
Fiverr Raises $30M for Online Services Marketplace - louhong
http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/08/11/fiverr-raises-30m-for-online-services-marketplace/
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sgdesign
Relevant: my post about my experiences hiring logo designers on Fiverr from
last week: [https://medium.com/@sachagreif/in-the-past-couple-years-
star...](https://medium.com/@sachagreif/in-the-past-couple-years-startups-
have-started-realizing-that-good-design-can-make-the-difference-2fdeb90d390a)

(HN thread here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8152631](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8152631))

~~~
Kiro
I've bought a couple of logos as well and have been very happy with the result
every time. After the first iteration I would give feedback and they would
change it accordingly. I don't care if they based it on a template as long as
they deliver something usable (it's $5!). It's either that or use one of the
lousy logo generators out there. Even if all they do is manipulating a
template it's still better than what I will ever be able to do myself.

~~~
gabzuka
The problem is not if it's a template, it is if they're using someone elses
work and passing it as their own

~~~
sgrove
And actually, even the ones that sgdesign liked ended up being copies of
existing logos:
[https://news.layervault.com/stories/25882-the-5-logo](https://news.layervault.com/stories/25882-the-5-logo)

There's a lot of danger and unnecessary pain in it for a founder having a logo
that's a liability. Not uncorrectable after the fact, but why do it in the
first place?

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DonaldH
My sole experience with Fiverr was terrible. I paid $35 to their highest-rated
logo designer, who promptly delivered the worst logo I had ever seen. I'm not
usually one to complain, but I was so unimpressed that I told the seller that
I was not happy with the logo. His response was basically "I don't care. See
ya!" I will never use Fiverr again. I've had much better luck with Elance.

~~~
rxdazn
what kind of logo did you even expect for $35 though?...

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DonaldH
Nike's logo cost $35. Twitter's logo cost $15.

I honestly didn't expect anything good, despite the satisfaction guarantees
and "examples of past work" on the seller's profile. I expected to receive
something very mediocre, and I was STILL disappointed.

~~~
willcodeforfoo
In these cases, I think its less about the cost of the initial design but the
hundreds of billions of dollars in marketing and advertising spent since
building the value of the mark in our collective conscience.

~~~
DonaldH
I completely agree. I was just making the point that it isn't necessary to
spend a lot of money on a logo when bootstrapping. I've had logos created by
designers on Elance for around the same cost and been very pleased with the
results.

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ghiculescu
My prediction: consistent inflation causes Fiverr gigs to consistently
decrease in value until they boldly "pivot" to Tenerr in 2020.

It sounds like a joke, but seriously, the name of their business does seem
like it could have some ramifications in the long run.

~~~
petercooper
I don't disagree, but I've been continually impressed with how "pound shops"
(dollar/99 cent stores in the US) have coped between the mid 90s and now. It
seems advances in logistics, manufacturing and the ease of international trade
have counteracted inflation to a certain point, at least when it comes to the
cheap crud those stores tend to sell :-)

~~~
QuasiAlon
J.C. Penny was founded in 1902 and for years everything in the store cost a
penny :). Same goes for the price of coke that stayed at a penny for 70+ years
:).

So I guess in the very long run $5 isn't sustainable (and they're going at
that direction btw... $5 is just the starting point nowadays)

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imjk
I see a trend of Hacker News envy emerging: The news of any startup (other
than a Y Combinator company) that raises a large sum of money is derided and
accompanied by a series of anecdotes of poor experiences.

I think there's so much good discussion to be had about fiverr. They created
this huge marketplace for low cost services. They have impressive UI. They
provide a win-win for both buyer and seller. They provide a great case study
on the foot-in-the-door sales methodology through their impressive upsell
system. This is a very unique and original business idea that has been
executed very well on many accounts.

~~~
imjk
And just to add my own personal anecdote, I've had a very good personal
experience ordering a design on fiverr. I ordered a logo for just the minimum
$5 (FIVE DOLLARS!) knowing full well that I'd have to pay an additional $20 if
I wanted the PSD file after. I considered this a relatively risk free way to
get a logo concept (I'd pay $5 all day for logo concepts). I actually received
two different logos -- both of which were surprisingly good -- and had the
option to have one of them edited once more, which I did. I gladly paid for
the psd file after. Also, the whole flow of the process through their UI was
seamless too.

