Ask HN: where have all the designers gone?

Long story short, my cofounder had to leave for personal reasons. I'm going to carry on and do the business development as well as coding, but I find UX and design incredibly difficult. In fact, that's what's stopping me launching a beta. I've been contacting freelance designers but I'm getting quotes of around 3k which is beyond my budget. No joy with odesk or elance either - I can only find web designers with experience of brochure sites on there. I'm not looking for a "heavyweight" designer, just someone with a good eye for usability that knows html and css. Does anyone have suggestions about where else to look?