CROWDSPRING – THIS IS HOW ROSS AND MIKE BUILT THE VIRTUAL PLATFORM FOR DESIGN SOLUTIONS

The design solution has become the fastest growing and the trendiest business ideas in today’s time. There are various sites, apps and even companies available for this. But it was not trendy back in the days. In 2007, Ross Kimbarovsky and Michael Samson founded CrowdSpring, a design solution company and it was officially launched in 2008. They noticed the problems with the design & graphics industry and how individual designers find it difficult to get clients. This was basically a waste of creativity and that’s why the idea of Crowdspring came into his mind. Also, small businesses always struggle to create their unique identities.

Crowdspring – A new perspective on creativity

Ross and Michael started CrowdSpring, a virtual platform to find the best design solutions with the motive of helping small businesses and start-ups to create their own identity by extending service of creating logos, designing the products and sites and naming their brands. Their motto was very clear that ‘creativity knows no border’ which means no matter how small or unconventional the business is, Crowdspring is ready to help with all the kinds of design solutions.

To protect the intellectual property of the companies they received while designing process, Crowdspring signs a legal contract. Another feature of Crowdspring is, they help non-profits NGOs with free design projects to enhance their visibility and empower them to help the unprivileged.

This is how Crowdspring works

If you have a design project and need sourcing from Crowdspring, you need to state a creative brief and your requirements. You get the options as per your budget. You get many options as the designers and freelancers submit their samples to you as per your specifications. The final choice is yours. At the end of the project, the best designer gets the agreed price and you get your designs. While doing this, both parties signed a legal contract. So that they can protect intellectual rights.

How Ross and Michael built Crowdspring together despite being from different backgrounds?

Ross and Mike came from totally different backgrounds. Ross is born in Kiev, Ukraine who initially studied law from the Illinois College of law from 1992-95 and then completed his political science and philosophy degree from Northwestern University from 1999 to 2002.

Currently, Ross Kimbarovsky is the CEO of the company. Before starting Crowdspring, he was a successful lawyer, but his evergreen dream was to start his own tech company. He observed that the market at that time was in dire need of good designs and that’s how Crowdspring emerged. After starting the Crowdspring, his desire to build different business models was still unfulfilled hence he started start-up foundry in 2014 where he helps different start-ups to grow.

Education

Mike came from a totally different field. He completed his MBA from North-western University – Kellogg school of management. With impressive Emmy Award nomination for producing and production management and holding a place with the Director’s Guild of America. He worked for 22 years at IMDb.

The Backstory of Foundation

Both, Mike and Ross were dealing with the same problem before starting the Crowdspring. Mike was finding a way to subcontract video post-production work to India because of India’s very fewer labor costs with the use of the same software as that of the US. Ross was having a problem with the procedure and money involved in getting his company’s website redesigned.

In the beginning, they engaged them in the research. They came across a bunch of Malaysian students who participated in print design competitions. They were impressed. Looking at this, Mike realized that the problem of Graphic design was substantial, and very few people were to solve this. Then they wanted to build something which gives the design solutions.

Bottom Line

The start wasn’t easy, and it was clear that companies with less revenue face problems with hiring a designer or staff to create logos and graphics which make their companies stand out. Now Crowdspring has almost 220000 creatives from around 195 countries. Overall, Crowdspring has helped more than 60000 entrepreneurs, start-ups and agencies with unique and affordable solutions. Not only this, but Crowdspring has given the opportunity and monetary rewards to many talented designers, printers, and freelancers.