How 99designs Built A Successful Business in 16 Months.

I'm a former SitePoint employee, and have been around their forums since 2003 and as a moderator 2004-2008. 99designs was spun off from the SitePoint Marketplace 16 months ago, where it existed as the SitePoint Contests property (essentially the same thing but branded under their Marketplace). The first contests were actually held on the forums, and if memory serves, that happened in about 2002 (before I got there, could have even been 2001).

Eventually the Contests and Marketplace sections of their ultra popular web developer forums grew big enough to be spun off into dedicated sections of the site (still part of the SP organization, though), so SP developed and acquired technology to create those new areas. That was in 2006 (see: http://www.sitepoint.com/about/media/release?id=39 ).

I was involved early on in developing rules and moderating the Marketplace and Contests area. Once the Contests area got big enough, it was spun off as 99designs, and has grown like a weed since. (This time it was actually spun off as a new business entity.)

So really, more accurately, 99designs has built a successful business over the past 6 or 7 years (or if you want to go by the date it was spun out of the forums, over the past 3 years).

All that said, SitePoint is a really classy organization, full of great people. Matt Mickiewicz is a really nice guy, and what they've built is very impressive. I wish them continued success.