Comments on: How 99Designs Bootstrapped Its Way to Profits

By: Colleen Taylor

Colleen Taylor — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:56:25 +0000

Hi Darren,
Thanks for pointing that out! I omitted the SitePoint information to keep the story short, but it is an interesting story of how 99Designs began as a relatively tiny feature within a larger company.

By: Mark Spencer

Mark Spencer — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:23:32 +0000

@PXLated- I agree on you on this In general, it’s not a marketplace for design, it’s more decoration.
Hard to get anything but decoration if there’s no real brand strategy, market research, competitive analysis and interaction with the client.”
- It is not just doing things randomly, but researching what it appropriate for your product and the company.

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 04 May 2011 10:06:59 +0000

I wonder what they are going to do with all that cash? Hire in house designers? Good success story but it should be said you missed a point in their launch process as they launched of the back of a massive site called sitepoint.com. Would they have been successful so quickly without sitepoint? no is my guess but still a great story.

By: PXLated

PXLated — Wed, 04 May 2011 04:29:03 +0000

A little quible…

In general, it’s not a marketplace for design, it’s more decoration.
Hard to get anything but decoration if there’s no real brand strategy, market research, competitive analysis and interaction with the client.

Most job descriptions are simple – I need a logo using a cat, nothing about the flavor it should exude or anything about all the ways it will be used.

I know a couple of designers that post jobs there for $200 and use the result as reference/input – Cheap slave labor. Then they “design” the whatever based on all the branding research/objectives.

Not knocking 99Designs as there is a need for decoration at times but graphic design is about a lot more.