DEV Community: Gabri Cebria

I got tired of stalking competitors manually

Gabri Cebria — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 20:01:29 +0000

Last year, while running a niche membership site, I got obsessed with a question: what if you could know exactly what your competitors are doing online?

Their promotions, ads, activity... These things matter a lot... but as a small business, I didn't have time to track them manually.

Competitive research is boring and slow. Most companies check a competitor's site once every few months, take a few screenshots, and call it a day.

That's why I built Snoopstr. It's an AI agent that browses competitor websites like a human would, pulls out the important stuff, and gives you a full competitive breakdown in minutes.

I just open-sourced the thing.

What it does

You give it a business. Snoopstr figures out who the competitors are, then sends AI agents to go look at each one. Landing pages. Pricing. Instagram presence. Ad campaigns. The works.

Then It comes back with a dashboard where you can compare everyone's strategies side by side.

I've been running it on many industries to stress-test it.

The thing that keeps surprising me is how much you can learn just from what's publicly available. It's all out there, but nobody's looking at it systematically!

The stack (for us nerds)

Snoopstr uses browser automation (Browserbase + Stagehand) to actually navigate real websites. This isn't scraping HTML. The AI agent opens a browser, looks at the page, scrolls around, clicks things, and extracts what matters.

It's SvelteKit on the frontend, with multiple specialized agents running in parallel — one for landing pages, one for pricing, one for ads, one for Instagram.

The full code is on GitHub. Clone it, run it, break it, improve it.

One thing I learned
When you can extract everything from a competitor's site, the temptation is to show everything.

But business owners don't need 47 data points. They need to know: what's working for the other guy that I'm not doing?

That filter (going from raw data to actual insight) is where the real value is.

And honestly, it's where I think AI agents are heading in general. Not more data. It's all about that judgment, baby!

Why open source?

I'm on a mission to share actually useful AI that can save hours and make you $$.

Agents that help you make better decisions or save you time from doing repetitive tasks. That's the kind of stuff I'm into, and Snoopstr is my first swing at it.

And honestly, we're just scratching the surface. I have plans for automated monitoring, full funnel analysis, and a few things I'm not ready to talk about yet. I want to see where this can get.

Try it yourself

The repo is here: github.com/gabrilator/snoopstr

If you run it and find something interesting, I'd love to hear about it! Message me at hey@gabricebria.com.

Also, If this got you thinking about processes you'd love to automate, hit me up. I like those conversations!

What you can learn from the tennis GOATS as a freelancer

Gabri Cebria — Tue, 31 May 2022 17:49:22 +0000

Being a great freelance developer is a lot like being a tennis pro.

Don’t believe me? Let me explain!

In the 90s, most tennis pros had short and specialized carers.
You had Pete Sampras, who would win on grass. Kuerten would win on clay.

Drop Sampras on a clay court, and he would panic. Same for Kuerten on grass.

People almost considered different surfaces different sports!

Then the GOATS (greatests of all time) came.

Federer was a hard court and grass specialist, with the most all-around beautiful and polished tennis technique in history.
Nadal was a clay specialist with the best physique and mental strength of a tennis player in history and outstanding resilience.
Djokovic was like a mix of Federer and Nadal. Amazing technique, outstanding athleticism, extremely strong mentally. But at first, he was a bit weaker than them.

At first, they were all great, but still kind of limited. Like Sampras or Kuerten had been in the 90s.

They all had their limited styles and surface preferences when they started out.

That's how it was supposed to be at the time.

But the crazy thing is that, with time, they all got SO MUCH better.
Nadal improved his technique dramatically. Federer became incredibly resilient.
Djokovic became the most dominant player of the past decade.
They all learned from each other and became specialized generalists because they adopted a growth mindset.

But wait… what do these players have that the previous ones didn't? And what can you as a freelancer learn from the GOATS? 🤔

The number one thing that you can learn from these great athletes is...

