I both despise and admire 99designs. Let me tell you why. From the point of view of being a business, they did a very good job. They went for the lowest end of

I both despise and admire 99designs. Let me tell you why. From the point of view of being a business, they did a very good job. They went for the lowest end of the market, where at a typical price point on 99d, clients don't require a lot of hand-holding. Instead, the illusion of value is delivered to clients by the fact that many designers compete to create something for you. They have captured the cheap-and-fast market well. From the point of creating value, however, I am really not a big fan of 99d. I do know some people who had some level of success there, but I know a lot more who spent money only to get back some very crappy results. The mechanics of a cheap marketplace simply don't allow for value. Designers have no incentive to spend time working for you, because the odds of them getting paid are really low. They are, in fact, incentivized to produce the bare minimum at the fastest speed possible. At the end of the day, you may feel like 20 people worked for you and one was the winner, but in reality, you only got the minimum attention and effort. I wrote a little more on this topic before, in case you're interested: https://medium.com/startup-shenanigans/66896bbf21da https://medium.com/startup-shenanigans/66896bbf21da