make: Community and ProjectBoard, the Make:Projects operates more or less the same way as Ennomotive for the most part. It’s a platform to share your creative ideas, potential innovations, and work-in-progress projects to solicit constructive feedback from the members. You can utilize the community group chat or direct messaging feature to communicate with other members and open the doors to potential collaboration through direct hiring. While the whole site and the project catalog appear DIY-ish, it’s a reliable, cost-effective method to find the talent you need without going through formal hiring processes.
In a fashion similar to Ennomotive and Make:Projects mentioned earlier, Hackaday is an online community to share engineering projects of any sort and invite others to contribute to solving technical problems. One thing to remember is that Hackaday is very clear about the fact that the platform is a repository of “open hardware” projects, so everyone can basically use the same ideas and replicate them for any purpose without any restriction. In the project’s catalog, you’ll see exciting builds like a clamshell palmtop, a hexagon LED table, an arcade cabinet made from e-waste, a washing machine remote control, etc. While it’s not a freelancing platform, the open nature of the community can lead to potential collaboration with other members.
A global on-demand talent marketplace, Tasker likes to boast about having more than 1,000 engineering skills in its list of engineering services. The areas of focus include PCB design, process automation (robotics), engineering simulation and analysis, mechanical CAD drawings, engineering feasibility study, engineering project management, and technical documentation, to name a few. Tasker is a platform built by engineers and for engineers to embark on flexible employment opportunities. Every company that needs to inject engineering expertise into a project from an independent freelancer should take Tasker into consideration.
As you’ve probably guessed, Engineers Australia is an online community of professional engineers based in Australia. If you’re willing to hire young engineers, either in their full professional capacity or to fill graduate programs and internships, the community is more than happy to post your project on its job boards. Engineers Australia is home to more than 40,000 engineering students and graduates eager to experience early career roles in engineering design companies. You can post a project to the job board through Prosple, its technology partner.
A recruiting platform for tech talents, Built In (For Employers) gives you access to a hub of 5 million members visiting the site on a monthly basis. More than half of them are qualified as mid-senior professionals with an average experience of 8.5 years. Of those five million people, 19% are categorized under Operations/IT (may include electrical/electronic engineers), and 15% have product design expertise (CAD drafting should belong to this group). A single job posting on Built In costs $99 per month.
Just about every feature you can find in any general job board is available in Dice. The only difference is that the platform specializes in giving you access to nothing but tech talents, including electrical/electronic engineers and CAD professionals. Dice maintains a network of more than 7.2 million talents, with around 70,000 new members per month. It also claims that you won’t find about 25% of the registered professionals on any other freelancing site. Dice isn’t a free platform. Posting a job costs $399, for which your project will stay on the listing for 30 days.
Most job boards are not specific about the industries they serve. They’re like general freelancing platforms, but with minimum (if any) involvement in the hiring process and project management; some job boards don’t even take part in freelancers’ vetting at all.
Handshake
Technically, Handshake is a specialized platform because it targets the clients’ job posts at active college students and recent graduates instead of experienced engineering freelancers. Handshake has a network of at least 18 million members from about 90% of top-ranked institutions in the United States. The platform also maintains official partnerships with more than 1,500 colleges and universities. Basic access on Handshake will get you a free first job posting and 100 matching candidates. Clients can connect directly to any of the schools in the network by request or posting a job to the institutions’ directories.
Most freelancers in AllRemote specialize in software and app development services, but the platform says the pool of talent itself consists of more than 50,000 vetted freelancers in addition to the 600,000 professionals already listed in its network. The professionals come from various backgrounds, including engineering and product design. AllRemote is neither a job board nor a traditional freelancing platform; you can’t post a project on the platform, and there’s no direct messaging feature to communicate with the registered freelancers. It’s a recruitment agency built to cater to your needs for remote workers. Instead of browsing portfolios and ratings, you must contact AllRemote regarding the project as well as the hiring requirement, and the platform handles all the searching and matching on your behalf. You only pay when you decide to hire the freelancer AllRemote recommends.
