

The Invention Mob, Brought to You by Quirky - kanamekun
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/technology/quirky-tests-the-crowd-based-creative-process.html

======
shawnee_
_Still, what Quirky has done for many inventors is to make placing a product
on store shelves an attainable aspiration. And that has attracted a crowd of
enthusiasts: a million registered users, 66 percent male, with the largest
single cluster between the ages of 26 to 36._

The rapid metamorphosis from Kluster -> NameThis -> Quirky has been pretty
astonishing. The most brilliant aspect of this company is that it doesn't just
"say" it values the community for its ideas and contributions. It really does.
Ben is the rarest kind of CEO ... charismatic but _honest_.

Over a million community members today... and I was one of the very first
(#63), having earned, as of today, just a shade under $20K in royalties.

There's a huge value and business opportunity for companies who are honest
enough to adopt this model. Most startups (especially those in YC land)
allocate profit sharing _exclusively_ to early employees and the VCs. But the
Quirky model really turned that idea around and offered one of the first
profit-sharing opportunities to folks from userland. This is a company to be
greatly admired, and it's already leagues ahead of the game in many respects.

------
practicalpants
I spent some time on Quirky ~3 years ago, trying to push designs for my desk
'leg hammock.'

At the time it suffered from the problem of everyone ganging together to only
vote for people who were regular users in the community who had gotten to know
each other. It disadvantaged a lot of people who had great ideas and designs,
who weren't interested in all the effort to build 'alliances.' The Quirky team
acknowledged it was a problem in some private emails, but I really don't know
if they ever changed the system to minimize that, maybe they did? It's a shame
because I would have used it more if they had solved that problem.

------
macavada
Quirky picks ideas at their own risk trusting that they will be successful.
They put 100% of their own money into developing the ideas into products and
getting them into stores around the world. Some they win and some they lose.
The spinoff of WINK is great encouragement of the continued success of Quirky.
It's exciting to see what their next spinoff may be.

