The Best Dumbest Idea
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Ever had an idea and thought “there’s no way that would ever work”? Well, here’s a company that has set up shop with one of those “it will never work” ideas and seems to be doing OK. CrowdSpring is a design market place that allows buyers to offer a bounty and have multiple suppliers provide creatives for the buyer to select from. In other words, need a logo? Well get at least 25 made and pick the best one!
That’s crazy right?
At first glance it appears so. But if you consider the value of $100 to a fledgling Chinese arts student, or an Indian design company just starting up, then I guess you may see how the economics may work.
But wait, there’s a catch.
CrowdSpring guarantee at least 25 creatives to select from, or they will pay for your project! That’s a great guarantee, but it raises issues. Want a free creative? Browse through the current market place and find the sweet spot where buyers offer such little money that only a handful of people actually submit any work. Presto! Free design services paid for by CrowdSpring.
OK, not quite. I registered and tried to post a project and guess what? A minimum buyer price. A logo in this case would set me back at least $150. You could pick up a decent logo with unlimited revisions on Elance for $50.
With that said, the going rate for 25 website designs is $250, and there is a project sitting at 0 bids for $300 after 13 days, and another project awarded at $350 with only 6 creatives. So I guess you could pickup a free web site design for $350 ?
Unlike my first impression, you won’t get the services “cheap” because you’re forced to pay the going rate for 25 suppliers prepared to gamble on their work. But you will receive 25 creatives at a really good price. So for buyers, I think the value is in higher end work, the sort of thing where quality through options is valued more highly than work that is simply “good enough”.
Personally, I think there may be scope to start a business around a similar idea with website design. The reason being that web designs are more easily adapted to custom needs, so sellers would have a channel to sell unique one off designs, without having to design something new for every single project they bid on.
Best of luck to these guys. I’m behind anyone prepared to take a chance on a business.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Hey Alex,
Greetings from the U.S. and thanks very much for the best wishes.
We started crowdSPRING believing that the internet revolution had not really changed the creative industries. Sure, places like Elance allowed one to post projects and people worldwide to submit proposals. But this was a modest evolution, not really a revolution. Threadless and iStockphoto have shown that it is possible to radically change how certain creative services are bought and sold. But there is a HUGE gap - most of the “creative” field is unserved or underserved. Having bought creative services on Elance - we were left unimpressed and disappointed. Can you get a logo on Elance for $50? Sure. Is it a good one? Perhaps.
But you don’t have choice. At all.
crowdSPRING is about choice. It is about creativity. And most of all, it is about a level playing field for all. It’s real work, for real people, with real clients. And real money. You might have mistakenly seen the 13 days and assumed that’s how long the project had been posted - the information was about days left. Our website design projects have received 60+ entries. The one that closed today received 61 ($750 fee).
Are we taking a chance? Of course. Changing the way creative services are bought and sold - and have been for thousands of years - is not a walk in the park. Are we serious about it? You bet!
Best,
Ross