Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Interview with LogoTournament Founder Tyler Quinn


A month ago I posted a link to a great start-up resource, LogoTournament, a crowd-sourcing site that instantly connects you with hundreds of logo designers. The site allows business owners (you) to post logo projects, set a price, and receive hundreds of entries from logo designers all over the world competing for your business. I’ve used the site twice with great results – 100 unique designs for $250-500 in a matter of days. The best part? The site allows you to interact directly with the designers, giving them feedback on colors and design.


I’ve become so intrigued by the business model and the incredible value the site delivers to the average entrepreneur, that I reached out to LogoTournament founder, Tyler Quinn, to get his story.


Elizabeth: So tell us more about you. Where are you from? What do you do? Is this the first company you’ve started?
Tyler: I’m based in Calgary, Canada and my education is in marketing and management information systems. I have been involved with the web on a professional level for well over a decade now. I consulted as a web developer to help fund my education and world travel. Currently I am a partner in a number of Canadian online niche shops. My first business was a law mowing service when I was 12 years old. I was fortunate enough to grow up around successful entrepreneurs, so I saw at a fairly early age what was possible. I have been involved in multiple internet ventures, some have been successful, some not.


Elizabeth: How did you come up with the idea for LogoTournament?
Tyler: I had seen design contests taking place on various internet forums and freelancing sites. They were only used by tech savvy people and were very cumbersome and unlikely to be used by a mainstream business person. I built LogoTournament with my end clients in mind so any businessperson regardless of marketing of technical would experience success with the site.


Elizabeth: How long did it take you to get the site up and running once you thought of it?
Tyler: I spent way too long trying to decide on a direction, but once that was fleshed out it took about 5 months to get the site launched. It should have only been about 3 months, but I kept adding to the scope of the project which was a mistake. If I could do it all again, I would reduce the scope to bare essentials and cut development time to less than 8 weeks. Then I would start adding features after launch.


Elizabeth: Did you recruit others to help or is this something you’re doing all on your own?
Tyler: Although I have experience programming small web applications, I did enlist an expert programmer. We worked together to develop the site based on my prototypes and specifications. I also employ a part-time infrastructure person who is in charge of server administration and performance. Just recently LogoTournament has hired a customer service person to help out with emails and community management.


Elizabeth: Did you seek venture capital, and if so, what was your experience?
Tyler: I did not seek venture capital, and LogoTournament was self-sustaining within in a matter of months. A couple of VCs have expressed interest in LogoTournament, but that hasn’t gone any further than the conversation level at this point. One of them that I spoke with was fairly famous in certain circles so it was very flattering. Although with the web I think there is a lot of opportunity to build profitable niche companies without really needing much money.


Elizabeth: In starting your company, what were the key resources that you used to help you get started?
Tyler: The key resources have been open source technology like Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP, economical web hosting platforms, PPC marketing, readily available global talent, and international payment systems like Paypal.

One of my main inspirations is the book “Getting Real” by 37Signals, and is a must read for anyone building an internet business. I am in agreement with their philosophy of building simple, self-serve, easy to use web applications that do not require a big team to build or run.

I also practice GTD (Gettings Things Done by David Allen) which helps me greatly with keeping a lot of balls in the air without going crazy.


Elizabeth: What makes LogoTournament so special? Why are designers using it? Why are customers using it?
Tyler: Other than the obvious dollar factor, I think designers choose LogoTournament for the sense of community, fairness, competition, and recognition. I believe customers are using it because they can get the logo that the really want with 50-250+ choices, instead of settling on a handful that they might receive from a traditional design firm.


Elizabeth: How many countries are represented among your designers/customers? How did you get the word out - and so globally? What marketing/PR tools and techniques have you used?
Tyler: Our design community is represented by designers from almost one hundred different countries. Our customers hail from over 30 different countries and here are some recent examples browsing through the contests page: the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Kuwait, Israel, Poland, Denmark, Lebanon, Greece, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, and the Dominican Republic. Quite a diverse global crowd, which I think is fantastic. I’ve always been fascinated with entrepreneurship, so I always enjoy browsing through our customer base to see what they all do.

I’ve only done some basic Pay-Per-Click marketing to get things started. I’ve really done my best to offer excellent value and service to customers, which is leading to a significant number of repeat and referrals. Most of the growth now is from word of mouth.


Elizabeth: What’s next for LogoTournament and for Tyler Quinn?
Tyler: My primary focus right now is improving LogoTournament every day for both clients and designers, and increasing the site exposure.


Elizabeth: What lessons have you learned?
Tyler: Launch as quickly as possible. Trim down your concept to the bare essentials. Flesh it out, build it, and get it out there to see how people respond. Stop thinking about it and get going. Test it out before you mortgage your house and quit your day job.


Kudos to LogoTournament and all the web resources that make starting up even easier today. You can check out contests going on now and examples of the great design work at http://www.logotournament.com/.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great interview, Elizabeth!

I'm pretty sure that I wanna join Tyler Quinn's Fan Club!!

What a fan-freaking-tastic business marketing idea & simple business model that Mr. Quinn has developed & launched (at last for the clients it is).

I first was exposed to the LogoTournament.com brand thru their impactful yet tasteful Facebook ad campaign.

