Comment by robgough

I've been picking up bits of fractional CTO work over the last year or so and getting more involved with other founders... and I'm seeing plenty of people using it (and the other systems like it). They're just not generally people from a software engineering background, as you'd probably expect. So it's not a massive surprise that you're not crossing paths with them.

Generally it's entrepreneurial types who would have gone to an agency to get something built, or would have wanted to go to an agency but couldn't afford the costs involved. These platforms are far cheaper and quicker, and if we're really honest not necessarily worse quality than what they would have gotten from the vast majority of those agencies, especially the cheaper ones.

This is not a comment on whether this is a good thing or not, and I have all sorts of concerns, but it's undeniably something I'm seeing, and the nearshore/offshore agencies are certainly starting to feel the impact.