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The Starters provides freelance marketing, creative, and technology talent for e-commerce businesses.
The Starters is a vetted freelance marketplace for dtc and ecommerce brands hiring paid media, email, design, copy, and ops talent. Contracts, invoicing, and payments run on-platform, so you skip recruiter fees and agency markups. Useful for Shopify brands replacing agency retainers or filling FTE roles without paying a recruiter.
What The Starters does for Shopify brands
- Skip recruiter commissions of 20-30% of first-year salary on every hire
- Shift agency project work (paid media, email, design, copy) to vetted freelancers at lower rates
- On-platform contracts, invoicing & payments replace manual admin across multiple freelancers
Overview
The Starters is a membership platform where e-commerce brands find and hire vetted experts, agencies and operators. Brands use it to book consulting calls, or to hire fractional or project-based help across marketing, creative, retention, operations and technology, including Shopify and web development.
For Shopify brands
- Browse a Shopify & Web Development category of experts and agencies listed on the platform.
- Book consulting calls with e-commerce operators without hiring anyone first.
- Send a request describing what you need and receive custom expert matches from The Starters team.
How it works
A brand signs up and searches the platform by function, such as paid media, product strategy or Shopify and web development. It can book a consulting call, or choose an ongoing fractional or project-based engagement. If a brand submits a request describing what it needs, the team responds within 1 business day with custom matches.
- Built for
- Direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands that need part-time, consulting or project-based expertise rather than a full-time hire.
- Pricing
- A free plan and a paid plan are offered. The annual membership costs $3,540. Membership can be paused for up to 3 months or cancelled.
Products
- Membership Paid plan giving brands access to the platform, saved favorites, messages and expert profiles.
- Consult One-on-one calls with e-commerce operators, included in the membership.
- Talent Experts and agencies to hire for ongoing fractional or project-based work.
- Membership Intelligence Learning content including sessions, events, podcasts, playbooks, webinars and interviews.
Buyer notes
- Consulting calls are unlimited with no booking fees and no contracts.
- Membership cannot be paused or cancelled while a project or call is pending or active.
- Working with a Starter outside the platform breaches the Terms of Use and can trigger a $3,540 charge.
- Custom match requests get a team response within 1 business day.
From The Starters's own site and Shopify App Store listings, as of 2026-10-30.
How much does The Starters cost?
A free plan and a paid plan are offered. The annual membership costs $3,540. Membership can be paused for up to 3 months or cancelled.