“You’re not in charge, your community is”.

“Are you really ready to give them control?”

“There’s a big difference in having customers and having a community.”

Now it sounds like a deliberate strategy, but that’s not what put Threadless at the forefront of building a successful “crowdsourcing” company.  What’s fascinating is that founder Jake Nickell was only following his passion as a web designer and artist.  He knew nothing about t-shirts (the ultimate commodity).  But, he discovered that the ordinary t-shirt was also a superb canvas for art.  He didn’t start the company as a business.  It was an accident.

If you don’t know much about Threadless, you should.  It is built on a trust relationship with a fully participating community.  That is not the same as customers.  You need to flip everything upside down to fully understand this concept.  As Jake says “I didn’t think it was possible to sell this many t-shirts”.

How many?  About 100,000 a month puts them at a $25 million annual run rate.  These guys found an entirely new market space accidentally.   How many of us will fall into something this successful by happenstance?  Not many.  That’s why Blue Ocean Strategy provides the tools and frameworks to create new demand on purpose.

Take a few minutes and watch this video from Web 2.0 Expo.  It is worth the time invested.