Locked

Ideas:
an innovation report

FINDINGS

on Quirkys industry, business model and competitive advantages.

Quirky.com
Quirky is an invention company headquartered in New York
City. Quirky brings products to the marketplace through interaction between the online global community and Quirkys product
design staff.

Disclaimer

Terms and Conditions

North Polar Consultancy

This document is copyrighted by North Polar Consultancy Sevices.
This document may not be reproduced in any manner or redistributed by any means to any person outside of the recipients
organization without the express consent of North Polar.
This report does not constitute an offer to buy or sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security/instrument or to
participate in any particular trading strategy.
The images used for decoration on this site may not be directly
related to North Polar Consultancy Services, its personnel, associates, or practices. The images are often used in a metaphorical
and/or representative manner.
Reference to any products, services, processes, hypertext links to
third parties or other information in this report does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation by North Polar Consultancy Services.

I work to make
innovation accessible

ben kaufman
ceo, Quirky

Contents
7

Introduction

Industry Analysis

Business Model

Customer Segments

Customer Relationships

Value Proposition

Channels

10

Revenue Streams

10

Cost Structures

10

Key Resources

10

Key Partners

11

Competitive Advantage

13

Value

13

Rareness

15

Inimatibility

16

Information Technology

16

Human Resources

17

Recommendations

18

References

This innovation report will analyze Quirky, an invention

company, crowdsourcing the development of its products.
It recommends that Quirky effectively manage its online
community of innovators. An optimal degree of slack should
be maintained at Quirkys workplace to encourage further
innovation.
Quirky must also, ensure that it revises its branding strategy to strengthen customer relationships.

Executive SUmmary

Quirky is a successful product innovation company which

crowd sources the development of its products. The company
has a unique culture within its organization of creativity and
continual innovation. It believes that the best ideas in the
world arent actually in the world but locked inside peoples
heads. Quirkys objective is to offer inventors the platform to
turn an idea into a real product. Its 742,000 inventors and
432 inventions helped it achieve $18 million in revenues for
2013, fuelled by $175 million in venture capital funding.
Quirkys competitive advantages include that of delivering
superior value to its customers by empowering them in the
product development process. Quirkys business model is rare
and innovative because it has created a new market and its
resources and competencies have helped develop a product
development cycle which is rapid and efficient.
Quirky competes within the electronic retailing sector however it follows an innovative product manufacturing and
retailing business model. Its model has been driven by the
modern surge of internet activity and globalization in forums,
blogs and social media.
Players in this industry such as Kickstarter, Inpama and Peerbackers have shown to leverage strategic partnerships in
order to increase their resources. Quirky has partnered with
General Electric in order to access its huge pool of intellectual property. This partnership has enabled it to compete in a
high tech industry. Kickstarter is one of the biggest competitors however it does not manufacture products like Quirky
does. Quirky has been able to avoid direct competition due
to its first mover advantages in crowd sourced product retail.

This user customization business model however, may face

financial difficulties and business model viability due to its
inability to mass manufacture at economies of scale.
Quirky uses a hybrid distribution channel structure. It manufactures products locally in the USA and internationally in
China. These products are sold online on its website and
leading retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Target.
Quirkys revenue streams come from 60% of product sales to
maintain manufacturing costs and IT infrastructure costs. Its
cloud based IT management comprises of systems for state
of the art enterprise resource planning and electronic data
interchange. Its order systems are entirely automated using
this infrastructure. The remaining 40% is distributed to the
community of developers and the inventor of the idea.
The partnerships Quirky has fostered with General Electric
have enhanced its pool of intellectual resources while the
Home Shopping Network proves an effective TV marketing
and distribution medium. Despite this, Quirky must be aware
of the external pressures that these key partners can bring
onto it.
This report recommends that Quirky invest time in the effective management of its portfolio of innovators and community. Quirky can enhance marketing activities through PR
events such as a music concert. Quirky should also effectively
train its workforce and maintain a certain degree of slack at
the workplace to continue to innovate and grow.