Adopting a growth mindset

The serve is the most important stroke in tennis.
Nadal wasn’t born a good server. When he started out, his serve was mediocre at best.

But this didn’t stop him from working on improving it every day for years. And he became a pretty good server in the end!
He understood innate talent only gives you a head start. And that hard work trumps talent.

As a freelancer, you are a company of one, and companies have departments.

So you need to learn to wear many hats!

There are coding, marketing, copywriting, accounting, and sales departments.

Most of us are pretty good at coding but lag behind in one or two of the other departments.

For example, a couple of years ago I felt like my copywriting skills were subpar.

So, what did I do then?

I could ignore the problem (and suffer the consequences my whole life).
Or I could do what a tennis GOAT would do:
Find a mentor, take courses, and PRACTICE copywriting as much as possible to become a pretty good copywriter.

Which is exactly what I did!

And did I become a world-class copywriter? You bet I didn’t.

But I became good enough, and that landed me great gigs. 💸

The good news is, you don’t need to be world-class in every skill.

But you need to be good enough in each of them if you want to have great results!

That’s all you need to do to be a specialized generalist, and reap the rewards as a GOAT freelancer!

Now you, my friend!

It’s time to check the departments (coding, marketing, copywriting, accounting, sales) of your company, and assess where you shine, and where you have a big room for improvement!

Are you lagging behind at one or two of them? No big deal, if you are honest with yourself and work on it!

You choose to stay narrow, or to become a specialized generalist💪.

You don’t need to become world-class at every single skill. The combination of different skills is what will make you a top freelancer.

Try to be 1% better every day. It’s all about your mindset.

For more advice, hit me up on twitter. You can also join the list for more weekly freelancing tips.

Peace,
Gabri

The one change you need to make to escape the rat race

Gabri Cebria — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 16:58:42 +0000

🐄 The 9 to 5 was created for cows. Cows work slow, steady, and have “safe” jobs.

Most cows work in cages. Their job is not great (eating animal feed ain't the best), but they are content. It's all they know, and after all, it's not a hard life.

Other cows are luckier. They live comfy lives. They work in a green valley and eat grass daily. Some even think they own the valley.

Sadly, all cows share the same destiny. One day every cow gets butchered by the system. Because even the luckiest cow is still a cow.

Most of us start as cows, and that's okay.

I’ve been there too. As a kid, I did everything expected of me (go to college, get a well-paid job). Until one day I realized the cow role was slowly killing my soul.

I hated the lack of freedom of the 9 to 5.

Luckily, there was a way out.

If this resonates with you, bear with me. You don't have to keep that role. There's another beast in town.

Meet the Lion

🦁 The Lion sleeps, relaxes, observes, and when they see prey (a task), they attack.

🎯 The Lion knows focus is more important than how long they work.

🏖 The Lion isn't obsessed with productivity, because their job is input-output asymmetric.

🎲 Because they own their work, they have time to explore and play before the next hunt.

Most successful freelancers and business owners are lions, and the good news is you can turn into a Lion today. Here's how:

How to become a Lion

It's all about your mindset. The world is a giant playground, and you get to choose the role you play. Society puts you in a box. If you like it, that's great. If not, it’s your responsibility to get out and re-create yourself. I wrote about this here.

Remember, you are not defined by your skills or degrees. They are nothing more than tools in your toolbox.

You can turn into a lion even while you have a regular job. With the lion mentality, you will see new possibilities everywhere, and it will allow you to take the leap to owning yourself sooner.

You should know this. The savannah can be scary at first. You will have to hunt your own food. You might even get hungry at first. But it gets easier. Lions are powerful and command attention. Once you're known as the lion you are, you will have a reputation, and opportunities will come directly to you.

Beware. There will be forces (family, friends, “safe” jobs) trying to keep you constrained. Don't forget to listen to yourself. The greatest thing about the world today is you get to choose who you want to be.

It's a wrap

Thanks for reading! For more advice, hit me up on twitter.

