Bean Blog

In the wave of the social media boom, along comes a site like quirky.com. Who better to help invent the next “big thing” than a group of your peer-to-peers? (ha! get it?)

The premise is simple – pay $99 and submit your invention concept for the “idea of the week”. Previous ideas have included “Weigh to go” (a portable luggage scale), “Digits” (gloves for using your devices on cold days) and “Mugster” (a spoon that conveniently hangs on your coffee cup). 

Once the week ends, voting, or rather, “influencing” begins on the submitted items. Here is where your write up and photos/illustrations get put in front of the community to review, assess and give suggestions. The “official” product of the week is then chosen and sent into the “lab” to be developed.

In the lab, the product is named, marketed, improved and generally brought to life. Those “influencers” who have voted and offered suggestions watch as their contributions are utilized to develop a full-fledged product into what was once, simply an idea on paper. Quirky then builds a prototype and the product goes up for “pre-sale” at a reduced cost. 

And here’s why it’s brilliant — not only does the inventor make money on sales, but all those “influencers” who helped the product make it to market earn cold, hard cash (a percentage of total revenue). Everyone wins!

There is a minimum number of items that must be sold before the product can actually make it to market but once there, the possibilities can become endless.

It’s probably not going to make you a millionaire but I know I’m looking forward to receiving my “Frosty Faces” kit (like Mr. Potato Head for snowmen), hopefully in time for the next big blizzard, even if it is still July.