Quirkys customer segment is mass market however, it targets

innovators and inventors to source product ideas. The Company has achieved strong competencies in developing customer relationships. It has developed a huge online community which serves as an appraisal system for its product ideas.
It also delivers customer support with using the same online
community and with highly reliable telephony support.

The mindfuck room is

where everyone gathers
to flush out ideas.

quirky introduction
Quirky is a successful product innovation company that has exploited the potential of crowd
sourced innovation within its business model.
This report will be focusing on the business
model of the company and the competitive
strategy it has used used.

Alex Osterwalders canvas will be used to illustrate how the business model
of Quirky interacts to create a revolutionary approach; gaining competitive
advantage within the industry (Osterwalder, 2010). This approach has enabled Quirky to develop a Blue Ocean Strategy and change the perception of
how products are created and delivered to the modern day consumer (Kim
and Mauborgne, 2005).

Quirky believes that the best ideas in world

arent actually in the world, but rather locked
inside peoples heads (Quirky, 2014). Founded
in 2010 by CEO Ben Kaufman; he had the vision that anyone could possess the ability to
create extraordinary ideas, and that those ideas
should be allowed to come to life in the right
environment. Therefore Quirkys objective is to
offer inventors the opportunity to turn an idea,
into real products with mass market potential.

Barney and Hesterlys (2005) VRIO strategic framework will also be utilized
to demonstrate how Quirky gains competitive advantage and delivers on
its economic rent through its resources and capabilities within its business
model.
The analysis in this report will be limited to a certain extent because Quirky
has created an entirely new market and is a start-up itself. Therefore, certain
statistics are unavailable due to the novelty of the analysis.

Within three years of existence Quirky had

raised $175 million in venture capital funding; with a 2013 turnover of $18 million. The
disparity in these numbers is reflected in the
investment for the future potential of its current portfolio of 742,000 inventors and 432
products already manufactured (Griffith, 2013).

$175
mil
Raised since 2009 from number of venture capitalists. Quirky has decided not
to become public as of yet.

Innovation Analysis

Quirky is New yorks

most underrated yet
well funded start up
-Pandodaily, 2013

industry analysis
Quirky has created a valuable intellectual market for itself; however its revolutionary products compete within retailing and e-tailing
sectors. Kauffman, the companys CEO claims
that the firm is not competing classically in the
overcrowded web-based retailing industry.
The open innovation model adopted by Quirky
has been facilitated by the internet revolution
and has resulted in the formation of a new processes across already existing online platforms.
Specifically, the increased use of web communities, social networks and blogs as platforms
for co-collaboration has facilitated a mass
exchange of ideas. Balaneji et al. (2013) highlights how globalization has also contributed
to the quality of this exchange, by permitting
diverse information to flow readily and quickly
across these platforms.
Quirky has been able to avoid direct competition due to the first-mover advantage providing a unique and difficult to imitate operational amalgamation of idea generation (from
crowdsourcing) through to prototyping, manufacturing and mass-production all under one
roof (Quirky Website, 2014).

Players in this industry have leveraged strategic partnerships in order to

access a larger pool of intellectual property resources. Kickstarter for example, has partnered with Amazon.COM, INC in the USA. Stross (2010) reports
that Amazon charges 3-5% on all transactions to Kickstarter in return for its
Amazon Payments service (Kickstarter, 2013). In contrast, Quirky has partnered with GE (General Electric) in order to have preferential access to its
patents and to offer a greater array of potential channels through which it
sells its products.
The result of this partnership has allowed Quirky to compete in an everchanging and technologically savvy industry environment (Balaneji et al.
2013). Within this retail industry, Quirky has several main competitors for
intellectual property; who have emerged in order to exploit the vast potential of intellectual property offered through crowd sourcing (Balaneji et
al. 2013).
Kickstarter provides a crowdfunding online platform that aims to realize
original and inventive projects. The successful company has already funded
57,046 projects since 2009 compared to Quirkys 422 (Kickstarter 2014).
Inpama can also be considered a competitor for intellectual property and is
a company that provides a marketplace where users can try to sell their own
inventions to potential buyers. In contrast to Quirky; Inpama just connects
investors with inventors through a free online platform (Inpama 2013). A
more direct competitor is Peerbackers who provide a web-based platform
that enable users to finance ideas of other users (Peerbackers 2014).

