Toptal Blog
The Toptal Blog is the top hub for developers, designers, management consultants, executives, and entrepreneurs, featuring key technology updates, tutorials, freelancer resources, and management insights.
Featured in
World-class articles, delivered weekly.
The Future of Work: A View from Seattle
Major economic forces are shaping the Future of Work. Toptal sits down with executives from Seattle to hear their perspective on topics impacting companies across the US, including the talent gap and the looming threat of disruptive innovation.

Toptal Research
Toptal Research
For Founders Raising Capital: Thinking Through the Implications of Convertible Notes
Convertible notes have become an increasingly popular and common method for raising capital by startups, but how well do founders truly understand the implications of going down this route?
In this article, Toptal Management Consultant Jeffrey Briggs outlines the basics of convertible note structures, and runs through the pros and cons of using them to raise money for new entrepreneurial ventures.

Jeffrey Briggs
Jeff is an M&A and VC financing expert, having led three acquisitions and six VC investments at Seagate, a private investment group.
The Present and Future of AI in Design (With Infographic)
AI has become an over-hyped buzzword and the design world is no exception. Instead of resisting it, designers will soon be co-creating with AI. It will make them smarter. (Includes infographic)

Miklos Philips
Miklos is a UX designer, product design strategist, author, and speaker with more than 18 years of experience in the design field.
Creating a Cryptocurrency in the Crystal Programming Language
Crystal is an up and coming programming language that should appeal to Ruby veterans in demand for more performance and flexibility. It may even be the most promising programming language of 2018.
In this tutorial, Toptal Ruby Developer Eqbal Quran demonstrates how you can harness Crystal’s potential to create your own blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Eqbal Quran
Eqbal is a senior full-stack developer with more than a decade of experience working in web and mobile development.
A Deep Dive Into Reinforcement Learning
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are popular topics, vast domains with multiple paradigms to solve any given challenge.
In this article, Toptal Machine Learning Expert Adam Stelmaszczyk walks us through implementing deep Q-learning, a fundamental algorithm in the AI/ML world, with modern libraries such as TensorFlow, TensorBoard, Keras, and OpenAI Gym.

Adam Stelmaszczyk
A PhD candidate specializing in AI and one of Europe’s top tech entrepreneurs, Adam is a team player and active F/OSS contributor.
Icon Usability and Design Best Practices
The ultimate aim of icon design is to enhance the user experience. But what does that look like and how can UI designers ensure that the icons they make will be easily understood?

Micah Bowers
Micah helps businesses craft meaningful engagement through branding, illustration, and design.
Angular 5/ASP.NET Core: The Best of Both Worlds
Microsoft and Google have worked together since Angular 2, rendering ASP.NET Web Forms and MVC Razor obsolete. Nevertheless, while ASP.NET’s front-end tools may be lacking, it is still a great back-end framework.
In this article, Toptal Freelance Angular Developer Pablo Albella teaches us how to create the best architecture for both these worlds.

Pablo Albella
Pablo is a talented JavaScript and .NET developer. He successfully created numerous complex products over the past decade.
Real Estate Valuation Using Regression Analysis – A Tutorial
Traditional approaches to valuing real estate can lean towards the qualitative side, relying more on intuition over sound rationale. Linear regression analysis, however, can offer a robust model for using past transactions in an area, to provide better guidance on property valuations.

Daniel Barr, CFA, CAIA
Dan has deep expertise in all CFO functions, having led team of Controllers responsible for over $185 Bn of transactions at Credit Suisse.
Use Your Inspiration: A Guide to Mood Boards
Finding inspiration for design projects is one thing. Organizing it into a cohesive base for creating a design that wows clients and users is an entirely different beast. The solution? Mood boards.

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.
Most-read Articles

An Angular 5 Tutorial: Step by Step Guide to Your First Angular 5 App

Adobe XD vs. Sketch – Which UX Tool Is Right for You?

