A mosaic of some of Groupminded's cofounders

1,000 cofounders

UD alumnus creates first crowdsourced startup

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1:46 p.m., Oct. 8, 2015--University of Delaware alumnus Ben Gruber has created the first ever crowdsourced startup, and hundreds of cofounders are signing up to be part of his groundbreaking company. 

Gruber describes this venture, Groupminded, as “a 1,000-founder startup where everyone has a say in the big decisions.” 

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Gruber, who graduated from UD in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, said that he and his partner came up with the idea for Groupminded because getting feedback and ideas from others was the most effective and most enjoyable aspect of their previous successful venture. 

 “We thought, 'What if the entire startup was based on that concept?'” Gruber said.

“There’s this mythology around startups that it’s one man or woman that fights against the grain to push something to fruition,” he added. “But we’ve found that it takes feedback and input and work from hundreds of people to get synthesized into what actually makes something great. But that usually doesn’t come in a very structured, democratic form.”

Groupminded, Gruber said, will change that by being crowdsourced from the beginning all the way to launch.

Gruber explained that this will begin by taking all the founders on a basic ideation process. Any cofounder can submit ideas, which will be voted on by everyone, with the end goal of finding a problem that the startup will solve with a product or service.

“If these 1,000 people have a problem, then more people than just us will have it also,” Gruber said. “We’re hoping to prove that if you get a bunch of smart people together and structure it right, something great will come out of it.”

Of the hundreds of cofounders who have joined Groupminded so far, dozens are UD community members.

For those interested in becoming a Groupminded cofounder, the deadline to sign up is Friday, Oct. 9.

Information on how to sign up to be a Groupminded cofounder is available online, as are a video introduction and a blog.

Article by Sunny Rosen

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