quirky faces
growing competition
8

Business model
canvas
At quirky
Value Proposition
Quirkys value proposition is to make innovation accessible to the mass
public. Quirky delivers this value to its 752,000 member community and
has resulted in the production of 433 inventions to date (Quirky, 2014).

customer segments
Quirkys customer segment comprises of amateur designers.
These are typically home working individuals who freelance design work and do not possess the capabilities to produce their
own industrial designs. Some designers may not have professional experience in industrial design but have ideas for designs
and commercial products.
These designers help design products for sale in mass markets.
Quirkys products are typical household products such as kitchenware, electric tools and high-tech gadgets.

customer relationships
Quirky has managed to gain strong competencies in developing customer relationships. Its huge online community serves
as an appraisal system for its new products and the key process
by which products are brought to market. Quirky has developed
this relationship by giving customers in this online community
power and influence. The online community is driven by a social
networking system using a forum based structure with voting
functionality.
Quirky also provides online customer support driven by the
same method where users can submit questions and receive discussion based replies. Quirky simultaneously offers a telephone
support system available during working hours and limited
times on weekends to users of Quirky products. A combination of
both instant telephony and experienced help from the community helps build a strong relationship with consumers of Quirkys
products.

Innovation Analysis

key activities
The logic behind Quirkys model is to use community involvement to manufacture a product and once enough of produce is sold, it should subsidize
the costs, making community development a cheaper alternative to full
scale R&D operations. Unfortunately, economies of scale through mass
manufacturing will always yield more cost savings than individualized
products made by Quirkys inventors.
Quirkys key activities include that of maintaining its online platform of
members in its community. This includes the online web based portal
where users can network, submit ideas and push a product into delivery.
Quirky also specializes in industrial design and 3D printing to prototype
products and manufacture small quantities of the actual product. The human resources here take an agreed idea and design 3D prototypes, reworking them to meet user needs.
Quirky also acts as a mediator, evaluator and governor of the products that
are manufactured. Realistically, if Quirky is to scale as an organization, the
messy involvement in new product development could hinder its progress
and therefore should make its community only a portion of its source of
revenue.

Channels
Quirky uses a hybrid channel structure to distribute its products to end
consumers. Its online channel allows users to directly purchase Quirkys
products online. The website markets its products into categories such as
mens products, electronic goods and kitchenware. Delivery charges over
$50 of purchase are free. The online channel offers extensive product
details and social networking capabilities. Quirky also sends its products
to retail outlets. This includes revenues from its high-street distribution
channels e.g. Container Store, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Target (FastCompany 2013).

revenue streams

key partners

Quirky has two separate revenue streams. It generates revenue

through a commission based model and a small portion through
usage fees. Every product that Quirky sells, contributes 40% in
revenue to the influencers and creator of that product and the
remaining 60% is held by Quirky (Lumos, 2013). In addition to
this, Quirky also charges a small $10 fee for submitting an idea.
The CEO of Quirky however, highlights that this is not a revenue
stream but a tool to prevent malicious entry into the Quirky community (Lumos, 2013).

Quirkys partners include General Electric and the Home Shopping

Network. Partnering with GE has given it access to a pool of intellectual property which the Quirky community can further exploit as
highlighted earlier. This partnership aids both parties in that GE is
able to outsource its innovation and product development, lowering
its R&D costs while the Quirky community gains access to invaluable intellectual property and revenues from further product sales
(Intellectual Asset Management, 2014). Other key partners for Quirky
include the Home Shopping Network (HSN) which gives Quirky access to public broadcast marketing, its retailers such as Target, Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Quirky forecasted $1m in revenues in 2011 and by 2013 had

achieved revenue of $18m (Taylor, 2011, Forbes, 2014). Other
income that has boosted its cash reserves is a series of cash
injections from venture capitalists totalling $175mil since 2009
(Crunchbase, 2013).

cost structures
Quirkys costs include typical business expenses such as utility,
rent and human resources. It also has to maintain and operate
a state of the art cloud based IT infrastructure. Prototyping and
design costs are also experienced after a product has been approved for production. More significantly, Quirky incurs manufacturing costs in the USA. This also brings the logistics costs involved in distributing to retailers. Finally, Quirky pays out 40% of
a products value to its creators making this a notable expense.

