Quirky moves toward Nov. bankruptcy sale
Incubator company aided in creation of 240 products; everything from patents to domain name must go
Quirky was the democratization of product creation, giving the people what they want and not what they’re told to buy.
Quirky — once the Web’s invention-creation darling — has retained a firm to help monetize its remaining assets as the company prepares for bankruptcy.
Those assets include active and pending patent applications, U.S. and foreign registered trademarks, the Quirky inventor platform, 130 registered domains including Quirky.com, and product inventory and proprietary software.
In a release, intellectual property consultant Hilco Streambank notes that “as of September 30, 2015, Quirky’s product line consists of over 240 SKUs (products) in a variety of industry categories from small appliances to power supply devices and productivity gadgets.”
The bid deadline is Nov. 12, with an auction set for Nov. 17. As yet it remains unclear what will happen to unproduced inventions or remaining royalty payments due creators.
Things weren’t supposed to end this way for Quirky, which invited inventors to submit ideas that were then voted on by the Quirky community. Each week, three top vote-getters got backing to realize and then sell their inventions on the site. Community members who suggested tweaks that were then implemented into the product got a cut of sales.
Call it the democratization of product creation, giving the people what they want and not what they’re told to buy.
But in the end, the cost of such a business exceeded what it took in. Reports surfaced often of investments that didn’t pan
out, such as a fog-free shower mirror and a device that could turn any object into a remote-control car. Developing such gadgets alone cost Quirky nearly $1 million, yet neither wound up being sold, according to
The Verge.
Earlier this year, Quirky shifted its strategy to invention partnerships with companies such as audio giant Harmon-Kardon and toymaker Mattel.
Started by New Yorker Ben Kaufman when he was 22, 6-year-old Quirky initially looked to typify a new breed of crowdsourced-based Internet enterprises.
Kaufman’s passion for the idea translated into $185 million in funding from toptier venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as well as pop culture plaudits in the form of appearances on The Tonight
Show and a spotlight in Fortune as one of the country’s most promising companies. The Sundance Channel even created an eponymous series about the company.
This past summer, the company had around $12 million in cash left and was actively seeking further investment, which never surfaced.
Quirky is survived by Wink, maker of $50 Internet of Things home automation hubs. Late last month, Quirky reported that it had a $15 million bid for Wink from California-based supply chain company Flextronics.
Although Quirky may be dead, don’t count out Kaufman, now 28. He’s been an inventor and entrepreneur since his teens, and while in college started Mophie, now a well-known purveyor of iPhone charging cases.