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Live Coverage: DEMO Session V – Open Studios
Below is our live coverage of the Monday afternoon startup presentations at the DEMO conference in San Diego. Keep refreshing this page to view the newest coverage – we will note once the coverage has concluded. And check our main DEMO and TechCrunch50 conference section for our video event coverage as well.
Sim Ops Studios
– Immersive, casual games community online
– you can play, customize or create your own game from scratch
– scripting environment for developers
– there is an objects gallery to add more to the games
– you can invite friends to come in and help you edit the games collaboratively
– kind of a 3d world with a casual game maker
MeWorks
– making your web site unique
– designers are listed and then you can select a designer that you are interested in
– this isn’t new – it’s been done 100 times or more
– in fact, 99designs seems stronger
– has some basic project management system
– they offer a variety of modules – looks like you need to host it with them as well
– there’s a sitemap builder
– has a basic wysiwyg editor
– they say this reduces the cost of creating a site
crowdSpring
– "the creative marketplace"
– can post projects, watch the world contribute ideas and then select the one you like
– a community where you can tap into the global talent
– this also looks just like 99designs
– 6,000 creative people are participating (allen: getting supply is easy, the demand is the hard part)
– today they launched crowdSpring Pro – for agencies and businesses
– they bring up some agency creative director – HA is all I can say – was willing to give a client’s project to offshore work – I wonder if he gave the client a reduced rate for the cheap labor?
Thanks for the kind words Allen, we are very proud of 99designs and our spot as the #1 global marketplace for design. We are particularly proud of the fact that we keep having competitors use us for sourcing their page designs and logos. Some healthy competition is always good, and it really validates our position in the market.
Since Ross seemed keen to get the numbers out, in the past 100 days of business we’ve had 3,500+ contests from 2,700 contest holders. We have had 8000+ designers submit nearly 300,000 designs in that time! That’s a design every 30 seconds, and as you might notice it’s 5 times the competition (How’s that for choice?).
As for the feature comparison, 99designs has most of those features and we have had them for some time.
- Lachlan Donald
General Manager, 99designs.com
Hi Allen,
Thanks for writing about us. As you know – it’s really tough in a six minute presentation to provide a full overview of what crowdSPRING is doing. So, since you were kind enough to mention a few notes from our presentation, we wanted to share a few others – and in particular, to address your question of how we differ from 99designs. So, let me list a few of the things we do that they have never done and don’t currently. Here we go:
1. Escrow required in every project. We don’t post a project until we hold the funds in escrow. Designers tells us that they want assurance that they’ll be paid. We make no exceptions. That’s one reason why we have some of the best designers working online, working on crowdSPRING.
2. Customized legal agreements. We build dynamic, customized legal agreements for each transaction on crowdSPRING so that both buyer and creative are protected. These contracts take into account the location of the buyer and creative, so that the contracts will differ for everyone. My background: 13 years as an attorney representing companies around the world on intellectual property issues.
3. Full project management. Buyers are able to review entries, comment on them, score them, iterate and collaborate with creatives. The wrap-up for the project takes place on our site. We handle file transfer for example, including final deliverables. We require proofts from the winning creative before final deliverables are accepted.
4. We take care of payment. Since we hold the funds in escrow, we pay creatives. Anywhere in the world. And we pay 100% of the awards. Our commission (15%) is charged to buyers, not creatives.
5. Robust notification and communication system. We have a full PM system and granular notifications (set by users) that will notify buyers and creatives about activities in their pojects or projects they are watching.
As you know, we launched a new product at DEMO: crowdSPRING Pro. This is a unique product – nobody offers these features, and while Pro is available to all, we think that midsize companies and agencies are the most likely clients for the features we offer in Pro. A buyer posting a Pro project gets everything I mentioned above, PLUS:
1. Full privacy control for buyers. For their own projects, buyers decide what others see and when they see it. Projects are not indexed by search engines.
2. Required non-disclosure agreements. Just like the dynamic system of contracts we’ve offered since launch (above), we’ve built a dynamic system of non-disclosure agreements. We require users to agree to non-disclosure before they can participate in Pro projects – and we provide buyers with copies and control over whether users are permitted to participate.
3. Full user control for buyers. Buyers can decide which users can participate, can block users, and can change their mind at any time.
4. Within a few days, we’ll be rolling out integration to your contact lists on Gmail, Yahoo, MSN and Hotmail, letting you send invites to anyone on your contact lists with those services.
You are absolutely correct when you say that “getting supply is easy, the demand is the hard part.” So, let me share a few statistics from our first 100 days in business. 600+ buyers have posted nearly 700 projects. The buyers come from 30 countries (incidentally, we’ve had a number of projects with buyers from India and creatives from the United States). Our creatives come from 130+ countries. The largest percentage comes from the U.S.
As for Dennis Ryan (Chief Creative Officer from Element79) – his client, The Palazzo Resort in Las Vegas, was aware that the project was on crowdSPRING. In a 3 day period over the holiday weekend, Element79 received 394 entries to their project. That’s real choice. And here’s the logo that the client selected: http://tinyurl.com/5ju56w
And we’d welcome the opportunity to talk at DEMO. We’ll be in the pavilion (booth 35). Please stop by to say hello.
Best,
Ross Kimbarovsky
co-Founder
http://www.crowdspring.com
Interestingly, CrowdSPRING trusted the designers at 99designs.com when it came time for their own logo:
http://99designs.com/contests/321
The Anonymous poster is absolutely correct that we sourced our logo on 99designs. We did this BEFORE we started crowdSPRING and it was our experience with that project that motivated us to build something MUCH better. And we believe we did.
Incidentally, the talented designer who designed our logo is now working on crowdSPRING. :)
Best,
Ross Kimbarovsky
co-Founder
http://www.crowdspring.com