Web Secret #303: Quirky

This blog post can make you rich.

Intrigued? Read on.

Way back in 2010, I wrote a blog about the up coming importance of Crowd Accelerated Innovation, AKA crowdsourcing.

Simply stated, crowdsourcing is the concept that a large group of regular people can come up with very great ideas, and thanks to modern Internet technology,  rapidly impact and change the world.

Back in 2009, a 23 year old ran with that concept, and founded New York City based Quirky.

Here is Jay Leno interviewing Ben Kaufman, Quirky's CEO on the Tonight show:



Entertainment aside, there is some creative genius out there. Here is a more serious explanation:

Any of Quirky’s community members can become an inventor or person of influence by submitting ideas and helping to determine which products Quirky will design, manufacture, and sell. Inventors who submit ideas that are then created and people who contribute to those ideas share in royalties based on product sales.

The company solicits ideas for new products via Quirky.com and its iPhone app. Once an idea is submitted, the Quirky community vets it, praises it, critiques it, and votes for their favorites, many of which will eventually be made by the Quirky design team and sold online and in stores.

When determining which products to make, Quirky considers factors such as uniqueness, manufacturing complexity, and intellectual property rights, yet they are committed to working on ideas both big and small that make life better. Submitted ideas are voted on by the Quirky community, as well as by employees of the company at Eval, Quirky’s live webcast that is broadcast live at Quirky.com/live every Thursday evening at 7pm EST, where new inventors are crowned.

Some of Quirky's amazing products can be viewed in their shop.

Everything about Quirky is disruptive.

I love it.