📺 Stream EntrepreneurTV for Free 📺

Crowdopolis: Crowdsource Like the Big Guys A conference in New York City showcases the leading edge of crowdsourcing.

By Catherine Clifford

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Entrepreneurs are known for being early adopters. But when it comes to certain kinds of crowdsourcing, large corporations are out ahead of entrepreneurs, according to David Bratvold, founder of Daily Crowdsource, a San Diego, Calif.-based website, which offers news, research and guidance on crowdsourcing to large corporations.

Leaders from companies including Walmart, AT&T, eBay, Microsoft and GE will speak about what they have accomplished on the cutting edge of crowdsourcing at Crowdopolis, a conference in New York on Wednesday and Thursday. Business owners attending the conference can learn how to implement the newest aspects of crowdsourcing in their own companies.

Crowdfunding, the act of raising money for your company with small donations from a large numbers of individuals, has been gaining attention, thanks to popular platforms like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.

Related: Co-creation: How to Harness It For Your Business

But businesses can also use crowdsourcing to complete a large number of small tasks with sites like Microtask and Clickworker. And crowdsourcing can be used to innovate bits of a larger project on platforms like Quirky and Incentive. Finally, the talents of the crowd can be harnessed by asking individuals to compete against each other, like on 99designs and Squadhelp.

Crowdopolis: Crowdsource Like the Big Guys

Entrepreneurs have already embraced crowdfunding and crowdsourcing for graphic design into their business, says Bratvold. But many startups don't think to use crowdsourcing to complete large numbers of small tasks or for tweaking new inventions and product designs.

Entrepreneurs think they have more than enough ideas already and so it doesn't occur to them to turn to the crowd for innovation, says Bratvold. What entrepreneurs fail to realize, he says, is that there are benefits in getting your customer base engaged with your product before it even hits the market.

Related: The Next Big Thing in Crowdfunding: In-Person Events

For example, Dallas-based Kimberly-Clark, the parent company for diaper-brand Huggies, has a program inviting moms to tell it what products they would like for their babies. Not only are the moms a source of innovation for Kimberly-Clark, but the program also gives the company insight into what its customers want to buy, Bratvold explains. Crowdsourcing "is going backwards through the adoption lifecycle," says Bratvold. "It is the entrepreneurs who are somewhat last to the game."

Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Green Entrepreneur®

How to Make Your Ecommerce Business Truly Sustainable (and Why It's Important)

Effective data collection solutions help overcome the challenges of shifting to more sustainable ecommerce practices.

Business Solutions

Bring Programming In-House with Visual Studio and Coding Courses for $56

This bundle features Microsoft Visual Studio Pro 2022 and a wealth of online coding courses.

Buying / Investing in Business

How to Recognize Money-Making Trends in The Market — And Boost Your Profits

These patterns and seasonal changes in the markets, especially over a set number of years, can provide some investors with an interesting map that may help their portfolios perform well all year long or even be a key to long-term riches.

Business News

Waymo Is the Second Automated Driving Company in 2 Days to Face an Investigation

This week, Waymo announced it makes 50,000 paid robotaxi rides weekly.

Starting a Business

The Scrappy Origin Story of Toast, the Game-Changing Restaurant Tech Company

Toast CEO and co-founder Aman Narang discusses the company's humble beginnings, their culture of scrappiness, and how they've transformed the way that restaurants do business.

Business News

This Highly-Anticipated Disney World Ride Finally Has a Reopening Date: 'Like the Animation Came to Life'

Tiana's Bayou Adventure is replacing Splash Mountain at Disney World and Disneyland.