The History of Remote Work, 1560-Present (with Infographic) (Updated)
World-class articles, delivered weekly.
Toptal Developers
- Android Developers
- App Developers
- AWS Developers
- Azure Developers
- BigCommerce Developers
- Blockchain Developers
- Coders
- Database Developers
- Embedded Software Engineers
- Flutter Developers
- HTML5 Developers
- Java Developers
- Joomla Developers
- Kubernetes Developers
- Laravel Developers
- Magento Developers
- .NET Developers
- Next.js Developers
- Odoo Developers
- Outsourced Developers
- PHP Developers
- Power BI Developers
- Prototype Developers
- Python Developers
- React Developers
- React Native Developers
- Remote Developers
- Ruby on Rails Developers
- Salesforce Developers
- Security Engineers
- SharePoint Developers
- Shopify Developers
- Software Developers
- Squarespace Developers
- Startup Developers
- Svelte Developers
- Twilio Developers
- Vue.js Developers
- Web Developers
- Web Scrapers
- WooCommerce Developers
- WordPress Developers
- View More Freelance Developers
Toptal Designers
- Accessible Web Designers
- Adobe After Effects Designers
- Adobe Illustrator Experts
- CAD Designers
- Canva Designers
- Data Visualization Designers
- E-commerce UX Designers
- E-commerce Website Designers
- Fintech Designers
- Graphic Designers
- Illustrators
- Interactive Designers
- Landing Page Designers
- Logo Designers
- Mobile App Designers
- Mobile UX Designers
- Photoshop Experts
- Presentation Designers
- Product Designers
- Prototype Designers
- Responsive Web Designers
- Shopify Designers
- Startup Design Experts
- SVG Designers
- UI Designers
- UX Designers
- Visual Designers
- Web Designers
- Webflow Designers
- WooCommerce Designers
- View More Freelance Designers
Toptal Management Consultants
- 409A Valuation Consultants
- Bankruptcy Consultants
- Blockchain Consultants
- Business Consultants
- Business Plan Writers
- Cash Flow Consultants
- CFO Consultants
- Corporate Finance Consultants
- CPAs
- Crowdfunding Consultants
- Excel Experts
- Financial Consultants
- Financial Managers
- Financial Modelers
- Financial Planning Consultants
- Fintech Consultants
- FP&A Analysts
- Fractional CFOs
- Fractional COOs
- Fundraising Consultants
- Hedge Fund Consultants
- Interim CFOs
- Interim COOs
- Interim Financial Controllers
- M&A Consultants
- Market Research Analysts
- McKinsey Consultants
- Part-time CFOs
- Pitch Deck Consultants
- Pricing Consultants
- Private Equity Consultants
- Quantitative Analysts
- Salesforce Consultants
- Small Business Operations Consultants
- Startup Consultants
- Startup Funding Consultants
- Stock Market Experts
- Tax Professionals
- Virtual CFOs
- View More Freelance Consultants
Toptal Project Managers
- Agile Coaches
- Agile Consultants
- Agile Team Leads
- Blockchain Project Managers
- Business Delivery Managers
- Delivery Managers
- Digital Project Managers
- E-commerce Project Managers
- ITIL Certified Service Delivery Managers
- Jira Experts
- Mobile Project Managers
- Monday.com Experts
- PMP Project Managers
- Program Managers
- Project Management Consultants
- Scrum Coaches
- Scrum Masters
- Solutions Architects
- Startup Project Managers
- Waterfall Project Managers
- Web Project Managers
- Wrike Consultants
- View More Freelance Project Managers
Toptal Product Managers
- Agile Product Managers
- App Product Managers
- Artificial Intelligence Product Managers
- Business Analysts
- Contract Product Managers
- Data Product Managers
- Digital Product Managers
- E-commerce Product Managers
- Finance Product Managers
- Fractional CIOs
- Ideation Consultants
- Interim CPOs
- Outsourced Product Management Professionals
- Principal Product Managers
- Product Consultants
- Product Development Managers
- Product Leaders
- Product Management Consultants
- Remote Product Managers
- Robotics Product Managers
- Scrum Product Managers
- Scrum Product Owners
- Virtual Product Managers
- View More Freelance Product Managers
Toptal Marketing Experts
- Amazon SEO Experts
- Blog Writers
- Community Managers
- Content Managers
- Conversion Rate Optimization Experts
- Copy Editors
- Copywriters
- Customer Journey Mapping Consultants
- Digital Marketers
- Digital Media Specialists
- Display Ads Specialists
- E-commerce Consultants
- E-commerce Marketers
- Event Marketers
- Event Planners
- Fractional CMOs
- Google AdSense Experts
- Google Ads Experts
- Influencer Marketers
- Integrated Marketing Strategists
- Local SEO Experts
- Mailchimp Experts
- On-page SEO Experts
- PPC Experts
- Press Release Writers
- Salesforce Pardot Consultants
- SEO Audit Specialists
- SEO Copywriters
- SEO Experts
- Shopify SEO Experts
- Social Media Managers
- Social Media Marketers
- Video Editors
- Wordpress SEO Experts
- View More Freelance Marketers
Join the Toptal® community.