Here’s the best thing about Hubstaff Talent: you can use all the features, both the search and filtering functions, free of charge. And the second-best thing is that it gives access not only to individual freelancers registered with the platform, but also to agencies of various specializations. Posting a job costs nothing, and freelancers or agencies can send the applications (not a bid) to your contact information. The search function is pretty comprehensive, too. You can filter based on skill sets such as electrical/electronic design, PCB design, engineering, CAD, etc. It also has sorting options like average pay rate, availability, languages, and years of experience.
If Toptal only accepts fewer than 3% of all the freelancers applying to the platform, FreeUp makes an even bigger (or smaller) claim of giving you access only to the top 1% of the available online talent. The platform actively searches for new talent through interviews and rigorous vetting processes every week to maintain the high standard. You can’t browse freelancers and contact them directly on the platform. To get connected with candidates, you must send a request to FreeUp and describe your project requirements to get a recommendation of qualified professionals. FreeUp promises to find a match for the project within one business day. The list of available skill sets on the website includes electrical engineers, CAD designers, PCB designers, industrial design experts, and product designers.
The nicest thing about Remote OK is that the platform is very simple to use, which isn’t really saying much because it’s a plain and simple job board. Once you post a project on the site, the information is cross-posted to 220 other sites in the network. But it’s not free; in fact, the fee is on the expensive side of the spectrum, with a single post costing around $490, for which the post will remain on the distribution for 30 days. Remote OK says that every post is also forwarded to nearly 2 million job seekers in its database and the Google for Jobs recruitment network.
A notable distinguishing factor of Kolabtree is that it focuses on connecting clients with PhD-qualified expert freelancers. In other words, just about every freelancer on the site is an experienced professional in their respective field of expertise. Most of them charge a premium hourly rate, but you can still find some relatively affordable services ranging from $15 to $50 per hour. Posting a project is a pretty straightforward process, and you get to choose whether it will be available to all freelancers or an “invitation-only” project. You can also browse the freelancers’ profiles using the filtering options to find experts in relevant disciplines such as electronic circuits, electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and CAD & 3D modeling.
Smartly positioning itself as a social networking site for professionals, LinkedIn has now become a valuable resource for employers to connect with freelancers in just about any job category. You can treat it like a direct sourcing site to engage and communicate with professionals within your network, and invite them to take part in your electrical design project as freelance hires. That said, LinkedIn also has its own job board to give your project an even greater exposure. Free and paid job posts are available; the latter promises to bring you three times the number of applicants compared to the former.
Having been around since 2007, FlexJobs claims to have helped thousands of companies of all sizes from many different industries throughout the United States and beyond with remote hiring. The keyword here is “remote” because FlexJobs specializes in connecting you with work-from-home professionals, whether as a full-time employee, a part-time worker, or a freelancer. It’s a premium job board; employer membership (subscription) fee starts at $199 per month, for which you get unlimited job posts and unrestricted access to FlexJobs’s database of job seekers from all around the world, including engineering and industrial design services. FlexJobs provides an ATS tool for every subscribed client.
The main site of SimplyHired is intended for job seekers. When you click on the “Post Jobs” feature, you’ll be notified that your projects will be published on Indeed instead. Ease of use has been the highlight point of both platforms. You can post a project in a matter of minutes and manage the applicants in the Candidate Management Tool, a built-in feature in the Employer Dashboard. While the “standard” job posting is free, you can upgrade it to either “Standard Sponsored” or “Premium Sponsored” with a flexible maximum budget threshold to gain greater exposure and additional management tools. Indeed doesn’t specialize in electrical engineering and design, but with nearly 60 million job seekers visiting the site, chances are you’ll attract more than a handful of applicants with every job post.
There are some similarities between FlexJobs and Remotive. Both are premium job boards, and they focus on helping you connect with professionals interested in work-from-home jobs. But there are differences, too. Remotive isn’t a generalized job board as it specializes in targeting IT talents such as DevOps, software developers, data specialists, and engineers. While it doesn’t explicitly mention the specific engineering fields, the platform’s specialization in technology should ideally include talents with electrical and electronic engineering backgrounds. Every job post is distributed across Remotive’s social channels, such as LinkedIn, Google Jobs, and Slack Community. Basic membership fee starts at $299 per month.
