SLOPED - A new place for SketchUp and LayOut businesses and freelancers to connect

Commercial and Collaborative Work
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Hi All,

We’re starting this thread to create more awareness, as well as a line of communication regarding a new company that has been started called SLOPED.

Its main objective is to vet, test and certify SketchUp users, as well as connect them with companies who are in need of people with that level of skill and do not know where to find them on a consistent basis for their projects.

We have a variety of exams in different industries (architecture, interior design and cabinet design and we are currently working on set design and landscape architecture), and the exams themselves are a practical 3-hour event, which is conducted via Zoom and proctored by one of the founders or a vetted and qualified Sloped member.

The founders are a freelancer (Keith) and two small business owners (Kendall and Joanne), in the fields of cabinet design, architecture and interior design respectively. We have come together out of the need for this very service. It is in part self-serving and entrepreneurial!

If anyone has any questions about how it works, this is a good place to ask. Fire away!

You can also take a look on our website at www.sloped.io

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I googled Sloped and got a lot of definitions and images of slopes but nothing about your company. Do you have a URL? Where do we find information on your company?

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@mballes www.sloped.io is the address

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Well that’s a great first question!! The URL is www.sloped.io

We also have an instagram page here Sloped Instagram Link

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i have checked about the site and how it works… but i don’t know if the best way to start is by paying to get a membership.

that will hold up a lot of people and it will be a first that i have to pay so i can work.

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Hi Bassel, I’m glad you’ve addressed the membership fee.

One of our core values when creating SLOPED was to avoid the ‘race to the bottom’ model that can be seen with websites like Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Toptal or others where free membership and signup is offered. Our aim is to be more exclusive and for serious professionals only, and a membership fee increases the likelihood of that, as we have observed through our own personal and professional endeavors. We accept that this means that we will not have the same volume of memberships as the aforementioned websites, but that is in fact one of our aims.

We have made mention on the website that for some, this cost may be prohibitively expensive, and if you are one of those people, we would be happy to discuss alternative options.

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I see that you actually signed up for Sloped a while ago.

We have been offering free memberships and entry tests to the first five people that signed up as an independent professional. I think we might still have one slot open there. After that we are offering memberships and tests at 50% off the regular price. Currently that is $175.

Might be worth it to get in early.

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Thanks, took a look at the site and it is intriguing. I took the preliminary exam but did not get a result. how long does it take for the results to be tabulated?

Thanks

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You must scroll to the top and then do the Captcha thing.

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It is set to send you a response immediately, but if you didn’t see it, I will send you a private message with your score.

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Thanks

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ok i will take a look on it

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Sloped is starting to experience some growth.

As a result we are looking for IP’s (independent professionals) with Sketchup and Layout skillsets in the commercial and residential millwork, cabinetry, display and furniture fields. If you have assembly and construction backgrounds in these fields and also are accomplished with Sketchup and Layout to produce design and engineering drawings for production purposes we would love to talk with you.

Please visit this page on our website and take our entry quiz. Preliminary Quiz — SLOPED

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I consider join Sloped membership,
My question is -
Say I pass the quiz, and pay for membership -
will I have any commitment for getting work from you?
Because if I decide to pay the amount of money that you ask,
and it is not cheap…
I suppose to get work.
Is there any commitment, or I just pay, and may be not getting any work?
Thanks
Rachel

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Hi Rachel, good question.

For those who have passed the quiz, it is very rare for them to not pass the exam (and the exam has to be paid for).

As for the membership fee, we have two options that help people in a situation where they are experiencing the same hesitancy as you.

The first option is that you pay $218 for membership up front.

The second is that you pay $249 out of your first ‘paycheck’ from your first contract with Sloped. The second option means that you do not risk losing any money should you not get any work from us. So far, that has not happened with any of our members and most jobs are valued at much more than the membership fee.

The quiz is tough, so take a stab at that when you get a chance!

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Thank you very much

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  • Is there additional payments for the second and next contracts with Sloped?
  • For how long the membership payment? Is it Yearly or lifetime?
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Hi Rachel,

There are no additional payments for anything after the membership fee, and the fee itself is good for a lifetime. We make our revenue by keeping 15% percent of every contract fee.

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I have registered more then 1 month ago, to level 1 option of Sloped, 6$ monthly charged.
My thought was to try first this option to see if it works,
before paying for the exam and big membership, which actually was my final purpose.
Unfortunately, Until today I didn’t get any response or anything which is supposed to be provided with this level 1 membership, Yet charged for the membership…
First - I am very disappointed.
Second - I am afraid to go on to the exam and big membership…
Who promise me that I will get anything except from being charged?
I am sorry for this post, but I am really disappointed…
I was hoping to find a useful way of being part of professional high level group, but now I am not sure about it anymore.
Has anybody here became a member of Sloped, and has good experience, and can recommend it?
Thanks
Rachel

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Hi Rachel, we are sorry to see your message.

Before getting into the finer grain details, we want to start by asking - What are your intentions with SketchUp and ultimately with Sloped?

Sloped is a community of professional freelancers, where we connect them with businesses on a project-to-project basis. The way we vet these freelancers is first by having them take the free online quiz to see if they qualify for the exam. The exam is not free, so we offer people the courtesy of not spending their money unless their chances of succeeding are very high.

In your case, you did not take the quiz, so you do not qualify for the exam. Let’s say for example that you took the quiz and you did not pass. If your goal is to ultimately take the exam (which you have mentioned several times, so we assume that it is), then your short-term goal should be to pass the quiz. The membership we offer is meant to help with that, and the best resources available to you are the quiz answer videos (which the membership offers a $12 discount on, which is twice the amount of your $6 membership cost).

The second best resource is a one-on-one consultation with us, where we review the quiz answers together and give you personalized advice and instruction. The membership offers a $15-$30 discount on that, depending on which session you choose. To compensate for our automation issues on the YouTube Live session and Facebook group, we offered you a session for free (valued at $100, 16.6x your $6 membership cost).

Altogether, there was over $112 dollars of value offered to you for a $6 membership.

It’s possible that you joined the group solely for the Facebook Group and YoutTube lives, however it’s not reasonable to expect to pass a quiz you’ve never taken with just those resources alone. Which leads us to be confused by your intentions with SketchUp/Sloped.

In the meantime, we’ve refunded your membership fee and hope that this clarifies the Sloped process and how you can better avail from the membership in the future.

Our business model is based on finding existing SketchUp talent, and helping cultivate budding talent. For that reason, we have made the membership fees very low. As a new business, we hope that for the good of the SketchUp community, members will understand from time to time when technical difficulties arise, and take advantage of the overly compensative benefits we offer in their place.

-Joanne Swisterski

1 Like