~~~
iLoch
The trouble is that the likelihood of that logo actually being unique is
extremely low.

~~~
coldcode
I remember a HN post (I think) recently showing how most of the logos a guy
ordered were ripoffs.

~~~
galenko
I think it's the luck of the draw/poor selection of supplier.

My girlfriend did fiverr logos for a while to build up a portfolio to be able
to get reasonable clients and charge more. All her work was unique and very
well researched.

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kenrose
Lots of discussion about poor experience with logo design. Fiverr has a lot of
other services and I agree that it can be difficult to separate out the wheat
from the chaff. As an anecdotal example of a positive experience though, I
used Fiverr a few months ago to hire various musicians singing Happy Birthday
in a video as a birthday present for my wife. Was the quality a bit
amateurish? Sure. Did my wife care? No. Quite the opposite, she loved it.

I think if people expect to get professional quality work from Fiverr, overall
they'll be disappointed. However, for fun, personal projects, where production
value is not prized, it's fantastic and I think this niche is where they can
start to grow.

~~~
GFischer
A bit offtopic: Great idea :) . It's really hard to find customized birthday
presents (it was actually a startup idea that was floating around at several
startup meetings I attended).

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ihatehandles
I've had great experiences with voice-over services etc, but I'm a bit
hesitant with creative work like logos (most just run through online logo
creators). I do earn some[0] though creating small AngularJS directives and
services, pays for my Digital Ocean dev box

[0] [http://www.fiverr.com/ihatehandles/help-you-with-
angularjs-c...](http://www.fiverr.com/ihatehandles/help-you-with-angularjs-
challenges)

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collypops
That's $29,999,995 more than it needed.

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dbg31415
You get what you pay for.

The cheaper, or more fixed-price, the service... the worse the quality is
going to be. On the flip side... salesmen are liars... so... you're kinda
screwed as a client.

Anyway... $2.99 for a bucket of beef?! Sounds like a great deal...

* The League / Yobogoya on Vimeo || [http://vimeo.com/35722138](http://vimeo.com/35722138)

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dharma1
I think the idea and user experience of fiverr is good but $5 is too little to
get anything done properly. The people doing the work end up being ripped off
and not caring. You usually end up paying the extras people charge on Fiverr
to get anything remotely useful

I've used it a couple of times for voiceovers - worked well if you can find
the right person.

~~~
imjk
Have you actually used the service before? They have a very good upsell
service for order add-ons, a lot of them with fees much greater than the $5.
For many sellers, the $5 is just a foot-in-the-door sales method to acquire
the customer, much like the freemium model for saas companies. They may lose
money on the initial $5 order, but they make much more on the percentage of
customers who purchase add-on items. This is no different than other customer
acquisitions strategies, if not cheaper. See how much you need to spend to
acquire a design or voiceover customer via Adwords, as an example.

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milge
I can see people getting screwed on design/logos. That type of thing is a
creative process. I've heard good things about fiverr from colleagues. I
haven't used it yet, but plan on it soon for some voice work. I think
something like voice work could work well since it's not really open to
interpretation like design is.

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seanwalker08
Fiverr is the harbor freight of online marketplaces. You can find gems, but
its hit and miss.

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donniezazen
I have such a bad experience with Fiverr when it comes to purchasing Android
icons. They usually return with either poor quality icons or literally stolen
icons from internet.

~~~
astrodust
It's a race to the bottom and you're surprised that's how they do it?

~~~
donniezazen
But how can you justify stealing.

~~~
astrodust
I'm not justifying stealing. I'm just saying if you're paying five bucks don't
be surprised if people do.

It's like buying a large TV on the street for fifty bucks. Would you be
surprised if it was stolen?

~~~
donniezazen
I don't mind bad service. What I mind is someone flagging my product because
the service I used to get graphics sold me someone else's intellectual
property.