Despite its rather bland website, Pangian is a pretty busy page with one-and-a-half million visitors over the last 12 months. Pangian is another general job board catering to clients in need of remote professionals. The platform mentions having a network of more than 400,000 professionals from various backgrounds, from marketing experts and graphic designers to project managers and electrical engineering services. Over the course of its history, Pangian has shared nearly 17,000 projects through the platform. Pangian is not the most informative job board website out there, but it’s an alternative you might want to try.
A general job board for remote employment, Working Nomads allows job seekers to send applications directly to the client’s email or via the website. The platform has been around for more than a decade, and currently posts more than 30,000 jobs per month. But like many other general job boards out there, it doesn’t offer any kind of candidate vetting process. It simply curates job listings and spreads the word about clients’ projects across the web. A single job post costs $199, for which the project is shared on the platform’s LinkedIn profile (with more than 350,000 followers). It offers discounts for bundle job postings.
The aptly-named “crowdspring” prioritizes crowdsourced projects. Founded in 2008, the platform now maintains a massive network of more than 220,000 creatives from over 195 countries. In addition to the crowdsourced model, it also caters to 1-to-1 projects; this is where you can post a custom job description and hire freelancers. Crowdspring has no category for electrical engineering, design, and PCB layout schematics, but it does highlight wireless tech products as emerging consumer goods, suggesting that they’re within the platform’s scope of expertise.
Posted projects on Workhoppers are targeted not only at professional freelancers, but also at university students and semi-retired talents looking for remote jobs. You can search for talents by skill, city, or country, and filter the results based on levels of experience, education, and work site (remote or on-site). Workshoppers has a freelancer for every job, from furniture assemblers and translators to engineers and CAD specialists. However, there are neither pre-vetting processes nor assistance with setting the budgets for projects, so please practice due diligence because you have to negotiate the terms of the hiring directly with the candidates. Workhoppers is a premium platform; a basic membership account for a client starts at $39 per month. Registration is currently handled at freelance.ca and freelance. job websites.
There are three jobseeker categories in Flexing It: professionals, freelancers, and experts, although the platform doesn’t really say how they’re different. It also claims that the talent pool consists of professionals with work experience of anything between 5 and 20 years across every major discipline, which should include product design services and electrical/electronic engineering. Furthermore, about 50% of the workforce registered on the platform have such educational backgrounds as Tier 1 MBA, engineering, law, and arts from institutions like Stanford and Harvard. For every candidate that applies to your project, you can request a professional verification process that can take from 10 to 12 business days to complete.
Prioritized fields of expertise in Freelancermap include IT architecture, software development and design, SAP, consulting and management, as well as graphics and media. The easiest way to use the platform is to browse the public directory of freelancers. Utilize the filtering options to sort the results based on skills, locations, hourly rates, and other criteria. You’re also allowed to contact the freelancers individually. Freelancermap takes no commission from the freelancers’ pay, but it’s a premium platform nonetheless. Membership plan for employers starts at €89 (a little more than $100) per month.
An international staffing agency, Insight Global, can provide you with access to talent from more than 50 countries worldwide. The agency itself maintains more than 70 office locations throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It works by connecting you with tech professionals, including those specializing in engineering design and visualization (3D models and AutoCAD drawings). More importantly, Insight Global caters to project-based hiring needs, meaning you get the option to specify the project requirements and the desired freelancer’s qualifications, and have the agency recommend an exact match.
While the primary staffing service is for permanent hiring, LHH also provides temporary employment solutions. This is a good option when you need to scale up the team, but aren’t ready yet to commit to another full-time hire. LHH claims to have a network of more than 500,000 professionals in addition to the 12,000 global colleagues ready to reinforce your team with a boost of expertise. Just like with Insight Global, the most practical way to use LHH is to utilize the search function. Enter the right keyword or a professional relevant to your project (electrical engineer, product design, and CAD), and then select the candidate to request further information from the platform.
The process of matching a project and a candidate in High5Hire is entirely based on your project’s Statement of Work (SOW). In other words, the scope of work must be clearly defined for the platform to be able to find a suitable freelancer to handle the workload. SOW is almost like project requirements, but with additional details like budget allocation, conditions for termination, payment schedule, etc. For example, if the project calls for the expertise of an experienced electrical/electronic engineer and a CAD draftsperson, the platform can either find two freelancers to cover the tasks or a single person who does both, depending on the budget.
