Syd wears a lot of hats, because your business does too.
Positioning, pipeline, pricing, admin, finance. The parts of your business that are easy to forget. Syd handles them, so you stay on the craft.
Syd doesn't hand you a 40-field form. You talk, he listens, and by the end of the first session he knows enough about your business to be useful.
Drop in your LinkedIn, your portfolio, the line you go to market with, and the last few projects and what you charged. The messier the better.
Syd maps your business across six areas (positioning, pipeline, pricing, admin, systems, growth) and flags where the leaks are. A real diagnosis.
A short read on what's actually holding the year back, plus a task list you can start on this week. Concrete moves with prices, dates, and decisions.
Syd suggests ways to grow: hands-on exercises, prompts, and nudges that sharpen your business week after week. Always a next move, never a blank page.
Get in at the start, help shape what we build, and join a network of freelancers doing the same.
Join the founding networkThis is where Syd is headed: across the six areas every freelancer has to handle, all in one place, built out one step at a time.
Sharpen the line you go to market with. What you sell, who you sell it to, why you. The clearer the line, the easier the rest gets.
Build a pipeline that doesn't disappear the week a big project lands. Better leads, an outreach flow that doesn't feel like a second job, and a network worth being plugged into.
Set rates you can say out loud. Hold them when it counts. Syd helps you price like a business, not a side gig.
Invoices, contracts, chasing, tax, all built to run quietly in the background while you do the work. The boring stuff, off your plate.
Stop reinventing the wheel every project. Repeatable systems to help grow your business and career.
Year one matters. Year five matters more. Syd watches the long game with you: what to learn next, where to invest, when to raise.
For ten years I freelanced on the side, never quite finding the nerve to go all in. The work was never the problem. It was everything around it: pricing, pipeline, admin, and the fear of being brilliant at the craft but inefficient at the business. SYDHSTL is the tool I wish I'd had.
And there's a bigger why: I don't believe the future of work is one job, one desk, Monday to Friday. I think it's two days on this, three on that, a fortnight off when you want it. Freelancing makes that life possible. The business side is what gets in the way.
I want to build a network that helps that become real.
Let me be straight with you: right now, Syd is more idea than product. I'm building the first version, but most of what you've read here is where I want to take it, not what it does today. I'm showing it to you before it's finished on purpose: if enough freelancers say ‘yes, I want this,’ I'll build the rest. If they don't, better to know now. So this isn't a launch. It's an invitation to follow along and shape what gets built. Founding members get first access, a real say in what we ship, and a direct line to me while we figure it out. I've spent ten years too nervous to back myself. This is me doing it. If the future of work you want looks anything like mine, get on the list and let's build it together.
Barney, Founder, SYDHSTL
Right now, joining the founding list is free. When Syd opens up, founding members get first access and a real say in what we build.
Honestly, that depends on you. If enough freelancers put their name down, I build it, and founding members are the first to try it.
Yes. We only ask for your email, we never sell or share it, and you can leave any time. Full details on our privacy page.
Freelancers and solo operators who are great at the craft but want the business side handled: positioning, pricing, pipeline, admin, growth.
We're building the freelancer's unfair advantage.
No spam. Honest updates. We'll only email when there's something real to say.
