“Invention Startup Quirky Files for Bankruptcy

Ahmed Saad

MBA 511

ID# 108281680

Gerrit Wolf

“Invention Startup Quirky Files for Bankruptcy”

When I look into the future I always wonder about the great innovations and technological achievements that we will come up with. I have great respect for those that are willing to risk everything for the chance to both make money and improve our lives. When I first heard of quirky I was pretty excited, I thought here is a company that is here to help. According to the Quirky website “Quirky is a community company. Our mission is to make invention accessible. We believe everyone can be an inventor, and invention can happen anywhere.” By reading this I felt hope. I said there is a company that is willing to go out there and help people make their dreams come true, and I wasn’t the only one. “Quirky had been able to raise $170 million from several firms, including Norwest Venture Partners LP, RRE Ventures” this quote from the article shows us that many people had faith in quirky which is why all these firms were willing to invest so much money. I am disappointed however to see that Quirky is now filing for bankruptcy. This just makes me question how such a company that had so much promise is now filing for bankruptcy.

It must be an issue of strategy then. We already know that it is very hard for inventions and products to kick off successfully and to make money so we know that this is very risky on Quirky’s part. Right now the only success we see coming Quirky’s way is the $15 million offer that it has for its subsidiary Wink. The question still remains, how did Quirky plummet? We see that Quirky has launched many unsuccessful products that have continued to harm the company. When Kaufman founded the company he aimed to “create a crowd-sourced invention platform, whereby inventors could pitch their ideas and solicit help.” That was the strategy that the company was based upon a place for those seeking help to find it. An opportunity for both investors...