Toptal Blog

The Toptal Blog is the top hub for developers, designers, finance experts, executives, and entrepreneurs, featuring key technology updates, tutorials, freelancer resources, and management insights.

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Toptal core team members share their experience, expertise, and perspectives on the Toptal Edge Blog

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How to Build a Raspberry Pi Server for Development

The Raspberry Pi is a little computer that you can get for as low as USD $5 and on which you can run many different types of software and build many different projects. In this article, I’m going to guide you through the process of setting it up as a home development server and deploying a full-stack JavaScript application that you can access from outside your network. This is great for setting up your own remote digital workspace, or simply to have control over the hardware you use for development.

10 minute readContinue Reading
Pablo Villoslada Puigcerber

Pablo Villoslada Puigcerber

Pablo’s BSCE means he’s had top coding standards while crafting numerous front ends. He’s also a MongoDB Certified Dev and Toptal Mentor.

YouTube API Integration: Uploading Videos with Django

Uploading a video to YouTube seems like a simple enough task, but non-existent documentation and unmaintained libraries can make even the simplest of tasks seem daunting.

In this post, Toptal Freelance Django Developer Ivan Carmo da Rocha Neto guides you through how to post YouTube videos from your Django app.

9 minute readContinue Reading
Ivan Neto

Ivan Neto

Ivan is an engineer with eight years of experience in software and web development.

Visual Designers vs. Graphic Designers: Who Does What and Why (With Infographic)

Because graphic design and visual design both focus on aesthetics, the line between the two disciplines is often blurred, especially when referencing digital designs (includes infographic).

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Cameron Chapman

Cameron Chapman

Cameron comes from a design background and is the author of two web design books: Color for Web Design and The Smashing Idea Book.

Zeplin Sketch Plugin – The Workflow Bridge Between Design and Engineering

Creating a dynamic, organized, and collaborative workflow between design and development teams is essential to building great digital products. This tutorial outlines how Sketch, working in tandem with Zeplin, can facilitate this collaboration seamlessly.

6 minute readContinue Reading
Emily Dubow

Emily Dubow

Emily has seven years of experience working in UI/UX and visual design, leading projects for clients including Samsung and Thomson Reuters.

Business Plan Consultants: Who They Are and How They Create Value

Due in part to the unceremonial nature of its title, the value-creation potential of business plan consultants is often misunderstood and underappreciated. Questions such as, “What do they do that I can’t?”, “Why do they cost so much?” and, “Don’t you think we can handle this ourselves?”, all too often haunt their practice.

Having prolifically added value to 25+ clients across a range of industries, sizes, and mandates, Toptal Finance Expert, Josh Chapman, sheds light on the full scope of business plan consulting. What it is to be a great business plan consultant, how they create value, and what skills, attributes and experiences constitute the greats vs. the pretenders.

11 minute readContinue Reading
Josh Chapman

Josh Chapman

After covering tech IPOs on Wall Street, Josh brought this experience to the other side of the table and founded two companies of his own.

Unearthing ClojureScript for Front-end Development

ClojureScript and its multiparadigm approach (with an emphasis on functional programming) may sound esoteric to some front-end developers. But it’s amazing to work with, and getting started with it is far simpler than one might imagine. In this tutorial, Toptal Freelance Clojure Developer Luke Tomlin shows off some key features, getting straight into a React demo using Reagent and the Hiccup syntax.

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Luke Tomlin

Luke Tomlin

With a Master’s in CS and mathematics, Luke specializes in functional programming. A Google internship launched his powerhouse dev career.

Working Capital Optimization: Practical Tips From a Pro

A decidedly less sexy, albeit critical, part of a CFO’s job description is working capital management and optimization. There are countless examples of companies that are forced to incur unnecessary debt and other financial obligations to meet their short-term financing needs, when in fact ample cash is sitting idly stuck in working capital.

But working capital optimization is hard to get right and often requires significant cross-functional efforts to execute effectively. In this article, Toptal Finance Expert Emilio Labrador draws on 25 years of professional experience across multiple industries to outline some of his main suggestions and approaches on how to tackle working capital management projects.

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Emilio Labrador

Emilio Labrador

Emilio has 25 years of CFO experience in Europe and LatAm. An expert in M&A, he has executed two $300m+ acquisitions and a $400m+ disposal.

Tips for a Productive Design Critique

Design critiques are a key part of the product design process that encourage collaboration and improve ideas. This guide will help designers conduct productive, efficient critiques for actionable feedback.

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Alexandre Brito

Alexandre Brito

Alexandre is a UX designer and strategist with 10+ years of experience working for companies like Deutsche Bank, Philips, and Vodafone. 

How Technology Can Fix Student Assessments

In K-12 education, end-of-year student tests drive crucial decisions for teachers and policymakers. But these assessments are profoundly flawed ways of measuring student growth and achievement. This article explores the ways in which technology can improve such assessments, as well as the K-12 classroom experience as a whole.

7 minute readContinue Reading
Toptal Research

Toptal Research

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