I am preparing many more actionable freelancing tips on the keys you need to become a successful business owner. To get them directly in your inbox, you can join the list.

Peace,
Gabri

The ultimate tech stack for your portfolio project

Gabri Cebria — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 17:19:59 +0000

Is the one you already know.

That's it

I made this one short to emphasize the message. Now, time for you to to go out there and create amazing stuff!

If you found this insightful, you can join the newsletter or hit me up on twitter. I send weekly emails with top lessons to help you become a better and happier freelancer.

Peace!
Gabri

How to go from 0 to 100k as a freelancer

Gabri Cebria — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 16:35:11 +0000

Going from 0 to 100K as a freelancer sounds very challenging. Something only the best can do in less than a year. But let me tell you something.

Most successful freelancers have a ton in common, and having your first 100k year is possible once you understand what it is!

It all comes down to your mindset. I had to learn this from experience, so let me spare you the pain and help you out.
The only mindset shift you need is this: You are a company of one person, and everything you do affects your value in the market.

What do I mean and how can you apply this?

This means you should start acting like you are a company and stop thinking of yourself as an employee. A company has different departments, like R&D, PR, and you should take care of all of them.

It also means you should create your unique category of expertise. The market will reward you for it. You don’t have to follow the traditional rat race constraints. Remember, the best companies do very few things, but they do them extremely well.

This might sound abstract but stay with me. Let’s see how you can apply this in real life.

The keys to skyrocket your career

You can provide services to others, but you can’t be owned. You are unemployable.
No more thinking about job titles. They are designed to keep you in the rat race. You are unique, and you’re not defined by any title. “Senior”, “junior”, and other nonsense titles shouldn’t mean anything to you.
You are an expert in what you do. Redefine what you do until this is true (To learn more about this, check out naval)
Becoming world-class at something is possible if you combine your skills and interests. For example, I am a good programmer and chess lover (average player at best!). But I am amongst the top 1% chess connoisseurs who can create a chess app!
You are a creator. We live in an era of infinite leverage, where creators are rewarded disproportionally. In my case, as a developer and creator, I created chesskool, an app that teaches chess, and the market is rewarding me for it!
You value empathy and communication. As a company of one, your reputation is paramount. You should respect others and treat them with high integrity and professionalism.

When you apply this shift, you'll realize your worth is no longer defined by your hard skills, but rather by the unique combination of your skills, experience, creativity, and reputation.

Remember this

🗃 The education system puts you in a box. It’s designed to create factory workers and will lead you to the rat race. Stay away from that box. Embrace your uniqueness. Explore, play and create and you will be rewarded.

🐄 The 9 to 5 was created for cows. Cows work slow, steady, and “safe”, until one day you get butchered by the system. But you have a choice. You can choose to act like a cow or a lion 🦁! Lions relax, observe, and when they see a prey (a task), they attack!

🔥 There is only one you. What’s the unique combination of your skills, expertise, and curiosity? Don’t underestimate your worth.

✍ Trick: You are not an employee. See yourself as a company of one.

👌 Note: Trash that CV. Your worth is the unique combination of your expertise, personal experiences, reputation, and creativity.

What you can do now.

If you want to read more about the topic, pick up “Skip the line” by James Altucher, one of my favorites.

For more advice, hit me up on twitter. You can also join the list for more weekly freelancing tips. Big news coming up!

Peace,
Gabri

New to Freelancing? Trash that CV!

Gabri Cebria — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 17:42:37 +0000

One huge mistake I see new freelancers make all the time is focusing on building a perfect CV instead of building a creator capital.

As a freelancer, you want to differentiate yourself. To show you're an expert and that there's nothing to worry about when they are hiring your services. And the best way to do this is to have amazing creations on the internet.

Clients want EXPERTS. They want to know WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR THEM. They want peace of mind.

If you want a cushy entry-level job at a FANG, collecting skills and perfecting your CV might do the job (after competing with 1000s of other applicants). But, if you want an easier way to differentiate yourself, trash that CV.