Based in Virginia, USA, TechFetch is a job portal built for IT companies and clients everywhere to find the best-qualified candidates for open tech positions, including engineers, CAD operators, product designers, and more. The platform has been around for 15 years (formerly as Corp-Corp.com), and currently boasts about having more than 2 million resumes accessible by members. It’s not cheap, however; a basic subscription costs $1,799 annually, for which you’re granted access to 10,000 resumes and 500 job posts.
You can browse individual professionals and contractors for free on Contra. The search function has filtering options based on the platform’s profile badges (Top Independent, Expert, and Quick Responders), fields of expertise, tools (software and equipment they use), industries, location, languages, and pay rates. Contra also offers a premium “project creation” feature, but it comes with a $29 contract fee for a one-time project or $29 per month per contractor for a long-term project. You can also post a job using the provided AI tools, guaranteed to attract applicants within just a few hours.
Instead of giving you access to a database of remote freelancers you can hire to work on your projects, Outsource Accelerator provides a directory of a long list of outsourcing companies from all around the world, more than 2,300 of them. But you don’t have to contact them individually anyway because the platform functions as a conduit to bridge the communication between you and the outsourcing suppliers. The website offers an intuitive feature where you can compare the typical overhead associated with hiring an onshore freelancer (from countries like the US, the UK, and Australia) with the offshore alternative.
A freelance platform headquartered in Paris, France, Malt also maintains a presence in other European countries like Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland. You can find it in the Nordics, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates as well. According to the information provided in the UK version, Malt has a network of more than 850,000 freelancers and contractors, along with over 70,000 registered companies in Europe. You can simply search for CAD design services with relevant skills for your project and contact them directly.
Another free job board, Skip the Drive, is geared toward freelancers looking for remote employment opportunities. As for the clients, the platform offers “targeted” job postings where it forwards your projects to the most commonly visited sites by freelancers, so you have a higher chance of getting increased exposure from all the right places. It does mention something to the effect of having a 30-day guarantee of satisfaction for premium job postings with a full refund option, but pricing information is unclear.
You hear a lot of promising claims from The Ladders. For example, of all the 100,000 professionals registered with the site, about 89% have a bachelor’s degree, and 39% have a master’s degree in various fields of study. Every single one of them is based in either the United States or Canada, and all the freelancers have an average of 15 years of experience. You can post one job each month free of charge, or purchase the promoted job plan for $599 per post. There’s a big gap between the zero-cost and the premium option, but The Ladders says that the latter model comes with an average of 111 more candidate views and 9 times more applicants than the former.
The aptly named job board allows both freelancers and clients to use the platform at zero cost. PostJobFree is based in Florida and focuses on connecting employers and professionals across the United States. Every job post is active for 30 days. The site will send an email reminder approaching the period, after which you can simply refresh the listing to keep the posting up for another month. It also has a simple search function, and you can contact the candidates for potential collaboration through the site.
When you post a job on Monster, the listing will be displayed not only on the platform itself but also on CareerBuilder as well as its extensive network of partner sites and job boards. A standard account comes with the “Promoted Jobs” feature, which costs $18 per day, charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. Monster Pro account gives you instant access to millions of candidates in the network for many skills, including consumer product design services.
Creating an employer account is free with Jobvertise. The free account gives you access to 3 resume views per day. To actually be able to post promoted jobs, you need to register with one of the premium accounts. The lowest subscription tier is the Starter pack, costing $34.99 per month, for which you get 500 resume views per day and 2 promoted job postings. Jobvertise shines in its simplicity; the resume search function is easy to use, and you get robust filtering options such as countries (USA, Canada, or International), profession category, keywords, and that’s about it.
Among the biggest appeals of a general freelancing platform is the extensive list of skills it has in its portfolio. Some sites have hundreds of thousands to millions of registered freelancers from all over the world, offering a broad category of services at affordable rates. Of course, not every single freelancer on these platforms is an electrical engineer or a CAD draftsperson, but there’s a good chance you’ll find a good number of professionals from relevant educational backgrounds and levels of experience for your project in the listings.
