Bjorn Gruenwald – Should you Use A Crowdsourced Platform?
Bjorn Gruenwald is not a newbie to the process of creating inventions, as he has been doing it for years and has done so very successfully. During the time when he began inventing the only way to secure monetary support and to get a product on the shelf was through running his own business or by patenting his product and then licensing out to a big company to manufacture and sell. Today this process has been largely innovative and has taken a new approach, which is crowdsourcing. Some of the two main platforms for crowdsourcing are Edison Nation and Quirky. Some of the common variables include, that the inventors essentially are just one part of the crowd, the crowd will introduce several ideas and submit them, the ideas that seem to have the most potential will move on to further development, which is generally done by the choice of the company or by a vote of the crowd, and lastly the inventor will receive some sort of royalty commission for their product which is dependent on the success of it.
There are several benefits to using crowdsourcing platforms but there are also some costs. One of the reasons why people like the option of crowdsourcing so much is its’ affordability. Generally depending on the crowdsourcing platform you use it will not cost any money to submit some of your ideas. All it takes is for your idea to be chosen. This means that you are saving a ton of money on production and manufacturing of your idea. This serves as a great option for people who have great ideas but do not have the means to bring them to fruition. Other advantages to this are that it is relatively low risk and requires minimal effort. The company in particular doesn’t have anything to lose by hosting the platform, if anything they have a sea of things they can choose from, with no initial fees. Also in regards to it not requiring much effort, all you have to do as the inventor, is come up with an idea that will be chosen.
Some of the disadvantages can be that you will not earn as much, you will have less control over what is made with your product, and you will not have any intellectual property. All though the disadvantages might seem high to some, crowdsourcing can still be a smart thing to consider for those who don’t have other options.