Quirky Inc’s offices, at first glance, appear much like those of any number of Internet startups.
A mostly young staff of 50 sits in front of computer screens. Bikes, ridden to work, hang from the ceiling. A young visionary sets an eager, nontraditional vibe.
The rolling toilet, though, is a clue that Quirky is a bit different.
Quirky is an invention Web site that takes ideas from its online community and makes them into real consumer products. Ben Kaufman, 24, founded the Manhattan-based Quirky two years ago with the aim of making invention accessible.
Though it uses the en-vogue model of crowd-sourcing, it still relies on nuts-and-bolts creation of tangible goods. Beyond Quirky’s rows of desks lurks a design shop, complete with a 3D printer and various work-shopped inventions, along with the curious leftovers of development.
“We’re probably the most old-school startup you could possibly imagine,” says Kaufman, whose drive and know-how far outweigh his age. “We manufacture products. We put them on a boat. We ship them to retailers.”
The very concept of ocean freight is enough to make most Silicon Valley upstarts shiver, but Quirky is finding the kind of success startups dream of, while still keeping its feet in real-world production.
It recently picked up US$16 million in financing from Norwest Venture Partners. Kaufman expects the site to be profitable by next year. They are readying a move this year to a larger warehouse across town. And on Tuesday, the Sundance Channel will premiere Quirky, a six-episode reality series that documents the fast-paced life at Quirky.
“There’s a difference between your crazy scientist garage inventor and regular people,” Kaufman says. “Regular people experience problems on an everyday basis that piss them off. Those are what I think are everywhere. That’s what Quirky is here to achieve, to capture those problems, those opportunities, and turn them into products.”
Ever thought you could invent a more ergonomic dog leash? Or create a power strip that has room for boxy plug-ins? Those are the kind of ideas that Quirky has turned into consumer products, splitting the profits with its inventors and members of the community (“influencers”) whose tips help shape the final product.
On the site, users vote for the product ideas they like the best. Every Friday, two winners are crowned. Quirky developers create the product and then it goes into pre-sale. If enough people commit to buying the product, Quirky takes it to market, produced from its manufacturing base in China, where 15 employees work.
Thirty percent of top-line revenue on direct sales is shared with the community, as well as 10 percent from indirect sales with partners like Bed Bath & Beyond and the Home Shopping Network. Those pies are broken up with most going to the original inventor and various percentages going to those who made critical suggestions.
So Quirky always has products in various stages of development, going from idea to (if they’re lucky) store shelves. Two new products are launched every week.
The son of a business owner and a lawyer, Kaufman became an inventor as a teenager when he had an idea for a pair of headphones to accompany an iPod. He persuaded his parents to lend him the money (they had to take out a second mortgage on their Long Island home), flew to China to secure the manufacturing and on his high school graduation day had his first product in hand.
“I fell in love with the process,” Kaufman says. “That first product, what it took to make it made me realize this is really freaking hard ... That problem was implanted in my head. I guess from that point forward, it was all about: Can that be fixed?”
Kaufman started his first company, Mophie, a mobile accessory company that he sold in 2007. At MacWorld 2007, he debuted a project that got attendees to design a new product in just three days. That breakneck pace has continued at Quirky. In the past week, from a window display at a New York Bed Bath & Beyond, Quirky has been challenging customers to help create a new product in just a week.
“I love manufactured drama,” says Kaufman, making his appeal to reality TV producers thoroughly evident. “Not in a fake way, but in a high-stakes, put-it-all-out-there and let’s try to make something happen ... It shows the world that we’re going to make something happen here.”
The first episode of Quirky features the inventions of two products. The Pivot Power, an adjustable electrical power strip, is Quirky’s flagship product. The idea came from a shaggy-haired college student, Jake Zien, and has been one of its most successful products.
Zien is ecstatic for any cash at all for his idea, while the other inventor featured in the premiere, Andrea Zabinski, is more demanding. She wants to see her vision for an all-in-one pasta strainer, mixing and serving bowl (the “Ventu”) fulfilled to her liking.
“I’m always on Quirky,” says Zabinski, who runs an online training company in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, when she is not trying to invent things. “Once you have success, like I think the Ventu is going to be, it’s a little addicting.”
She says she has made more than US$5,000 from her input on other people’s inventions.
“You have to spend time there,” Zabinski says. “You still have to work at it. Now I’m making money on other products just by voting and influencing. I’m getting little pennies here and there, but they all add up.”
The episode tracks the problems both products faced in production: regulator holdups for the Pivot Power and slow design inspiration for the Ventu. However, Quirky the show, much like the business, is thoroughly positive about invention. The message: Anyone can do this.
Kaufman believes similar shows like ABC’s Shark Tank and the older American Inventor focus on the wrong aspects of invention.
“That’s not what real product development is about,” he says. “Real product development is working with real people to solve real problems.”
“The world’s negative,” he says. “I like it, because it just allows us to be the positive ones.”
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San