IdeaScale is a

cloud-based Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...

software company that licenses

innovation management Innovation management is a combination of the management of innovation processes, and change management. It refers to product, business process, marketing and organizational innovation. Innovation management is the subject of ISO 56000 (formerl ...

software employing

crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...

. The company was founded by Vivek Bhaskaran and Rob Hoehn in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. As of 2018, IdeaScale is headquartered in Berkeley, CA. In 2023, the company opened its Washington, DC offices.

History

In 2008, the IdeaScale service was first offered. It launched in tandem with President Barack Obama's Open Government Initiative. In its first year, IdeaScale was adopted by 23 federal agencies. It served many organizations, including the Executive Office of the President of the United States. The company is privately held. It was bootstrapped without

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

funding and has become profitable. In 2016, IdeaScale acquired Innovationmanagement.se In 2022, the company hired a new executive, Nick Jain, to take over for retiring CEO Rob Hoehn.

Features

Users create a profile on IdeaScale and once they are members of a community, they can submit ideas, comment and vote on other ideas, and the most popular ideas are prioritized at the top based on the number of votes the idea receives. Once a promising idea has been identified, the software allows teams to form around the idea. The team can add more information to the idea, refine it, propose it to leadership and the best ones are selected using sophisticated decision matrix capabilities. The company uses the

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ( ...

model of engagement, offering free communities on an open basis and additional, customized functionality to paying clients.

Notes

{{reflist Crowdsourcing Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Software companies established in 2009 2009 establishments in Washington (state)