Crowdsourced Workforces Rising

Crowdsourcing is a growing trend in the tech startup industry, and one that has the potential to address pressing needs in various markets. In particular, crowdsourcing of workforces is seeing tremendous uptick. At 1M/1M we’ve encountered several startups that are applying the model on different problem domains related to hiring and staffing.

1M/1M Profile: The TradeStreet

By guest author Punit Gupta Another Milestone: The TradeStreet Posts 10,000 Trades The TradeStreet, a social platform for traders, has been growing fast and attracting a lot of top-notch traders since its inception. Less than four weeks ago, the company released a press release announcing it had effected 5,000 trades. It is excited to report

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Outsourcing: Ian Ippolito, Founder and CEO of vWorker (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: That’s one of your differentiators, that you use crowdsourcing instead of the interview process, and then you let people hire based on the best crowdsourced project? Ian Ippolito: Yes. SM: What are the terms under which you work? It’s a commission on projects, yes?

Outsourcing: Ian Ippolito, Founder and CEO of vWorker (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: I think I’ve heard of Rent-A-Coder. Ian Ippolito: OK. That’s the way it started, and it was just programmers back then. The first month it probably made only $50 or $60, but it grew. Over the next couple of years, it started going faster and faster. We got some good publicity. We were

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Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What is the composition of your customers? You said you have 500 projects a month, right? Ignacio Galarraga: Yes, we handle 500 projects a month. SM: And over the course of the years, you’ve handled more than 5,000 projects? IG: We have done 15,000 projects.

Outsourcing: Ross Kimbarovsky, Co-Founder of CrowdSPRING (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: It’s not that simple. Video is a much more complex thing because producing a video is a lot more expensive and cumbersome than producing even a skeleton logo design. Ross Kimbarovsky: Precisely. There are a lot of factors involved. There’s the cost. There’s pricing. There is capability. There is our comfort level with

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Outsourcing: Ross Kimbarovsky, Co-Founder of CrowdSPRING (Part 6)

SM: Who do you consider as your direct competitors, who follow that exact model where people are actually submitting work before they get paid as opposed to be hired based on resumes and feedback? RK: In the graphic design space, our primary competitor is a company called 99Designs out of Australia. It has a similar

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Outsourcing: Ross Kimbarovsky, Co-Founder of CrowdSPRING (Part 5)

SM: The question I asked was a little different. I asked how many agencies are using CrowdSPRING for generating business? RK: Working on CrowdSPRING as creatives? SM: Yes.