We're delighted to share this awesome milestone with you, cue drum roll... DesignCrowd just hit $10M in crowdsourced design projects! We couldn't have done this with out you! Thank you DesignCrowd customers and designers helping us achieve this fantastic milestone.
DesignCrowd's founder and CEO, Alec Lynch:
I would like to say "thank you" to all our designers and customers (including you) who have made this possible!
We are excited about taking DesignCrowd and crowdsourcing to every corner of the world to discover the best designers, designs and ideas the world has to offer.
We hope you've enjoyed DesignCrowd as much as we've enjoyed building and growing it and I hope you continue to use our service going forward!
From Garage Startup to $10,000,000 in 5 years
Did you know DesignCrowd started 'out of a garage' in Sydney Australia? (Well our founder's family kitchen to be precise).
In 2007, DesignCrowd's founder Alec Lynch quit his job as a management consultant, moved back home (to live with his mum) and begin working full-time on DesignCrowd. Alec started DesignCrowd with a laptop, 3 credit cards and a belief that a good design or idea can come from anywhere in the world. He bootstrapped the business for 2 years, maxing out his credit cards and taking loans from friends and family. In 2009, the business received $300,000 investment from four Australian angel investors and Adam Arbolino (a friend from university) joined DesignCrowd as DesignCrowd's CTO and, together, Alec and Adam grew the business 14X in two years! In 2011, DesignCrowd received $3M of venture capital investment from Starfish Ventures and the business has expanded globally from there!
Today, DesignCrowd has ...
#1. 132,000 designers in 150 countries
Crowdsourcing is going gangbusters - we reached 100,000 designers on DesignCrowd early in 2013. We've kept growing in the face of global economic uncertainty, more designers are finding more jobs on DesignCrowd. At last count there were over 800 open projects, worth $250,000 in prize money!
#2. $10,000,000 in Crowdsourced Design Projects
DesignCrowd designers from Mumbai to Melbourne to Sao Paulo and San Francisco have been paid $10,00,000 in design earnings and over $1,000,000 in participation payments! Our model is lucractive for designers, with our top-ranksed designer, PB, surpassing $300,000 in earnings earlier this year.
#3. Big Brands (like including HTC, Microsoft & Virgin) Crowdsourcing on DesignCrowd
Big brands are tapping into DesignCrowd's global design community of over 130,000 designers to give their brands an edge. Showtime, Amnesty and Harvard have all used our service in the past year.
#4. Twenty Staff Across Four Countries
We couldn't have grown so fast - 120% in the past 6 months - without our amazing team working hard behind the scenes.
Thank you Alec, Chris, Adam, Josephine, Lucas, Stephen, Danielle, Nathan, Emily, Fletcher, Amy, Dave, Yohan, Eva, Cherished, Guillermo, Pedro, Joanne, Stephanie and the DC alumni - Ricardo, Ivan, Josh, Todd and Tyler.
#5. Launched in USA, Canada, New Zealand, UK, Singapore, Philippines, India
In the past 18 months we've launched 8 local crowdsourcing services, including a feature that lets customers crowdsource from designers in their home country only; we've introduced international currencies and more ways to pay for design and get paid if you're a designer.
#6. Launched BrandCrowd.com, a Marketplace for Ready-Made Logos
BrandCrowd.com, is a template logo marketplace for ready-made logos. DesignCrowd designers can monetise unused logos on BrandCrowd, a double-win for designers!
Thank You, Yes You!
From entrepreneurs and small busineses to big brands and t-shirt design crowdsourcing Prime Ministers, the world is embracing the DesignCrowd difference. Thank you to our designers and customers for your continued support!
Written by Jo Sabin on Friday, August 2, 2013
Jo Sabin is Head of Designer Community at DesignCrowd. She's led the company's public relations and social media programs since 2012. With more than ten years' experience working with Australian and international tech startups in the creative industries, Jo has been instrumental in meeting DesignCrowd's objectives in Australia and abroad. Get in touch via Twitter.