Freelancer
The aptly named “Freelancer” is another popular talent marketplace where you can discover professionals specializing in electrical engineering, design, and drafting services. It’s a general freelancing platform, meaning there’s no prioritization of any particular field of expertise over the others. Browsing freelancers by skill reveals an overwhelmingly large list of disciplines; among those are electronics, electrical engineering, electronic design, embedded systems, engineering drawing, analog electronics, and more. The sheer scale of Freelancer offers wide-open access to a global workforce, but at the same time, it puts the responsibility of vetting and quality assurance on the clients themselves. This isn’t a terrible idea, so long as you practice due diligence.
One of the biggest selling points of Toptal is the exceptionally rigorous vetting process. It claims to accept fewer than 3% of all the professionals registering for the platform every month. Obviously, not every single one of those talents is an electrical engineer or a drafter. Toptal positions itself as a premium freelancing platform, so clients have to pay a substantial amount to use its services as well. Strangely enough, Toptal doesn’t explicitly list electrical and electronic engineers in the list of skill sets it covers. But the platform does have product and prototype design experts as well as design consultants. It doesn’t really matter because you can’t directly choose a specific freelancer. Instead, you need to post a project and let the platform do the searching and matching tasks on your behalf. Toptal allows you to hire a team of professionals in case your project is best handled by a multidisciplinary group of freelancers.
Freelancers on PeoplePerHour can get to the project you post by submitting bids or proposals. You’ll find the same practice in many other platforms, too. This means the freelancers have the freedom to set their own rates for any specific project. That said, clients are allowed to hire freelancers directly via the “Search Offers” feature. Enter your project keywords (electrical engineering, PCB layout, schematics, electronic design, etc.) in the search bar without picking any category, and you’ll be provided with a list of freelancers’ profiles offering services relevant to the project. If you, however, use the “post project” function, PeoplePerHour provides you with a dashboard that works pretty much like a central hub to manage projects, communication, deliverables, proposals, and feedback, all in one place.
A quick glance at Guru’s homepage, you’ll see some big claims about the platform having been used by 800,000 employers worldwide, with a 99% satisfaction rate and amounting to $250 million collective payout to freelancers. Guru makes for an affordable platform for clients as it offers free, unlimited quote requests from freelancers and job posts. However, there’s a 2.9% handling fee for every invoice generated from a project. Under the “Engineering” category, Guru includes a wide range of available skills such as circuit design, finite element analysis, industrial design, electrical engineering, product development, Arduino, and more. In the “CAD and Technical Drawings” section, you’ll come across freelancers offering services in drafting, schematic design, prototyping, etc.
What separates Workana from many other general freelancing platforms is how it focuses on connecting clients with freelancers based in Latin American countries. The idea behind Workana is to provide clients situated in the United States and Canada (or basically anywhere else in North America and Central America, for that matter) easy access to more affordable talent who work in the same time zone. Workana doesn’t mention anything about electrical design or drafting in the service page, but it has an “Engineering & Manufacturing” category filled with such sections as Industrial Design, CAD Drawing, and 3D Modeling. The range of talents isn’t as extensive as what you can see in Upwork or Guru, but it can be a good alternative, nevertheless, for 3D modeling design services.
For a platform that claims to provide access to more than 2 million freelancers in 120 countries with over 3500 skills, it really isn’t a good sign when major categories such as engineering and electronic design aren’t even highlighted on the service page. Fortunately, it doesn’t really matter because you don’t have to search for individual freelancers with those specific skill sets to find them anyway. All you have to do is post a project and let the freelancers bid on it. You can then review the proposals and take a closer look at the freelancers’ profiles before you make the hiring decision. For premium clients, Truelancer provides “Prime Managers” and “Project Success Partners” features to help you manage communication and ensure a smooth workflow.
Known for its gig-based services, Fiverr lists “Electrical Engineering” discipline under the “Programming & Tech” category. The platform doesn’t follow the traditional practice of asking a client to post a project. Instead, it encourages you to use the search function and filter the results based on your project requirements. Freelancers on the platform have their pre-set project scope, but they’re allowed to propose custom jobs in accordance with the clients’ requests. Electronic gigs in Fiverr typically include PCB design, schematic drawing, Arduino modules, hardware documentation, BOM generation, and Gerber production. Sellers used fixed-price gigs from $5 all the way to hundreds of dollars, depending on the services included.
