crowdSPRING is a website for graphic design, and it’s way different that the normal process. Designers compete for your business. You post a project, deposit how much you are willing to pay for the project, and then wait as the submissions start rolling in. If you don’t get at least 25 submissions for your project, you can walk away. But don’t worry, you’ll get more than 25.
I “discovered” crowdSPRING as a source for graphic design a little more than a month ago. This past week a client used the crowd-sourced website to design his logo and image. A case study of that experience will be the next post on The Marketing Spot. In preparation for the case study, crowdSPRING co-founder Ross Kimbarovsky answered some questions about the company. (Credit to Guy Kawasaki for the Q/A format)
Get to Know crowdSPRING
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- Question: How long has crowdSPRING been around?
Answer: We launched publicly on May 6, 2008 – so we are about 45 days young. Prior to that, we ran a private beta for about 125 users from March 6 to May 6, 2008. My business partner, Mike Samson, and I started working on the business in mid 2006. We spent a considerable amount of time in 2006 and the first part of 2007 interviewing creatives and SMB owners from around the world about their preferences for purchasing and selling creative services. - Question: For whom was the site built? Designers, businesses, agencies?
Answer: crowdSPRING was built for all three audiences.For buyers, it’s a place to post a creative project, watch the world contribute ideas, and choose the one they like. About 500,000 new businesses are started in the U.S., and millions around the world, every month. The vast number of these new businesses and many SMBs cannot afford expensive design work. In fact, “professional” designers told us unequivocally that they won’t work with start-ups and small businesses because start-ups and small businesses can’t afford their fees.For agencies, it’s a way to leverage a global pool of creative talent.And for creatives, it’s a global stage for their creativity where title and experience don’t matter. For every established creative professional who’s made it, there’s a groundswell of untapped creative talent around the world just looking for a way to express themselves and get noticed. Millions of people. This is who we built crowdSPRING for.
- Question: Who is using crowdSPRING?
Answer: Our buyers have come from many countries (70% from the U.S., 30% from overseas). We’ve started to see small advertising and marketing agencies from around the world post projects on crowdSPRING. By using crowdSPRING as their virtual design shop, those agencies could truly leverage the worldwide creative talent to service their own clients.In the 45 days since our launch, we have well over 2,750 users, from over 100 countries around the world. - Question: How many designers do you have registered so far?
Answer: Of the over 2,750 users that have registered during our first 45 days in business, 75% or more are designers. And many have participated in the crowdSPRING marketplace. We’ve had well over 650 designers already submit concepts to projects; some have submitted 100+, to 30+ projects each.In a little over one month of operation, we’ve already paid tens of thousands of dollars in awards to creatives – and we never charge creatives a dime; they receive 100% of the awards offered by buyers (we charge buyers a 15% commission on top of the award(s) given to creatives). - Question: How many design projects have been created so far?
Answer: Including the 25 projects that were run in beta, we’ve had 225 projects so far (so, 200 in the past 45 days). - Question: What is the greatest advantage of using crowdSPRING for small businesses?
Answer: Choice. It’s far better to ask 100 people for ideas than just one.Businesses and nonprofits with small budgets have two practical options for creative services – go to a site like TaskMarket and Elance, where they have no real choice or leverage crowdSPRING’s unique model – which gives them a level playing field to compete against established businesses. A recent logo project, where the buyer offered two awards ($250 and $200) generated 198 entries. A recent uncoded site design project for a homepage where the buyer offered $1500 generated over 60 entries. That’s REAL choice.And we unconditionally guarantee this – in writing. If a buyer does not receive at least 25 entries to their project, we’ll refund their money (and our commission). No questions asked. - Question: Anything else you want to share?
Answer: Just as iStockphoto helped bring about a change in the industry, crowdSPRING has an opportunity to do the same. iStockphoto opened the door to millions upon millions of people who previously had no way to get noticed in the creative community. We think there is a huge opportunity beyond stock photography to radically change the way creative services are bought and sold.And to extend our offerings even further, we are working to very soon add more complex projects (audio, video, copywriting, animation, etc.) and private projects – many companies, including some rather large ones – have asked us to add this capability. When experience, resumes, qualifications, and fancy offices are taken out of the equation, and the focus is solely on the work itself – as it is on crowdSPRING – a janitor and a student can beat out established graphic design professionals (our logo was designed by a janitor from Canada – we paid $200; our site by a graphic design student from the Netherlands, in a project that received 337 entries, from 80 designers – we paid $5000). It’s a win-win for creatives and for businesses.
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Ross Kimbarovsky is co-founder of crowdSPRING. He lives in Chicago.You can follow him, and contact him, through his Twitter Page.http://www.crowdspring.com/ |
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