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You Should Know: MycroBurst by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine

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You Should Know: MycroBurst
by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine

Ever heard of crowdsourcing? Zaheer Dodhia, CEO and founder of MycroBurst, built his business by crowdsourcing graphic design. Herein, Dr. Giacobbi talks to Dodhia about how this applies to dentistry and why you should know about this company.

Tell us a bit about your background and what led you to Mycroburst.com?
Dodhia: I started my first online company out of my bedroom in 1997 while I was doing my MBA. Since then, I have launched several successful ventures, the most recent one of which is SocialDon.com, which provides Facebook fan page analytics and monitoring.

I ventured into the design industry in early 2003 with the launch of LogoDesignGuru.com, which provided affordable and quality graphic design services to small businesses using offshore resources. The company did well until we were hit by the economic downturn in 2007. We believe that a good company never falls in love with its own product, so we made the decision to change our business model to crowdsourcing, and in late 2008 we launched MycroBurst.com.

We chose MycroBurst as a name because we offer a wide range of design services – our slogan is "Get drenched in design." Crowdsourcing gives our customers an average of 116 concepts from more than 20 different designers, which results in a high rate of customer satisfaction.

What is crowdsourcing?
Dodhia: Wikipedia itself is an excellent example of crowdsourcing, and they define it as "the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community." Outsourcing originally involved one person or a company that performed most of the tasks required. In crowdsourcing you assign or open the tasks to a crowd of people. The rationale behind crowdsourcing is that the intelligence and the output of a crowd will most likely outperform the results from an individual or a company.

How did you hear about Dentaltown.com?
Dodhia: We noticed that a large number of dental practices are using MycroBurst for their design needs. A Maryland-based dentist left positive feedback on our Facebook page. We emailed him and thanked him for his feedback, and we asked him which dental publications he read. He said that Dentaltown is his favorite because it’s “for the more forward-thinkers and practitioners. It has all the latest and greatest technology and is geared toward more modern dentistry.” Also, a dentist in New York City told us that he read about us in a Dentaltown.com forum. So we thought it would be useful to tell you about the way that dental practices are using this innovative new method of crowdsourcing for their branding and design.

How does Mycroburst use this concept to create designs at competitive prices?
Dodhia: We use a contest-based, crowdsourced solution where our designers compete by producing better designs throughout the process. In our system, the customer chooses the design he or she likes best, and the winner takes all. This is a huge driving force for our designer community. Our customers are also a part of this competitive marketplace. The customers who provide regular feedback and offer more compensation for their job to get the best designers.

Can I direct one designer to incorporate concepts I have seen in other potential designs?
Dodhia: Yes, you can ask one designer to incorporate aspects presented by other designers. However, that would work best if you finalized a design and asked that designer to make changes without involving others who had been competing for the job.

What are some of the typical fees for design?
Dodhia: The beauty of our marketplace is that you can name your own price, but we do have minimum amounts in place in order to ensure that designers are paid fairly. Since it’s a marketplace, more money will ensure the best designers compete for your job. Business cards and stationery start at $99, logo design and brochure design each start at $199 and Web design starts at $700.

Who are your primary competitors in this space?
Dodhia: Our competitors include CrowdSpring.com, LogoMyWay.com and 99designs.com.

Some graphic artists complain that these crowdsourcing services devalue their skills. What would you say to them?
Dodhia: There are indeed members of the design community, particularly in the U.S. and Europe, who feel threatened by the crowdsourcing model. We currently have more than 30,000 designers registered with us from all over the world, to include the U.S. and Europe. In a difficult economy we are able to give recent graduates or designers who want an extra income the ability to make more money. One American designer from Nevada told us that he likes the logo design platform as an outlet for creativity and extra cash in addition to his day job as a graphic designer at a regional newspaper group. Other designers in countries like the Philippines and Indonesia make a good fulltime living designing for MycroBurst contests.

The traditional design market was monopolized by those graphic artists who had the resources to market their services successfully. Our platform gives designers the ability to gain a new customer after successfully winning a project, and opens up design to those customers, particularly small business owners, who would not otherwise be able to afford custom design. I would like designers to see us as a platform to market their services and skills and the opportunity to compete on a level playing field. On our platform, it’s their talent and skill that allow designers to succeed.

What other categories use crowdsourcing to their advantage?
Dodhia: Crowdsourcing is being applied in many industries now, including video ads, data collection, start-up funding, translation services, software testing services, content creation such as Wikipedia, and review sites such as TripAdvisor. Heineken launched IdeasBrewery in April for more sustainable packaging ideas, and the consumer goods giant Unilever recently hosted an online event to crowdsource ideas for sustainable production, marketing and sourcing.

Which three Web sites do you visit most often?
Dodhia: I am online 12 to 14 hours a day. I like to visit TechCrunch.com, Entrepreneur.com and CNN, because I like to stay abreast of the latest technology and business innovations.

How can our readers contact MycroBurst?
Dodhia: They can visit our Web site – MycroBurst.com – or they can call 877-525-5646.

Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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