99designs spins SitePoint's design contest habit out into its own product
SitePoint users were already running informal design contests with cash prizes, so the founders moved that activity to a new site called 99designs. They chose a separate brand to spread by word of mouth and reach more small-business owners. The marketplace launched in 2008. In a later founder interview it reported $15 million in annual revenue and had hosted contests for clients such as SXSW and Esquire.
- Company
- 99designs
- Year
- 2008
- Outcome
- Worked
What they ran
Business owners posted design requests with cash prizes on SitePoint.com, a resource site for web developers, and those posts became informal contests. Matt Mickiewicz and Mark Harbottle moved this activity onto a separate site under a new name, 99designs.com. They expected a fresh brand to spread by word of mouth and reach more small-business owners. A branding book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, convinced them that two business lines under one SitePoint name would be a mistake. The crowdsourced design marketplace launched in 2008.
What happened
In Entrepreneur's article on Mickiewicz, 99designs had $15 million in annual revenue. It had also hosted contests for clients including SXSW, Esquire and Dish Network. The company's about page says its community has completed more than one million creative projects since 2008.
What the account does not show
The revenue figure comes from a founder interview and has no baseline from before the spin-off. The source does not show whether the new brand itself drove word of mouth, or how the contests would have grown under the SitePoint name. The one million figure is undated, counts projects rather than designers, and comes from the company's own marketing.
Questions
How did 99designs get started?
It began as informal design contests that business owners ran on SitePoint.com, a web-developer resource site. The founders spun those contests out into a separate marketplace that launched in 2008.
Why did 99designs not stay under the SitePoint brand?
The founders believed a new brand would spread better by word of mouth and reach more small-business owners. A branding book convinced them that two business lines under one name would be a mistake.
How much revenue did 99designs make after the spin-off?
In the founder's Entrepreneur interview it had $15 million in annual revenue and had run contests for clients such as SXSW, Esquire and Dish Network.
Sources
- Matt Mickiewicz: How I Started 99designs, Entrepreneur, 2010-11-29.
- About | 99designs, 99designs.