Partners however, simultaneously pose a threat to Quirkys revenue streams and ownership. Quirky may realize superior revenue
streams by acting as an R&D contractor for companies such as GE.
This would put its value proposition in conflict of interest against
enhanced business growth through lower risk. Larger manufacturing
companies may also attempt to buy out Quirky as a subsidiary. In
order to maintain the long-term strategic direction and the fundamental culture of the organisation, it must remain an independent
company. This includes listing on the stock exchange.

key resources
Quirkys key resources include that of its industrial design studio, housed at its headquarters in New York. The studio houses
a 3D printer worth $250 million for prototyping designs (Brown,
2012). Quirky has also generated a pool of intellectual property
from its designs in the form of patents. Furthermore, its partnership with General Electric has resulted in Quirkys community
having access to a larger pool of patents to rework into new
products or reiterations.

This image shows the cycle of development

each inventors idea progresses through to
ensure the quality is consistent with the companys stakeholders and also to maximise potential for future success.

10

Key
Activities

Key
Partners

Industrial prototyping

Co-creating designers, engineers, inventors.

Online retail

Online Physical community.

Marketing

Managing ideas
Manufacturing

Raw material suppliers, instrumentation suppliers.

Capital investors.
Internet & TV Shopping Channels

Value
Proposition
Quirky makes invention
accessible, gives value to
stakeholders by making innovation easily accessible

Cost
Structure
Rent & Utility, HR
External Manufacturers
IT Maintenance
Marketing & Sales
Materials

Key
Resources
Intellectual Property
Physical Building
Instrumentation- 3D printers
IT Infrastructure
Partnerships

11

Innovation Analysis

Customer
Relationships
Power given to online community
Forum based support
Telephony support

Channels
Hybrid channel
Direct online purchases
Traditional retail outlets

Revenue
Streams
Customer
Segments
Amateur designers
Mass market retail

Commission based model

60% of product sales
Usage fees
Venture Capital

business
model
12

competitive
advantage
Value
The innovative element of quirkys model is that it allows much
faster progression through Reis (2011)Build-Measure-Learn
feedback loop due to the ideas the team receive having already
undergone validation by a very large number of people; crucially
removing some of the market uncertainty.
The New York Times (2011) reports that this unique validation
model brings power and value to a unique segment of workers.
These are people who have access to limited capital and contacts and therefore are unable to turn their invention into fruition. Quirky empowers these people by giving them the resources
that rival modern R&D outlets at a fraction of the cost (NY Times,
2011). Quirky operates a unique customer relationship process
that improves the success rate of its products. Quirky also relies
on its active community to contribute to around 2000 new product ideas every week (Digiday, 2013).
The community helps deliver value in a unique way by participating in a democratized invention process to help evaluate and
suggest improvements on the product designs. Every Thursday
night, Quirky holds a product evaluation conference. The most
popular ideas are presented and debated by Quirky staff, community members and industry experts to identify which products
should receive the green light to move into the next stage of the
invention process. Products are placed on a virtual market place
where discounted purchase offers are received. This helps gauge
the level of consumer demand and critique product ideas.

The combination of these two groups releases the valuable potential of crowdsourcing. Quirky exploits crowdsourcing on two
fronts. Firstly by providing the infrastructure to materialise inventors ideas; Quirky encourages a valuable transfer of intellectual property. Secondly, Quirkys community interaction reduces
the inherent risk associated with bringing innovative ideas to
fruition. The customer relationship element of Quirkys business
model is the cornerstone of how it maintains its iterating innovation and capitalises on its first-mover advantage within the
industry. This demonstrates the importance of retaining loyalty
of its online community and employees.
This also adds to the lean advantages of the business model;
as bad ideas are not materialised that would have otherwise occupied the time and resources of Quirky (Reis, 2011). Therefore
influencers attain a sense of community and receive a monetary
benefit and Quirky has reduced R&D costs and lowers the risk
of bringing a new product to the market. This paves way for less
product failures and ultimately, continual growth in sales and
profit for the company.