Companies looking for consultants or freelancers don't want juniors. They want experts that have "been there, done that". Showing an impressive CV won't be enough to show you're the boss!!

But then, what can you do to get those first clients? You need your creator capital to prove to clients you're amazing and trustworthy!

CREATOR CAPITAL

Your creator capital measures the impact of your past projects. You can build your creator capital by building a portfolio of client work, or, if you're new to the freelancing game, by having your own projects (apps or cool sites).

With unique creations you can proudly show clients, you will automatically:

Be seen as an expert.
Prove you can start and finish a real-world project.
Position yourself as an owner and creator, capable to overcome obstacles that come up in every project.
Show you are a proactive fella!

So what you need to do is to build your own projects. But there's a catch!! Your project has to be amazing and potentially successful in the eyes of your client. Remember, you need high IOA (impact) Showing a To-Do app will NOT cut it. No Bueno.

The world doesn't need another TO-DO app!

So the question you need to ask yourself is...What's an app that only you can build? (Hint, what's the intersection of your skills and your interests?).

There is a way to create a cool project that can help the world AND help you as a freelancer. For that, you need to start thinking about your interests or things that you'd love to see in the world. Then, you need to go out there and do it! That's exactly what I did with thefreelancechoice and what I'm doing with chesskool, and that's allowed me to triple what I used to make working 9 to 5 in a matter of months.

Also, if you want to get a job at a startup you'll be able to skip the line by having your own projects. This is exactly what allowed Sahil Lavingia, creator of gumroad, to be one of the first employees at pinterest!

What you can do now

What's the intersection between your interests and skills? If you want to start freelancing or want to take on higher-quality clients, it's time to invest in yourself and build a real world project! If you want some advice, don't hesitate to reach me on twitter.

Thanks for reading! You can sign up to my weekly freelancing hacks and tips to become a successful freelancer on The Freelance Choice

Peace!

Gabri

How to find the right balance as a remote freelancer

Gabri Cebria — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 13:53:25 +0000

Hey folks! I recently talked with Gonzalo Nandez about how he found the right balance as a remote freelancer and wanted to share some of the beans he spilled!

Don't try to do everything yourself. An accounting manager is not an expense, it's an investment.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket. It may sound appealing to have a BIG client who will give you a good profit, but you will tie your business to a capital that can fall apart for a thousand reasons. Look for several small ones instead.
Create your work area and work alone. Make routines to start the day and to finish it. These are psychological anchors that will help you not to stay connected all day.
Be your own boss. Reward your successes and seek out punishments for procrastination. Comply. Discipline.
Understand your client. If they want speed, give them speed. If they want quality, give them quality. You can't do both!
Don't mess around and talk to the client (be honest), to other workers or freelancers. Learn. Never close your ears even if you don't agree. Look for one or two (more can become a distraction) communities that match your tasks and learn and help in that community.
Don't neglect the triple (Family, Friends, and Fitness!)
Disconnect your work phone after working hours. Unless you're a doctor or a fireman, the emergency can wait. Scheduling is vital.

You can check the full conversation at https://thefreelancechoice.com/casestudies/finding-balance-as-a-remote-freelancer

Happy coding!
Gabri

Create a portfolio that finds clients for you

Gabri Cebria — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 13:00:39 +0000

Hey, devs! I recently wrote an article on how to upgrade your site to attract more freelance clients, and wanted to share some of the main principles with you:

1) Adapt the copy to your clients

We might be technical people, but our copy should target our clients from a business viewpoint. Potential clients know that there's risk in hiring somebody, so help them! Instead of showing off your skills and talking about you, explain what you can do for them and their business.

2) Write case studies

Don't just list your projects. Help your prospects by writing about your work process and how your work impacted past clients.

If you want a good case study model to base yourself off, check out https://bejamas.io/blog/case-studies/. These guys do an outstanding job showcasing their work with a business perspective.