Quite possibly the most recognizable name in the freelancing world, Upwork offers an extensive range of categories and disciplines populated by more profiles than anybody will ever need. For example, in the “industrial and project design” category alone, you’ll be provided with a huge selection of relevant attributes such as consumer electronics, IoT, machinery, toys, and wearables, along with such sub-disciplines as concept development, 2D drawing, 3D printing, product rendering and visualization, and prototype design engineering services. Each field of expertise listed on Upwork has hundreds of freelancers ready to work on your project. You can post a project and choose a freelancer from the incoming applicants, or directly purchase predefined projects by browsing through the freelancers’ profiles.
Not every freelancing platform, generalized or specialized, is built the same. A general talent marketplace might give you access to more freelancers eager to find new projects, but there’s little guarantee that any of those candidates are qualified to handle your electrical engineering projects. Some general freelancing sites have no engineering category at all. On the other hand, specialized platforms and job boards have a tighter focus on specific fields of expertise or industry categories, meaning you’ll have an easier time finding the right freelancers thanks to the relatively narrow specializations. This is why Cad Crowd sits at the top of the list when it comes to electrical engineering designs and CAD documentation projects.
Its unique approach to the tech talent marketplace, with its private projects, crowdsourcing, and long-term collaboration options, is at the moment the best option to inject additional expertise into your project. Get the free quote today.
MacKenzie Brown is the founder and CEO of Cad Crowd. With over 18 years of experience in launching and scaling platforms specializing in CAD services, product design, manufacturing, hardware, and software development, MacKenzie is a recognized authority in the engineering industry. Under his leadership, Cad Crowd serves esteemed clients like NASA, JPL, the U.S. Navy, and Fortune 500 companies, empowering innovators with access to high-quality design and engineering talent.
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Left to right: Artemis II NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Credit: NASA
NASA’s Artemis II mission looks to be as little as a couple of weeks away. The middle child of the three-part Artemis project, this mission will allow humans to swing by the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. It also hopes to pave the way for even more ambitious missions in the future.
Here’s a rundown on NASA’s plans to bring humanity back to the Moon.
What Are the Artemis Missions?
The last time humans went to the lunar surface was with Apollo 17 in 1972. Since then, NASA has not even sent a crewed orbiter to the Moon, preferring to focus on the ISS and other, less expensive options for crewed flight.
NASA worked on plans to return during the Obama administration, but the project couldn’t maintain funding or attention for long. In 2017, with the passage of the Space Policy Directive I, NASA was directed to prioritize the Moon. From that came the Artemis missions, repurposed from existing plans.
The Artemis II mission plan. Credit: NASA
Artemis I was an uncrewed test flight successfully conducted in 2022. It gathered data about landing sites and, in particular, tested NASA’s new generation of launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS).
Now, Artemis II looks to take much the same path with a crew along for the ride. It’s a critical proof of the viability of both the SLS and the Orion capsule that will hold the crew. Artemis III will be the next step, using SpaceX’s Human Landing System (HLS) to put the crew on the lunar surface.
What Will Artemis Accomplish?
In addition to bringing humans by and to the Moon, Artemis will establish science experiments of its own. Much of this stems from the extended time spent on the Moon, with Artemis III calling for astronauts to spend about a week on the surface.
During this time, they’ll collect geological samples for analysis on the Moon and more for return to Earth. They’ll also do the early work required to localize water on the Moon, which will be critical for everything from cooling to hydrogen fuel production.
The enormous Space Launch System. Credit: NASA
Artemis III will also survey the surface and identify the best sites for future infrastructure development that could help the agency move on to Mars, asteroids, and beyond.
It’s arguable whether Artemis exists more to prove the next generation of equipment or to achieve its own proximate goals. Either way, any of the agency’s ideas and plans for Mars and beyond will first require all three levels of the Artemis program to succeed.
When Is the Artemis II Launch?
Artemis II’s exact launch timing depends on several factors, including equipment checks and weather. There are several possible launch windows, with the earliest in the first days of February. Feb. 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11 were originally offered, but delays in the “wet dress rehearsal” have so far made the first two of those days unavailable.