rareness
This business model is unique within the market (as mentioned
in the environmental analysis) as the combination of crowdsourcing ideas, crowd-validating, Quirky team voting, then immediate prototyping and finally mass-production all essentially
under one-roof. This gives the team remarkable speed to materialise a vision and commercialize it within the market; allowing
in many cases a first-mover advantage into whichever sector the
team is innovating into (Quirky Website, 2014).
The speed at which Quirky is able to do this can be as little as
39 days or up to 90 days (Forbes, 2013). Forbes furthers on to
highlight that Quirkys online community helps keep its product
development fast and cheap. Quirkys chief executive, Ben Kaufman, states that the speed at which they can turn designs into
products is rare to match anywhere else (The Economist, 2012).
After product selection and evaluation; the idea quickly moves
onto design and conception. Quirkys production department
sources raw material from 21 core suppliers and factories and
the quality assurance team finally tests the products. The packaged goods are finally shipped off to 35,000 retail locations
(Dean, 2013).

Quirkys business model delivers value well, is a rare configuration of business model and has strong organizational
competencies but its marketing and brand image need to be
further developed.

13

Innovation Analysis

14

copycats of quirkys
business model are
inevitable.

inimatibility
Inimitability of Quirkys innovations could occur fairly easily via reverse engineering by competitors. Despite this, as the assets of the company grew,
so did the difficulty to replicate its business model innovations. These assets are represented by the established online community of collaborators,
its diversely talented employees e.g. engineers and complex array of physical machinery. Partnerships with large suppliers and key distributors also
provide a key resource. The intangible qualities of the group include its large intellectual capacity and ultimately the brand of quirky that snowballs
the volume of collaborators.
Due to Quirkys speed of materialisation and diversity of potential products and markets; Afuahs (2009) run-strategy appears to have been implemented, in which Quirky capitalises on first-mover advantage by releasing a innovative product, then by the time competitors have caught up it has
moved onto a new product range (Afuah, 2009).
Despite this, Technomy (2012) notes that copycats of Quirkys model are inevitable however, it will be difficult due to the financial resources required
and the assets Quirky has accumulated. Threat from large manufacturing companies such as Procter & Gamble exists who may replicate Quirkys
social production idea.

15

Innovation Analysis

cutting edge cloud

it infrastructure.

unique culture to
nurture creativity.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The coordination of Quirkys resources and capabilities within this unique business model is key to Quirkys organizational success.
In comparison to its product development; the fact that quirky was the first company to offer this service allowed the building and
creation of many of the competitive advantages that came afterwards.
Quirkys ability to do this lies in its IT capabilities and its organizational flow. A team of developers manage a fully cloud delivered
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) package from Netsuite (Forbes, 2013). Due to that fact that Quirky is a modern start up, it is able
to install and utilize systems that are cutting edge and designed for automation. Quirkys systems handle the entire supply chain
process with minimal human input while its front end order fulfilment system uses no user input. Coupled with its state of the art
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), its platform for idea submission and collaboration is highly efficient, interactive and rivals the
product development capabilities of legacy organizations (Technomy, 2012).

HUMAN RESOURCES
Quirky also harnesses its unique culture to nurture its organization. This Quirky culture is transmitted through the staff, rooms,
tables and chairs to encourage thinking outside the box and discourages a closed off thought processes. The culture also provides
a welcoming environment for inventors to submit their ideas; dismantling the potentially intimidating boundaries of approaching
a large organisation with your early-stage idea.

