{
  "id": 9892898,
  "title": "How to Get Machine Learning Clients With No Portfolio",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/26/how-to-get-machine-learning-clients-with-no-portfolio",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-26T02:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/mryadavgulshan/how-to-get-machine-learning-clients-with-no-portfolio-44hg"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The story of how I transitioned from having no machine learning clients to being a freelancer relying on ML work began with a pivotal client who asked to see my portfolio. Instead of showcasing my past work, I explained what I could build instead. This approach led to signing the first contract. Initially, I had no production machine learning experience or portfolio, but I built one in ninety days, starting from scratch. This playbook involves producing evidence that non-technical clients can verify in five minutes, rather than treating a portfolio as a formal artifact that must be perfect before starting. Step 1 involves building a proof project that solves a business problem. It should be a single deployed system with a target, metric, and story, showcasing the improvement in performance. The project should take no longer than four to six weeks to complete. The second step is to make the project open source and publicly inspectable. This creates a permanent record of your work, invites collaboration and questions, and enables people to find, comment on, and share your work, ultimately helping you connect with potential clients.",
  "summary": "The first client who ever asked to see my portfolio watched me open my laptop, stare at a folder of Kaggle notebooks, and close it again. I talked for forty minutes about what I could build instead of what I had built. He signed the contract anyway. That one had luck written all over it. The next one needed a method. Three years ago I had no production machine learning work anywhere on my record.…",
  "key_points": [
    "Begin with a proof project solving a business problem",
    "Deploy a single system with target, metric, and story",
    "Make project open source for permanent record and collaboration"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}