3) Focus on your local SEO strategy

Create pages that tackle the task + geographic location + type formula.

You can even target a wider audience by switching up the type (i.e. creating pages targetting freelancer AND agency searches).

4) Make your site fast and SEO friendly

You don't need a super-fancy website to get clients as a web developer. Still, visitors will leave your site if it takes more than 3-5 seconds to load. Also, having an SEO friendly website is the least we can do to show our potential leads that we can deliver excellent work.

If you don't want to spend too much time optimizing your portfolio, you can choose an excellent static site generator such as Gatsby.js or Gridsome, which will do the heavy lifting for you, and then make sure that you get a decent Lighthouse Audit score.

You can absolutely optimize your website to get more (and better) clients, but there's no need to get overwhelmed. Focus on these low-hanging fruits first, and then slowly keep tweaking it to make it a portfolio that attracts premium clients.

Full article, weekly interviews with top freelancers and many more resources for freelance devs: https://thefreelancechoice.com/casestudies

How to thrive as a freelance developer in 2020

Gabri Cebria — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 13:08:23 +0000

Hey, folk devs! I recently interviewed Matt Inglot, host of the Freelance Transformation Podcast, and wanted to share some of the tips he gave me on how to kill it as a freelance dev in 2020!

1- Leverage the learning resources available online, and connectivity tools such as Dropbox, Zoom, Calendly.
(These tools make it easier than ever before to succeed as a freelancer developer.)

2- Figure out the skills you have which are most likely to create value for your clients and define your ideal client.

You should do the exercise of relating your current skillset with the potential business value that it can create. Let's say you're into modern frontend frameworks such as Gatsby.JS. Gatsby sites are:

Light-speed fast => Lower bounce rates
Good SEO => Better organic outreach

From this added business value, you could then define an ideal client. In our example, the ideal client could be business owners with a sluggish WordPress site.

3- Connect and speak with as many business owners as possible (online and offline)

Time to connect! Ideally, these business owners should fit the ideal client you have already defined.

4- Use value-pricing rather than hourly rates.

Business owners usually feel safer talking in terms of the total project budget rather than your hourly rate. Value-pricing is :
a) More lucrative
b) More likely to be accepted by your client.

5- Focus on client relationships and apply the 80/20 principle to your client base.

Rather than focusing on showing off your skills, focus on the value you can add to your clients and being professional with them.

Also, choose high-value clients and make sure you run your work in a way that creates freedom for you rather than taking it away.

6- Don't cut corners. The tried and true way to start takes work and being consistent. At the same time, you don't need to get too fancy (logos, company names, fancy websites) to get started.

The full interview (with many more top insights): https://thefreelancechoice.com/casestudies/how-to-thrive-as-a-freelancer-in-2020-with-matt-inglot

Weekly interviews with top freelancers, and subscribing for updates: https://thefreelancechoice.com/casestudies

Thefreelancechoice.com - Top resources and community support for freelance developers. Feedback welcome!

Gabri Cebria — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 15:47:36 +0000

Hey everyone, case study here!

I built thefreelancechoice.com, a site for Freelance devs to take their careers to the next level with top resources and community support.

The site provides :

Interviews/articles with successful freelancers (let me know if you'd like to participate!)
A community-curated selection of podcasts and books for freelance devs.
A community forum for people to ask anything related to freelancing.

The stack is:

Next.js, Route APIs for the Frontend/Backend. Next 9 makes developing in React so easy, bringing frontend, backend together, and providing SSR.
Tailwind as a CSS framework. In my opinion, Tailwind is the best thing that has happened to CSS EVER.
Firestore for data/accounts. Pretty slick, though I'm considering a switch to Hasura.
Contentful for the interviews and articles.
Algolia for data search (cities). Easy to set up and outstanding performance.
illlustrations.co (YO, FREE top-quality illustrations!!)

Comments/suggestions? Let me know!