I wonder if the bias towards or against freelancers is dependent upon your geographic location...
Living in the SF Bay Area as someone who regularly bounces back and forth between freelancing and working full-time as a co-founder or lead tech of a startup, I didn't find any difference in attitude or reaction if I said "I'm working at a startup" vs. "I'm a full time freelancer."
LOL, in fact, the reaction tended to be either "oh yeah? me too!" or "oh yeah? so is my brother / sister / mother / daughter / father / son / dog / cat / etc."
Looking at the OP's footer, looks like he's in NYC... so I wonder if the bias there is a bit different?
Living in the SF Bay Area as someone who regularly bounces back and forth between freelancing and working full-time as a co-founder or lead tech of a startup, I didn't find any difference in attitude or reaction if I said "I'm working at a startup" vs. "I'm a full time freelancer."
LOL, in fact, the reaction tended to be either "oh yeah? me too!" or "oh yeah? so is my brother / sister / mother / daughter / father / son / dog / cat / etc."
Looking at the OP's footer, looks like he's in NYC... so I wonder if the bias there is a bit different?