From Kickstarter campaigns to Google's recently acquired Waze, it's clear that crowdsourcing is catching on in the startup realm. Crowdsourcing is business mutualism at its finest. Consumers enjoy engaging with entrepreneurs and new technology, while companies appreciate the benefits to their bottom line and business acumen that crowdsourcing data can provide.
The Hub is hot on the trail of this trend. Companies across all different industries are incorporating crowdsourcing into their business model. Check out these five Boston-based startups that are tapping into the power of the masses to provide a more dynamic product:
Mobee, a "real-time store intelligence" mobile startup, encourages users to review their favorite restaurants and boutiques around town to tap into what the company calls "the world's first Smartphone Army." Users unlock "missions," a brief two- to three-question survey, when they step into their favorite Dunkin' Donuts, Panera, etc. After taking a quick pic of a receipt or a menu board to prove they were actually there, users unlock points that can be redeemed as cash deposits or gift cards to retailers like Banana Republic, Target or Starbucks. Started in 2013 by former Google employee and Bessemer Ventures investor Prahar Shah, Mobee has received funding from Hub Angels, the Indus Entrepreneurs of Boston and Launch Capital.
PieceWise, an online community platform, enables people to source ideas, help and offers to help others plan and market a wide cache of projects and products, from starting a bakery to building an app. In other words, it works like free lead generation. After you start a project on Piecewise, others suggest possible pieces for the project, such as programming or graphics. Other PieceWise members then organize your project pieces and bid on the chance of doing the various stepping stones to completing your project. People get recognized, professionals get paid and projects get completed through the site's connections. Check out this video of young buck 23 year-old CEO Will Neely articulating the idea.
Wizgig is a site that offers quick, proven tips across dozens of subjects, including everything from barbequing to energy saving. Users can add their own tips to the platform, as well as rate tips, so the best, most relevant information on a given topic appears first in the list. Most of the advice snippets are Twitter-esque in style, with around 150-characters in length at most.
With roots in crowdsourcing as early as 1998, Innocentive is thus unarguably a global thought leader when it comes to maximizing the idea of on-demand talent. The company specializes in connecting solution seekers–nonprofits, commercial enterprises and public sector agencies– with solvers–potentially you–to expedite the solving of the world's problems through faster and better innovation. Innocentive allows companies to sift through solutions from the world's smartest people in one spot. Perhaps the company's biggest break happened when Innocentive was used to generate resolutions for the 2010 BP oil spill.
Gympact is a crowd-leveraged app that encourages you to commit to exercise by putting your bank account at stake. After signing up for the app, you declare what days you are going to go to the gym and set what dollar amount you're willing to give up–and receive–if you don't meet your workout goals. When you get to the gym, you check in (it knows if you're being sneaky and faking it, too). At the end of the week, if you stuck with it, the app pays you. Where does the money come from, you ask? From the pocketbooks of the bums who have Gympact but failed to meet their weekly workout goal. Take a look at this video for the full explanation. Gympact began as a TechStars Boston startup in 2012 after it was founded in 2010 by Yifan Zhang and Geoff Oberhofer.
