Innovation
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college. He attended Champlain College
Quirky has to go beyond making smallbore products, like the Pivot Power. Other popular Quirky products include a gadget for separating egg yolks, a plastic stem that inserts into a lemon or a lime and becomes a push-button spritzer, and a corkscrew that cuts the foil off a wine bottle and doubles as a pour spout. Smart, perhaps, but not essential for a networked future. That is starting to change. Quirky is pursuing the much-promoted vision of
Big companies want to pick up innovation tips from Quirky, but they will be encountering a corporate culture whose essence Kaufman defines as “a complete disregard for the way things are supposed to be done.”
out in his freshman year. He worked on his startup, called Mophie. It made products like a plastic sled to hold the iPod Nano that could split the audio stream so two people could listen at once. It won a Best of Show award at the Macworld convention in 2006. Rather than simply trying to repeat that accomplishment the following year, Kaufman decided to do something totally different. He and his team showed up
the smart home, or the consumer Internet of Things. The strategy and the timing are
in Burlington, Vermont, but he dropped
The corporate-partner strategy is
at Macworld in San Francisco, set up a
guided in part by its inventor community.
intended to allow Quirky to focus on its
booth and asked the attendees to invent
Big companies – not just lone inventors
design talents while it benefits from the
the company’s 2007 product line. At their
– will increasingly be part of Quirky’s
marketing and manufacturing muscle
booth, they passed out small notebooks
future. It says a handful of companies
of the large enterprises. But it creates
and pens and encouraged the Macworld
have lined up for its new corporate
the potential for a culture clash. Big
crowd – die-hard Apple fanatics – to draw
partnership programme, which builds
companies want to pick up innovation
up their ideas and submit the sketches.
on Quirky’s experience with GE.
tips from Quirky, but they will be
Winning entries were selected, and by the
Although it is not identifying them
encountering a corporate culture whose
end of the four-day show, they used a 3-D
yet, the new partners will include
essence Kaufman defines as “a complete
printer to make prototypes.
large companies that make toys, audio
disregard for the way things are supposed
equipment and kitchenware. The
to be done.”
products created will carry the tagline
While still in high school, Kaufman
That experience, Kaufman recalled, was “absolutely life changing.” He was struck, he said, by the power of seeing
“Powered by Quirky,” but will be sold
coaxed his parents into taking out a
“a community of passionate people work
under the big companies’ brands.
second mortgage of $185,000 on their
together to create and invent the future.”
house to fund an early entrepreneurial
Two years later, he founded Quirky.
Below: Ben Kaufman, the founder of Quirky, tests a product at the firm’s offices in New York.
venture, which made accessories for the Apple iPod. The loan from his parents
“Ladies and gentLeman, 7 pm
had one condition: that Kaufman go to
Thursday night and you’re watching Quirky product evaluation,” Kaufman said, standing behind a lectern, stage-lit and wearing a mike. “Give it up.” Hearty applause issued from the 100 or so people assembled at the company’s headquarters. Many more Quirky followers in the United States and abroad were watching the event streamed over the web. This happened to be in December, but these evaluation sessions happen every Thursday. The first step in that process is automated. Software algorithms search inventors’ online submissions for product ideas that are off limits for Quirky, like guns, bombs, medicine and food. Next, the company’s inventor community gets Portfolio