When I read the copy for LogoTournament, I instantly thought, "Wow!! What a truly awesome dirt-cheap tool for so many businesses in so many different markets out there, to implement as a core element of their branding and market communications strategy.

I spent several pleasurable hours navigating through the LogoTournament Web site, and using the powerful logo design competition services & user-friendly tools that they offer. The FAQ Section is clear and unambiguous.

This is a very straight-forward value proposition for the client, no doubt about it. The ROI on the $250 up-front fee is just about immediate. Huge bang for the marketing buck here on the client side.

One of LogoTournament's recent clients is the Fort Worth Star Telegram. (Ranked in the Top 50 in daily circulation among US Newspaper publishers).

Since the operational business model for the US newspaper publishing business has been irretrevably shattered beyond any hope of recovery, The Star Telegram elected to judiciously invest the ridiculously low fee of $250 with LogoTournament to come up with a new spruced-up logo design to feature to ramp up growth for its on-line edition of the Star Telegram.

LogoTournament's Web site is very user-friendly; there are some great interactive tools that allow the design client to interface virtually in real-time with the design competitors DURING the course of the design competition; thus providing critical client input & guidance on the logo concept as it is being generated.

There sure seem to be no tricks or hidden gotchas here on the client side.

As for the economics of the deal for the 3100 freelance logo designers who Quinn has recruited so far . . .

Since launch of the LogoTournament Web site last year, they have been able to successfully recruit more than 3000 design freelancers to work with them.

These craetive capitalists are located pretty much across the globe, giving the clients access to lots of creative talents, with different culture and language perspective not generally offered in an agency, and certainly not for $250.

The designers have collectively worked on & completed over 300 paid gigs so far in the brief operating history of LogoTournament since they lauched.

At 85% pay-out on average of $250-650 gross revenuse per logo design contest, well you can do the math at home.

The net effective hourly rate for the designers is mighty thin. However, that's the way the world is today, and there's no going back.

Why shouldn't enterprise branding effectively grow its market exponentially and pass on the associated cost savings on to consumers of creative design and marketing services?

The profitablity squeeze will negatively impact operating margins in the creative & design service sectors, just like it has in all other commercial markets: manufacturing, transport, customer service, sales and all the rest.

As Tom Friedman put it so well in his epic book on globalization & commerce, "The World is Flat".

Better get used to is, designers!!

I disagree strongly with a recent blogger who pooh-poohed the economics of LogoTournament for the sell side. The new rules are crystal clear. Learn to compete efficiently and innovatively or perish.

I heartily urge ANY & ALL firms to get on-board with LogoTournament.com, and let a thousand flowers bloom to professionally upgrade your firm's market image for less than the cost of a discount coach ticket or client dinner.

Regards,

Frederick R. Storm

Managing General Partner
NowChair, LLC
Eugene, Oregon

Jim Sutter - Cincinnati, OH said...

Any thoughts of Logo tournament creating a company web design tournament.com?

Anonymous said...

Logotournament.com is a perfect example of a practice known as "spec work," which devalues the profession of graphic design, while also devaluing the business's message. There are many reasons to avoid this working model for both designer and client. The topic is covered extensively here: NO!SPEC

Anonymous said...

It was a good idea that was ruined by Quinn's band of unpaid volunteer moderators who are given uncheked authority to blow up contests while he takes the weekend off. Happens over and over again.

Anonymous said...

lots of contests that never get done or paid, lots of designers out to kill each other and designer forums nothing but whines and complaints

Anonymous said...

bad idea for designers and very unfriendly place.

J. Philip said...

As a small business owner in New York who faced the prospect of paying absurd money for a logo, I was very pleased with my recent experience on LogoTournament.com.

We decided to pay a little extra ($350) in the hopes of more and/or better entries, and we got 199 submissions, many of which were outstanding, from the US, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. We are very happy with our decision.

Not sure I follow the comments on designers not being paid: the fee was paid upfront.

Jam said...

Probably Im the perfect specimen of a designer that is not paid by my hardwork at LogoTournament.

After joining almost 200 contests with 8 golds I just learned that Logotournament or LT as they are known in their community, has this refund policy to their Contest Creators or Contest Holders (CH).
CHs have the privilege to refund their money minus posting fee if they feel that no entries has met the logo they are looking for.
Even if the submitted entries numbered almost 300+ .. I can understand that if they do this for the first time.. But a second round of the same contest with another fresh almost 300 entries, that is just ridiculous. Imagine no one is paid after 600 entries???

I believe this policy is so biased to their CH. And this is has an unfair advantage to designers who put a lot of time and effort.

Like for this contest:
http://logotournament.com/contests/kast_kinnear_international_recruitment_group

I was ranked 1st even during Judging mode.. For weeks the client hasnt awarded the prize and the contest just sits there with the designer who invested time and effort creating a lot of entries.

And finally after checking the contest page today, LT says that the client has refunded.

So that's it?
CH can just walk away happy leaving the designer in the dark?

This is a good business model for LT and CH and never for designers.

I hope Tyler Quinn will reconsider this.

It's just very frustrating!

Kim said...

Nice Review about LogoTournament!! and we know that LogoTournament is really superb and valuable company is designing market...
Few days back i watch a Comparision between Mycroburst & LogoTournament By Logo Contest Reviews

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