Quirky
Quirky was a New York-based crowdsourced invention platform, founded in 2009, that enabled community members to submit and refine product ideas for retail commercialization. It served consumer hardware markets via partnerships with retailers and corporate investors such as General Electric.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2009
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What Quirky does
Quirky was a New York-based, for-profit company founded in 2009 that built a crowdsourced invention platform allowing external participants to submit, evaluate, refine, and commercialize product ideas. The platform's functional role was to compress the gap between consumer ideation and retail product launch by routing submissions through community voting and in-house industrial design, then bringing selected products to market through retail and corporate partnerships. Quirky employed between 101 and 250 people at its operational peak and operated across consumer hardware categories including connected home products developed in partnership with General Electric following GE's lead investment in the November 2013 $79 million round.
The company was funded primarily through venture capital across nine reported rounds totaling roughly $185 million, with marquee investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Norwest, RRE Ventures, and General Electric. Quirky's leadership at the time of available data includes founder Jason Port in a founding-investor and strategic-business-development capacity and Ihab Rimawi as CTO. The company's go-to-market combined community-driven ideation with mass retail distribution and corporate co-branded product lines, notably the Wink smart-home hub.
Quirky is no longer operational: quirky.com is currently a placeholder page offering the domain for sale, and there have been no material funding rounds since a $10 million raise in December 2014. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2015, and no current revenue, headcount, product, or customer base is documented in the input.
Quirky firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Quirky
- Website
- https://quirky.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2009
- Operating status
- Closed
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- Quirky was a New York-based crowdsourced invention platform, founded in 2009, that enabled community members to submit and refine product ideas for retail commercialization. It served consumer hardware markets via partnerships with retailers and corporate investors such as General Electric.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Quirky industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Consumer Electronics
- NAICS
- Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers (45912)
- SIC
- Retail-Hobby, Toy & Game Shops (5945)
- akta.pro primary industry
- DIY Kits, STEM Electronics & Maker Bundles Retail (CRACAKAN)
Keywords
Where Quirky is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Quirky business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D
Quirky product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Quirky operates a crowd-sourced invention platform where individuals submit product ideas that are then developed, manufactured, and commercialized by the company, with revenue shared with the originating inventor. The platform transforms community-submitted ideas into branded consumer products sold through major retailers and the company's own channels. Founded in 2009, Quirky has historically focused on consumer-facing products including smart home devices and household inventions.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Quirky Invention Platform
- Wink Smart Home Hub
Companies that use Quirky
Customer profileIdeal customer profiles2 records
Quirky technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Quirky partnerships and signals
Strategic signalRecent moves2 records
Quirky competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Threadless: Threadless runs a community-driven design platform where user-submitted designs are voted on, produced, and sold as apparel and home goods. It is the closest direct analogue to Quirky's crowdsourced invention-to-retail model.
- Lego Ideas: Lego Ideas is a crowdsourced product design platform where fans submit and vote on set concepts that Lego may produce and sell commercially — a comparable user-submitted invention-to-shelf model.
- Local Motors: Local Motors pioneered co-created, community-designed vehicles and micro-manufacturing, sharing Quirky's thesis of moving crowdsourced designs from idea to physical product.
- Shapeways: Shapeways is a maker/3D-printing marketplace that turns designer-submitted creations into sellable physical goods, overlapping with Quirky's invention-to-market pipeline.
- MakerBot: MakerBot sells consumer 3D printers and printing products that enabled the same maker/inventor audience Quirky targeted, and shares a retail-led go-to-market approach.
Broad incumbents
- Adafruit: Adafruit is an established DIY electronics and maker retailer selling kits and components to hobbyists. It overlaps with the maker and invention-adjacent product categories Quirky served.
- SparkFun Electronics: SparkFun is a long-standing DIY electronics retailer focused on maker and education kits. It addresses a similar hobbyist and inventor customer base as Quirky's electronics inventions.
Emerging players
- Kickstarter: Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that lets creators validate and fund product concepts before retail, overlapping with Quirky's community-driven invention pipeline.
- Indiegogo: Indiegogo is a crowdfunding marketplace for new consumer products and inventions, addressing the same inventor-and-backer dynamic that powered Quirky's submissions.
Others
- Product Hunt: Product Hunt is a discovery and community-launch platform for new products, an adjacent ecosystem for surfacing consumer inventions similar to those Quirky developed.
Market position
Strengths3 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights4 records
Customer concentration
Quirky social profiles
Digital presenceQuirky financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Quirky leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Quirky funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds9 records
Investors11 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Quirky M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Quirky
What does Quirky do?
Quirky operates a crowd-sourced invention platform where individuals submit product ideas that are then developed, manufactured, and commercialized by the company, with revenue shared with the originating inventor. The platform transforms community-submitted ideas into branded consumer products sold through major retailers and the company's own channels. Founded in 2009, Quirky has historically focused on consumer-facing products including smart home devices and household inventions.
When was Quirky founded?
Quirky was founded in 2009. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Quirky based?
Quirky is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
Who are Quirky's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Threadless, Lego Ideas, Local Motors, Shapeways and MakerBot. Broad incumbents are Adafruit and SparkFun Electronics. Emerging players are Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Product Hunt is listed as an others.
Does Quirky have an API?
No public API is recorded for Quirky.
What industry is Quirky in?
Quirky's product category is Consumer Electronics. Its primary akta.pro industry code is CRACAKAN, DIY Kits, STEM Electronics & Maker Bundles Retail. Its NAICS code is 45912 and its SIC code is 5945.