Now, NASA thinks Feb. 8 is the earliest possible launch date, though that still requires a good dress rehearsal. If they can’t launch before Feb. 11, we’ll have to wait until March for another opportunity.
How to Watch the Artemis II Launch
NASA will livestream the event from its YouTube channel and its own media platform. There was a stream showing the rocket sitting on the launch pad, but that’s since ended; you’ll likely find it starts back up within a few days of launch.
We’ll keep you up to date on the progress of Artemis II and SpaceX’s Starship system, which will be critical to Artemis III.
Can you believe we’re already heading into March? I’m so excited because it’s been a really long and COLD winter! 🥶😆 So cold in fact, that I’ve been running a standalone heater right next to my desk! I adore that thing! The warm air feels SO good, and I can’t WAIT till Spring!!! ❤️
To keep myself from freezing to death (j/k) 😂 I sat down and designed this free printable Hello March coloring page just for you (and me!) 🎉
I wanted to capture that feeling of new beginnings, fresh starts, beautiful sunshine and flowers.
This welcome March coloring sheet is packed with kawaii springtime doodles—like smiling suns, happy little bees, and rain boots—because let’s face it, sometimes it DOES rain in March. 😊
Whether you are looking for March coloring pages for kids to keep them occupied while you quickly get some work done (I’m a single mom; I hear ya!), or you want a cute aesthetic coloring page for your own quiet time to gather your thoughts, listen to some Christian music or a sermon with or just enjoy some nice ME TIME, this design hits the spot. 🥰
You could even use this March coloring sheet as a March bullet journal cover page to set a positive tone for the month! Or a cover (color it or leave it black and white) for your Daily Planner. If you don’t already have one, I have a super cute rainbow Daily Planner here, that’s absolutely FREE right now. ❤️
It is all about letting go of the stress and embracing the FUN, the passion, the FIRE! 🔥 So go ahead and download your freebies, grab your favorite markers, and let’s welcome the new season together!
Grab these fun hello coloring sheets you’ll love too…
If you want even MORE freebies (I LOVE giving you guys my work; it’s so cool that the things I make you guys just go ga-ga for and absolutely LOVE because I really LOVE making them and it warms my heart so much that others love what I create too!!!! You guys make me so happy!🥹) you can grab over 5,500 free printables right here on the blog! I have even more (12,000+) in the shop too, so you’re definitely in the right place if you want a more peaceful (and CUTE!), streamlined life. ❤️
Cute Hello March Coloring Page Free Printable Doodle Art
In this March coloring page for kids and adults, you’ll see super cute doodles like…
Can we just be real for a second? By the time March rolls around, that “New Year, New Me” energy from January has usually worn off with people and that’s completely okay!
January is for planning and dreaming, but March? March is for LIVING. It’s when the world around us 🌎 actually starts to wake up. You see those little green buds popping up in the grass, the days get a little longer, and you can finally feel that heavy winter coat lifting off your shoulders.
If you’ve fallen off the wagon with your goals or just feel like you’ve been in survival mode for the last few months, let this be your permission slip to hit reset. You don’t need a new calendar year to start over; you just need a new morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Coloring this kawaii March coloring page printable isn’t just about staying inside the lines, it’s a quiet moment for you to breathe, center your heart, and remind yourself that just like the flowers outside, you are getting ready to bloom again. 🌹 So grab your favorite markers, pour a hot cup of tea or coffee, and let’s welcome this fresh season together.
What sets your printables apart?
• Other printables are either functional OR cute. I bridge the gap between the two. Since I’m a single mom and don’t have time to mess around and am a kid at heart, I love something that actually propels me forward and gets the job done quickly, while still having that super cute vibe I’m known for.
• I’m a graphic designer FIRST. This means my printables, whether free or paid for, will always be of the highest quality and print crisp and clear on any printer.
• I love what I do and I do the work myself. I’m not hiring these out. This is my life, my hobby, my passion, my heart.
Yes! Except for some large binders, all printables on the blog are 100% free for personal use. I make these because I genuinely want you to have something cute and helpful right now without having to spend a dime. You deserve a life that feels more peaceful, more organized, and more you, and if a simple printable can make your day feel lighter, I am so happy to give that to you.
Can I use these printables for my classroom or church group?
