I'm running a kickstarter right now but had never heard of QUIRKY until this thread. I'm curious as well, I have a prototype of a product that I think is very marketable but INVENT-HELP and DAVISON want money and I've already done the prototyping so I feel like anyone who is going too try to profit on it needs to be in it as deep as I am and invest before they get a return.
I'm running a kickstarter right now but had never heard of QUIRKY until this thread. I'm curious as well, I have a prototype of a product that I think is very marketable but INVENT-HELP and DAVISON want money and I've already done the prototyping so I feel like anyone who is going too try to profit on it needs to be in it as deep as I am and invest before they get a return.
QUIRKY wants (from what I have been told) 50% of profits. They are supposed to do the ground work? You just give them a good idea and come up with your own patent or provisional? This is why I want advice from others. I want to know if they are a viable source for inventions?
Their explanation of how it works is lacking something, plus, you submit your invention to them, they show it to the internet, the internet decides if they like it or not and then they once again decide with "experts" (They don't say in what exactly) on what they will manufacture.
The first problem I see is that you display your idea on the internet. This means that anyone could potentially copy it. You don't have the funds to manufacture the idea, you likely don't have the funds to fight a copycat in court.
The second thing is, your invention is going through a gauntlet where people decide whether they like it or not, and they most likely aren't the type of people you would market your idea to.
I had an ex coworker that was considered for a position there as a model shop guy, he told me their facilities were awesome and they had a lot of diverse projects going on. That being said, whats your end goal with this?
If you don't have the time, energy, and/ or commitment to run traffic campaigns and test the market, prototype, deal with manufacturers/ suppliers (Massive headache), import product, set up distribution/ ecommerce platform, marketing (More paid traffic/ social media/ etc.), then by all means try Quirky. If you try this on your own you can expect the process to take at least 6 months if everything goes perfectly- which it almost never does. More like 8 months+ from what I've seen from fellow entrepreneurs/ inventors.
Like Brad mentioned, a major issue is your idea being put out there into the internet. For me that'd be a deal breaker. Then theres the fact that they don't necessarily present it to your potential market which defeats the purpose to me.
Same boat, I have an idea that will rival the upside down ketchup bottle but I don't know who to trust.
Trust no one, you can patent it, copyright it and everything else and all someone has to do is send the idea to china and they will outsource you are outsell you before your idea is even ready for the market, even after you get it done.
I had an idea as well, but am so busy around the farm that I have yet to make the very first prototype and that really is something you need to test out your idea to make sure it works the way you think it will.
Hope that helped.
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