16

recommendations
MANAGING THE QUIRKY CROWD
Quirky should invest time in the effective management of its
portfolio of innovators by offering strong incentives to continue
to submit product ideas. These could be in the form of additional monetary incentives and invitations to exclusive online
and physical events, such as a Quirky music concert. This would
not only reward inventors but would also be a showcase for
relevant products; increasing publicity for the organisation as
a whole.
Chen and Huang (2010) highlights how Firms that effectively
leverage the pool of creative energy in house can elevate the
innovative capabilities well beyond the incremental and mundane. Therefore by retaining and maximising the potential of
Quirkys crucial in-house team the company can lubricate its innovative engine. To enable this Chen and Huang (2010) recommend an optimal degree of slack resources to be maintained
within the organisation in order to maintain experimentation. A
degree of slack within a business operations can be achieved via
the implementation of a lean thinking Kanban board(Womack
& Jones, 2003).
This operational tool ensures each project is seen through to its
fruition before starting another task. This way of working has
been identified in many cases to increase operational efficiency
despite employees often experiencing downtime(Womack &
Jones, 2003). This downtime could be used to put less stress on
employees and encourage creativity within Quirkys workforce.

17

Innovation Analysis

Quirky needs to also be aware that its partners are larger and
may prove to be a source of high revenue. This stream of revenue is a conflict of interest of Qurikys mission. Partners may
also buy out Quirky or it may need to issue stock. Both these
stakeholders pressures compromise Quirkys vision.
QUIRKYS FUTURE
New Product development can become highly complex and difficult to accomplish with a mass of contributors. Quirky should
not wholly rely on its crowd sourced revenue stream but also
organically produce and retail products. Fostering its community will help it achieve its vision but Quirky must also take into
account the viability of its business model and economies of
scale.
Quirkys model is novel and its business model has shown the
capability to disrupt traditional manufacturing industries by
giving consumers a higher level of control over what is manufactured. It will need to continually innovate with its key resources, work culture and organizational processes to grow.

marketing

quirky must
improve
its marketing.

Mcdermot (2013)also highlights how Quirky

struggled to build a well-defined brand experience of its organization to advertise to
the public. This report has highlighted the
importance of Quirkys unusual culture and
therefore the ability of the branding team
to deliver this eccentricity within marketing
will provide the public with a perception of
an exciting and truly unique company. Whilst
this message is delivered within the name itself, every marketing action of the company
should be inventive and capture the imagination of the public. Quirkys name is relatively unknown compared to Kickstarter.

18

19

Innovation Analysis

references
AdAge (2013) Quirky Wants to Topple CPGs by Turning Ordinary
People into Millionaire Inventors. Available at: http://adage.
com/article/digital/quirky-topple-cpgs-making-inventors-investors/240486/ (Accessed: 20 Feb 2014).
Afuah, A. (2009) Strategic Innovation:New Game Strategies for
Competitive Advantage, 1st edn., New York: Routledge.
Balaneji, S.G. et al. (2013) Analysis of Open Innovation System,
Active Citizenship by Management, Knowledge Management &
Innovation Knowledge and Learning.
Barney, B., Hesterly, S. (2005) Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage: Concepts. , New Jersey : Pearson Education.
Blank, S. (2006) The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful
Strategies for Products that Win. 3rd edition, Cafepress.com.
Brown, R. (2012) 3D printing and the future of product design: Inside Quirky, Available at: http://news.cnet.com/830117938_105-57374372-1/3d-printing-and-the-future-ofproduct-design-inside-quirky/ (Accessed: 19th Feb 2014).
CrunchBase (2014) Quirky, Available at: http://www.crunchbase.
com/company/quirky(Accessed: 20th Feb 2014).
Dean, J. (2014) Is This the Worlds Most Creative Manufacturer? ,
Available at:http://www.inc.com/magazine/201310/josh-dean/
is-quirky-the-worlds-most-creative-manufacturer.html
(Accessed: 20th February 2014).
Digiday (2013) Inside Quirkys Communal Approach to Marketing, Available at:http://digiday.com/brands/quirkys-communityapproach-marketing/ (Accessed: 20th Feb 2014).
Drummond, J. (2014) GEs open innovation strategy set to
reap rewards in Canada,Available at: http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/detail.aspx?g=5a3398d7-e3ee-4284-b71683b96412e214 (Accessed: 21st Feb 2014).

