Kicking Off AspireHire

Building a Proof of Concept and Teaching Developers How to Master Modern ASP.NET Core, Aspire, and Azure Development

Setting the Stage

Let’s be real for a second. The world does not need another side project that fizzles out after a GitHub repo and a half-finished README. What it does need is projects that actually push developers forward, projects that teach as they grow, and projects that solve a real problem.

That’s why I’m launching AspireHire. At the surface, AspireHire looks like another freelance platform. The twist is that this one is built for developers, by a developer, with the entire journey shared in public. AspireHire is a proof of concept that doubles as a teaching tool. Over the next series of posts, I am going to break down every architectural choice, every piece of code, and every pipeline step so you can learn exactly how to build modern, cloud-native applications with ASP.NET Core 9, .NET Aspire, and Azure.

Think of this as a mix between a product launch and a masterclass in distributed system design. By the end, you will not only understand what AspireHire is but also how to apply the same patterns in your own work.

Why Build Another Freelance Platform?

If you’ve ever used Upwork or Fiverr, you know how they work. Upwork focuses on long-term projects and proposals. Fiverr is all about fast gigs at fixed prices. Both serve their markets well, but they share one big flaw: they don’t let developers show off what makes them special.

On Upwork you can write a nice cover letter and maybe share a portfolio. On Fiverr you can list a gig with a fixed price. Neither really helps a client figure out who is a serious technical professional and who just knows how to fill out a profile.

AspireHire flips the script. Instead of treating developers like interchangeable parts, it highlights what makes each one unique. Profiles include real portfolios, skill tags, certifications, GitHub integrations, and even coding test results. Clients can finally see more than a name, a rating, and a price tag.

This niche focus matters. By building only for software and IT work, AspireHire avoids the trap of being too broad. Developers get tools designed for them, and clients get confidence that they are hiring skilled professionals.

And for me, this is not just a product idea. It is a chance to show developers how to build a system like this from the ground up.

From Idea to Proof of Concept

Here is the important thing to understand. AspireHire is not just about launching another app. This project is a playground for learning. It is where I get to show you how a professional architect thinks about requirements, system design, data modeling, microservices, observability, and DevOps pipelines.

Instead of just handing you a GitHub repo at the end, I am going to walk you through the entire build. You will see the mistakes, the fixes, and the tradeoffs. You will learn not just what works but why it works.

If you have ever wanted to level up from hobby projects and tutorials into building production-ready systems, this series is going to give you that push.

What the Series Will Cover

Let me give you a roadmap of what’s coming. Each post will dive into a piece of AspireHire, with real examples and code along the way.

From Requirements to Architecture
How to translate a vision into a technical blueprint. We will break down roles, workflows, and data models, then map them to services.
Setting Up .NET Aspire
Why Aspire is a game-changer for cloud-native apps and how to use it for service discovery, observability, and local orchestration.
Microservice by Microservice
Building Auth, Profile, Job, Proposal, Contract, Payment, and Messaging services with ASP.NET Core 9 and Clean Architecture.
Relational Data Models with EF Core
Designing tables and relationships that support complex workflows like proposals, contracts, and reviews.
Event-Driven Messaging
Using Azure Service Bus to decouple services and handle workflows like notifications and escrow payments.
CI/CD Pipelines with Azure DevOps
Containerizing everything, pushing to Azure Container Registry, and deploying to AKS with zero downtime.
Observability that Actually Works
Logs, metrics, and traces using .NET Aspire defaults, OpenTelemetry, and Application Insights.
Securing the Platform
Authentication with Azure AD B2C, protecting secrets with Key Vault, and designing for PCI and GDPR compliance.
Building a Developer-First UI
Creating a web experience that makes sense for technical users, from dark mode to GitHub integrations.
Scaling and Extending
Planning for AI-powered recommendations, advanced search, and premium features once the core platform is solid.

By the time we are done, you will have the skills and the code samples to build your own distributed system on Azure.

The Starting Blueprint

Every project starts with a mental picture of what it will look like in production. Here’s the high-level blueprint for AspireHire:

Platform: ASP.NET Core 9 with .NET Aspire
Deployment: Azure Kubernetes Service
Storage: Azure SQL for relational data, Blob Storage for files, Redis for caching
Messaging: Azure Service Bus for events
Observability: Application Insights with OpenTelemetry integration
CI/CD: Azure DevOps Pipelines pushing Docker images to Azure Container Registry

The core microservices include:

Auth Service for login and identity
Profile Service for detailed freelancer and client profiles
Job Service for creating and searching job postings
Proposal Service for bids and negotiations
Contract and Payment Service for escrow and transactions
Messaging Service for real-time communication tied to jobs

Each service owns its own data store and can scale independently in AKS. All of them get logging, tracing, and health checks out of the box with Aspire.

Why Use .NET Aspire?

If you have ever built microservices the old way, you know the pain. You spend hours wiring up logging, tracing, configuration, and health checks before you even start writing business logic. Local orchestration is a mess.

.NET Aspire fixes that. With one method call, AddServiceDefaults, you get logging, tracing, metrics, and health endpoints already wired. Service discovery and orchestration happen in the AppHost, so running your entire stack locally feels like magic.

When you combine Aspire with Azure’s managed services, you get speed and reliability. Developers spend less time on plumbing and more time building features. That is why AspireHire is the perfect project to showcase what Aspire brings to the table.

Building with Azure in Mind

This project is built on Azure from the start. Not bolted on later. Not a side thought. From day one the services run on AKS and integrate with managed Azure services.

AKS gives us container orchestration, scaling, and zero-downtime updates
Azure SQL Database handles relational storage with built-in HA and backups
Azure Blob Storage stores profile images, portfolio files, and message attachments
Azure Service Bus manages asynchronous communication between services
Application Insights collects telemetry and connects to Aspire’s OpenTelemetry pipeline
Key Vault protects secrets and connects seamlessly to services through managed identities

By designing cloud-first, we get to learn not just how to build apps but how to build apps that run reliably in the environments companies actually use.

Teaching Through Real Problems

One promise I want to make is this: I am not going to hide the rough edges. You will see the broken deployments. You will see the EF Core migrations that fail. You will see the pipeline steps that don’t work the first time.

Because that is how real projects go. The value is not in seeing a perfectly polished example. The value is in seeing how to troubleshoot and fix problems like a professional. That is how you level up as a developer.

What You Will Get Out of This

If you stick with this series, here is what you will walk away with:

Confidence to design and implement distributed systems on Azure
Hands-on examples of microservice patterns in ASP.NET Core 9
Real pipelines you can adapt for your own projects
A clear mental model of how to debug, monitor, and scale apps in production
A stronger resume, GitHub portfolio, or skill set for your next role or contract

This is not another “todo list in microservices.” This is the kind of project you can point to in an interview and say, “Yes, I know how to build that.”

Where We Go Next

This post is the kickoff. In the next one, we are going to dive into the architecture and requirements document in detail. I will show you how to take an idea like “freelance platform for developers” and turn it into concrete services, data models, and diagrams.

From there we will start building the services piece by piece. By the end, AspireHire will not only exist as a working app but also as a step-by-step guide to modern .NET cloud development.

Wrapping Up

AspireHire is both a product experiment and a learning journey. By focusing on developers as users, it solves a real gap in the freelance market. By building it out loud, it creates a chance for you to see exactly how modern cloud apps are designed and deployed.

If you have been waiting for a project that goes deeper than tutorials and takes you inside the head of an architect, this is it. The best way to learn is by building something real, and that is exactly what we are about to do together.

So grab your coffee, fire up your IDE, and get ready. This is going to be a fun ride.