A Quirky social website for inventors!

A Quirky social website for inventors!

The team behind mophie and kluster launches quirky - a social product development company.

We've all had our own a-ha moment...our own Pet Rock...our own Snuggie. But most of us don't know how to go from genius napkin doodle to actually making that idea happen. That's where quirky comes in. quirky gives everyone the chance to get product ideas out of their heads and onto shelves.

Ben Kaufman, the 22-year-old entrepreneur who founded mophie and kluster, took his faithful development team, threw in industrial designers and engineers, shook them all up, and out came quirky. Having launched his first successful product the day he graduated high school, Ben knows only too well how to go from sketch to store.

quirky engages participants to collaborate in every aspect of product creation - from ideation, design, naming, manufacturing, marketing, right on through to sales. Anyone can participate on quirky.com either by submitting their own product idea for $99, or by voting, rating, and influencing other people's product ideas. Cooler still, 30¢ of every dollar generated from the sale of a quirky product goes back to these influencers.

"quirky is for all of us with great ideas and talent who find ourselves sitting at home, at work, unemployed, over happy hour…wondering how to take that killer idea and really make it happen," says Ben. "These are those ideas that make you think, wouldn't it be cool if... or if only that had a... Most of us just don't have the time, money or know-how to do it on our own, and that's why we made quirky."

Every week users post ideas on quirky to be rated by the quirky community. The community surveys the scene during the 7 day evaluation period, finally choosing one product from the pool of submitted ideas to move forward through the process. quirky's community then contributes to all aspects of development, weighing in on everything from naming to logo selection to packaging.

The final product is pre-sold at the quirky online store (quirky.com/products). Once the product hits its pre-sales threshold, credit cards are charged, and the product graduates to production and delivery. As we said, the key here is that 30¢ of every dollar made from the sale of these products goes back to the community. "Community" in this case covers both the ideator as well as all people who voted, commented, and rated the project idea along the way.

Today marks the site's official launch - and the completion of the first community developed product. In the days leading up to launch, hundreds of quirky's friends and family came together to create the first product - the Sling Back. The Sling Back is a universal wire retractor that holds any type of wire up to 1/8" in diameter. That means it will suck up over 3 feet of cable in one fell swoop...whatever you have lying around...whether that be headphone cords, small power cables, USB cords, firewire cables, or printer cords. Stay tuned for quirky's second product to hit the store just one week from now.