Examiner (2014) Quirky set to manufacture a dozen new smart

products in 2014,Available at: http://www.examiner.com/
article/quirky-set-to-manufacture-a-dozen-new-smart-products-2014 (Accessed: 20th Febuaray 2014).
FastCompany (2013) Quirkys Combination For Off-The-Shelf
Success: Crowdsourced Test Market And Innovative Inventors.
Available at: http://www.fastcompany.com/3004345/quirkyscombination-shelf-success-crowdsourced-test-market-and-innovative-inventors (Accessed: 19 Feb 2014).
Financial Times (2013) Companies, Financial Times, 21st February , p. 3.
Forbes (2014) How Quirky uses Technology to Dispute Manufacturing, Available at:http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2013/11/01/how-quirky-uses-technology-to-disrupt-manufacturing/ (Accessed: 13 March 2014).
Frenkel, K. (2012) Manufacturer Quirky finds China not always
cheapest, Available at:http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/
Manufacturer-Quirky-finds-China-not-always-3675966.php
(Accessed: 20th February 2014).
Griffith, E. (2013 ) With $79 million Series D round, Quirky is
New Yorks most underrated (yet well-funded) startup, Available
at:
http://pando.com/2013/11/13/with-79-million-series-dround-quirky-is-new-yorks-most-underrated-yet-well-fundedstartup/(Accessed: 13th Feb 2014).
Harvey, A. (2012) We Built That: Will the Quirky Model Be Replicated?, Available at:http://techonomy.com/2012/09/we-builtthat-will-the-quirky-model-be-replicated/(Accessed: 21st Feb
2014).
Inpama (2014) Marketplace for ideas. Available at: http://www.
inpama.com/ (Accessed: 20 feb 2014)
Kickstarter (2014) Kickstarter Stats. Available at: https://www.
kickstarter.com/help/stats. (Accessed: 1 March 2014)
Kim, W. Mauborgn, R. (2005) Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create
Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant.
1st ed. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
Lumos Business Solution (2013) Business Model Breakdown
- Quirky.com, Available at: http://www.lumosforbusiness.com/
blog/722 (Accessed: 19th Feb 2014).

20

McDermott, J. (2013) Quirky Wants to Topple CPGs by Turning

Ordinary People into Millionaire Inventors, Available at: http://
adage.com/article/digital/quirky-topple-cpgs-making-inventors-investors/240486/ (Accessed: 13th Feb 2014).
McKEOUGH, T. (2011) Got a Good Idea? Ben Kaufman of Quirky.
com Will Be the Judge of That, The New York Times, 21st February , p. 12.
Osterwalder, A. Pigneur, Y. (2010) Business Model Generation.
[ONLINE] Available at:http://www.businessmodelgeneration.
com/downloads/businessmodelgeneration_preview.pdf.
[Accessed 28 February 14].
Peerbackers (2014) How it works. Available at: http://peerbackers.com/how-it-works/easy-to-setup/ (Accessed: 20 Feb 2014)
Popular Mechanics (2014) How Quirky Turns Ideas Into Inventions, Available at:http://www.popularmechanics.com/
technology/gadgets/news/how-quirky-turns-ideas-into-inventions-16344763 (Accessed: 19th February 2014).
Quirky (2013) Quirky + GE. Available at: https://www.quirky.
com/ge (Accessed: 24 Feb 2014)
QVC (2014) OVC, Available at: http://www.qvc.com/ (Accessed:
12th March 2014).
Ries, E. (2011) The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses, Penguin Group, London.
Stross, R. (2010) You, Too, Can Bankroll a Rock Band, The New
York Times, 19th February , p. 4.
Techonomy (2012) We Built That: Will the Quirky Model Be Replicated?, Available at:http://techonomy.com/2012/09/we-builtthat-will-the-quirky-model-be-replicated/(Accessed: 13th Feb
2014).
The Economist (2012) All together now , Available at:http://
www.economist.com/node/21552902 (Accessed: 19th February
2014).
Womack, J., Jones, D. (2003). Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and
Create Wealth in your Corporation. New York: Free Press.

21

Innovation Analysis

Quirky.com

north polar consultancy

0123 Colony
Mars

Ph. +00 123 456 78

Fax. +00 123 456 78

Scan the code!

email: info@mars.com
www.npconsultancy.com

for more analytics & reports

Contact us today. We are industry leading innovation consultants
based on Mars. The first company to operate sucessfully on the distant planet.