Free Company

What the Company carries

Leadership, negotiating, business development. Deal flow you wouldn't see alone, and a shark in the room when terms are set.
Strategy / business consulting. Clear strategies unlock more development opportunity.
A team to call on. Take work no single freelancer could — pull in others and ship something bigger.
Standing. The credibility of a firm behind your work, not a lone contractor.
Contracts, billing, collections. Handled — so you bill and get paid without chasing it.

What it costs — the holdback

You sourced the client

15%

A relationship you brought in. Flat rate, with the full weight of the Company behind the work.

The Company sourced it

25% → 20% → 15%

Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3+. Decays toward the floor — the sale ages, the support doesn't.

You referred a relationship

½ of the cut

Bring in work someone else delivers and you earn half the Company's share on it. The doer pays nothing extra.

The rule is simple: the more you bring, the more you keep.

How the math lands

Engineer A brings in Client A — it's a big job, so engineer B, designer C, and PM D join. First year, each billing $25k for the month.

ASourced it

Self-sourced, on their own work → 15% held back.

Takes home $21,250 + $9,375 referrer share = $30,625

BOn the team

Engineer, work came through the Company → 25% held back ($6,250). Of that, $3,125 to FC, $3,125 to A.

Takes home $18,750

COn the team

Designer, work came through the Company → 25% held back ($6,250), split $3,125 / $3,125.

Takes home $18,750

DOn the team

PM, work came through the Company → 25% held back ($6,250), split $3,125 / $3,125.

Takes home $18,750

The $100k month, settled

Engineer A — own work + referrer share on B, C & D$30,625

Engineer B$18,750

Designer C$18,750

PM D$18,750

Free Company retains$13,125

Note that B, C, and D pay the same 25% they'd pay on any work handed to them — referred work carries no penalty, so there's every reason to pull teammates in rather than turn overflow away. That is the whole point of a company.

The same work, two places

What $25k of your billing becomes

A typical agency

~$12,500

A 50% gross margin means half of what you bill never reaches you.

Free Company

$18,750–$21,250team rate → self-sourced

Even work handed to you clears your old take. Your own clients clear it by far.