The Crowd’s Many ‘Voices’

As with most great ideas, the vision for Voices was developed at a kitchen table and mapped out on serviettes in coffee shops. In the earliest days of our business partnership, I composed music and recorded bands while my wife Stephanie was a recording artist who also performed as a soloist at weddings and taught singing lessons.


After building a website for our audio production services and achieving high search engine rankings in Google, a number of freelance voice talent contacted us to see if they could be listed on our website to gain work opportunities. As more and more ‘voices’ were listed, we began to see how our company could provide services to talent who were looking for ways to promote themselves and apply for jobs.

While recording was something that we were good at, it didn't take long for us to realize that we were on the verge of a great opportunity that could change our lives forever. Stephanie and I wanted to find the best way possible to do what we loved while helping others to succeed. Both of us were ready to step back from recording and let others step in. If we could live out our dreams while positively impacting the lives of others — thereby helping them to live out their dreams and support their families — we would be successful no matter what.

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Competition Benefits the Crowd: A Voiceover Industry Case Study

Being part of an industry-changing company can be challenging, especially if you were once devoted to the very industry the company has now crowdsourced. I speak of Voice123, a voice over casting website I have worked for since 2007. I was a user of the website, and one day found myself plucked from their crowd to work for them. I knew of two online entities crowdsourcing and changing the voice over industry; one was Voice123, and the other was a competitor, Voices. The interesting scenario for both companies is that they both share the same crowd on any given day. We compete for the crowd's attention, and the crowd benefits from it.



Voice123 and Voices shared a similar business model for about four years; both sites offered a voice casting service to a very disillusioned industry. Funnily, they shared another quirky commonality: beautiful, happily married couples started both sites. Alex Torrenegra and Tania Isabel started Voice123 in 2002, while David and Stephanie Ciccarelli started Voices in 2003. Both couples had husbands doing development, while the wives took care of the crowds' needs. Tania and Stephanie could be considered the first community managers for the online voice over industry. Many members of Voice123’s crowd were recruited to Voices via messages through the Voice123 website.

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Ideavibes takes Crowd Engagement to Latin America

The Canadian crowd engagement platform Ideavibes, has announced this weekend the launch of its Latin America operation. Ideavibes has jointed with Expansion Bridge Mexico, a company specialized in hiring talent in Mexico, to support its entrance into the region. The first result of this agreement can be see in its new website for Spanish speakers, whose url is a Spanish translation for ideas vibe: ideas que vibran.

According to the company, Expansion Bridge will focus on capacity building in the area of engagement and open innovation for governments and corporations throughout Mexico and Latin America. “We have seen an increasing demand in Latin America from both companies and governments, looking for an engagement platform that focuses on innovation and engagement and is tightly integrated with popular social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook”, said Paul Dombowsky, Founder and CEO of Ideavibes. “Ideavibes is well positioned for growth in Latin America through this strong partner that understands the market and how best to capitalize on this growth.”

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