The Crowdsourced Business

While many companies are beginning to realize and trying to learn from the wisdom of crowds, others are using crowds as the business itself. First, we saw the crowd-written book We are Smarter than Me, which was published late last year. Now – the crowd-sourced company: nvohk (pronounced en-voke).

Simply stated: nvokh is a clothing company that’s “managed by the people who wear it.” The Los Angeles-based company aims to recruit between 20- and 40-thousand members to contribute $50.00 each per year to develop the brand and its line of clothing. Members will contribute to clothing design, web design, major business decisions, logo design, and advertising. Here’s the sticky part: members will get 35% of the companies profits paid out in the form of points. The points can be redeemed to purchase nvokh products at a 25% discount. Members will only have to pony up once the company has recruited 2000 people, and new members will receive an official nvokh t-shirt, a membership sticker, and a plant-a-tree seed pack to welcome them to the flock.

An interesting idea, for sure, and a welcome new spin on crowd-funding. Learn more at nvokh.