Absolutely! You’re welcome to print as many copies as you need for your own students or church groups. I only ask that you do not edit them in any way (leaving the full copyright line in tact) or sell them or host the digital files on other websites. Please always link back to this post to share with others.
What is the best way to print these high-quality printables?
For best results, I recommend printing on 8.5″x11″ white paper. These are professionally designed as high-resolution PDFs so they will stay crisp and clear, making them perfect for any printer.
You don’t need a four-figure Swiss movement to know what time it is—or look good doing it. One of the most wonderful things about “budget” watches today (although it’s kinder, or more appropriate, to say “affordable”) is that brands have learned to take design cues from luxury timepieces while quietly getting very good at the fundamentals: reliable movements, thoughtful materials, and proportions that don’t scream “cheap.” Take a look at the Orient in WIRED’s selection below as a prime example.
It could easily be argued that we’re in a golden age of affordable horology (see our full guide here for definitive proof), where, if you choose wisely, $350 or less can buy everything from a desirable dress watch, or a high-end collaboration, and even a supremely capable and classically chic diver. Pieces that will see you right from sunken wreck to boardroom table. And let’s not forget the retro allure of digital watches right now, either, with the Shark Classic not only being one of our favorites here, but at $70, it’s also the most affordable.
Moreover, should you decide to bag more than a few (and who could blame you at these prices?), we’ve even got the perfect carry case picked out: Nanuk’s IP67 waterproof and dustproof NK-7 resin $175 910 Watch Case (pictured above) with patented PowerClaw latching system—ideal for securing any timepiece collection, be it bargain or big budget.
Prophecy of Ashen: a dark fantasy tactical CRPG. Be a secret messenger between the Hall’s judgment and the Ashborne’s vengeance. Recruit allies, use terrain and magic in turn-based combat. Your choices reshape Rattalan: uphold order or ignite destruction.
In the Kingdom of Rattalan, the Sacred Flame is the supreme law. The Hall of Sacred Adjudication maintains the order of the divine authority with an iron fist, while the Crimson Flame Brotherhood plots extreme vengeance from the shadows. You serve the Hall of Sacred Adjudication as a courier who always delivers. A seemingly routine confidential delivery unexpectedly makes you the prey of the Crimson Flame Brotherhood. While evading pursuit and traversing war-torn lands, you will discover that the letter you carry is far heavier than life itself.
Fateful Choices
In this world filled with hostility and division, every choice you make will profoundly impact the kingdom’s fate and the story’s course. Rich role-playing mechanics put you face-to-face with critical decisions, shaping a unique adventure.
Faith Conflict
Delve into a kingdom deeply shaped by the “Three Sacred Flames” faith. Experience intense conflicts fueled by racial differences (especially concerning the Cinderkin) and religious divides. Learn the backgrounds of the Cinderkin and the Sacred Verdict Tribunal, making difficult choices caught between morality and faith.
Strategic Combat
Engage in tense, tactical turn-based battles. Utilize magic, weapons, and terrain advantages to devise strategies and defeat enemies. Facing Cinderkin uprisings, monster invasions, and enemy kingdom expansion, your tactical decisions will determine victory or defeat on the battlefield. Rainbow Gate
Diverse Progression
Freely develop your character! Choose skills, magic, and equipment paths. Collaborate with the Church to become a holy warrior, or independently seek the truth of the Cinderkin as a mystic mage. Simultaneously explore a vast and captivating world – every location (ruins, villages, war-torn cities) holds unique stories intricately interwoven with the kingdom’s past and your own future.
Features and System Requirements:
Action-based combat blending melee, magic, and skill chaining.
Stamina and mana management for tactical decision-making.
Dynamic enemy AI that adapts to player behavior.
Branching storyline driven by player choices.
Prophecy system where decisions alter future events and endings.
Morality and fate mechanics affecting alliances and world state.
Screenshots
SystemRequirements
Minimum
OS *: Windows 7/8/10/11 64bit
Processor: Intel i3 5050U or equivalent
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce GT 430 or equivalent
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 2 GB available space
Support the game developers by purchasing the game on Steam
InstallationGuide
TurnOff Your Antivirus Before Installing Any Game
1 :: Download Game 2 :: Extract Game 3 :: Launch The Game 4 :: Have Fun 🙂
