TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Quote:Pim Betist, creative director and one of the founders of SellaBand, says crowdsourcing works for the music industry because most of the market is controlled by a handful of risk-averse major labels and there's a huge underground that wants to break in. His company, which he expects to turn a profit in the next 18 months, connects the artists with their market. He thinks the model has potential for other industries...

At Cambrian House, community members submit and rank each others' ideas for businesses. For now, the system is designed to pick the best proposals and connect entrepreneurs with the talent -- developers, designers, marketers -- to execute them, but Sikorsky expects crowdsourcing will someday be a viable source of startup funds as well. "I totally believe that the users want to become more deeply invested as owners," he says.

Jay Parkhill, a business attorney who advised Poland during the Ringside Startup experiment, disagrees...

Quote:Trying to begin a career as a graphic designer and build a portfolio, Evan Stremke joined CrowdSpring, a Chicago-based online marketplace for creative services.

No conventional help-wanted Web site, CrowdSpring is part of a trend sweeping the Web, sometimes called "crowdsourcing." The idea is to set up an open, online competition among talent who bid for jobs doing everything from creating a corporate logo to writing blog entries.

The 20-year-old student from Minnesota vies for work against stay-at-home moms, professional designers and others who want to hone their skills. Only the winner gets paid, and some jobs generate hundreds of entries.

It sounds like a nightmare -- going up against scores of other designers and showing off your work in public, effectively giving up your ideas for free...