Author Archive
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Fri 2 Oct 2009
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Wed 30 Sep 2009
Cordies Hits The Store
Cordies hits quirky’s online store! Commit now for $9.99 and earn influence! We need 400 to take this one from pre-sales to manufacturing. GO GO GO!
Cordies is an on-your-desk cable management system. This product organizes your wires while helping to keep your work station tidy and uncluttered. Cordies’ playful form, small size, and quirky colors makes it a product that you’d like placing on your desk.
Each cordie (spanning about 3.5 inches wide) has 3 individual loop spaces enabling you to store many cables at once. You can stack cables on top of one another inside each loop, leaving ample space for your power cords, USB cords, cell phone charger, audio cables, headphones, firewire, and more.
Cordies are made of weighted yet flexible rubber, allowing for a perfectly sturdy grip. -
Mon 28 Sep 2009
New and Improved Payment System
So, it’s getting to be time to ship product, which means it’s time for you guys to start earning money. We’ve updated our payment system so it’s far easier and more efficient for you all to receive your earnings. Here’s how it all works:
As soon as you earn 75 dollars (you can view this from your payments/moneys tab in your profile) we will ask you to fill out your payment profile. Your payment profile will include info such as your mailing address (where you would like to receive your checks). Keep in mind this payment profile page is an SSL, secure, and encryped page AVAILABLE TO NO ONE except our finance and wire department.
If you are a US citizen and you have a US bank account:
You have the option of receiving your payments via check or ACH. We will mail your check to you and obviously pay for the postage. ACH is a direct transfer to your bank account. Think – direct deposit at work. (Only this is direct deposit from quirky.)
If you are NOT a US citizen:
You have the option of receiving your payments via check (which we will mail to you and pay for the mailing fee ourselves) or if you’d like the money immediately we can arrange that this money be wired to you (the small wire fee will come out of your earnings).
Some other things to note:
1. Once you earn 600 dollars, we will arrange for tax info to be received. This will NOT be done on our website or on your payment profile page (for obvious security reasons) but will be done offline – either by phone or by snail mail.
2. You can request your withdrawl any time there is 75 dollars or more in your account but not more than one request for withdrawl per week.
3. We will process all withdrawl requests within 72 hours of receiving them. (aka your check will be cut within 72 hours of you requesting it or your money will be directly deposited within 72 hours after requesting it).
4. There is no limit to how much you can withdraw at any period as long as you have at least 75 dollars (all you x-namethisers will be happy to hear that one!)
To ease your curiousity (we know you are all wondering why we got rid of the Payoneer cards?):
– well for one, we know the 200 dollar limit was a matter of utter annoyance to you all
– and more importanlty, from the business side of things, we have found that this route is far more sustainable. This route does not include fees, holding companies, and we are pleased to say that the money will go straight form us to you rather than through any middle man or woman. Yeah, so thats right, you’ll get your money far more efficiently!
Of course, we’ve got ol’ faithful tinydino ready to answer any questions you’ve got. So go bother tinydino@quirky.com if you need anything or have any questions!
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Fri 18 Sep 2009
LugeCubes hits quirky’s online store!
No need to wait for that wedding, bar mitzvah, or frat party, now you can quickly build and customize your own ice luge at home or in your dorm room.
Quirky’s LugeCubes set comes with 3 mold designs, a drinking spout and an image only, no reading required, assembly instruction booklet. You can choose to ice luge with one, two, or three tiers – each tier is an 8” x 8” x 8” cube. So stack ‘em all or keep it to one: it’s up to you how fast you want to get that liquor into your system.
We’ve carefully crafted the tubular luge design to allow the drinker to see the liquor traveling through the ice (READ: easy to imbibe when intoxicated). The drinking spout is removable and reusable so you can give it a quick clean between drinkers – mom may not be proud your drinking, but she’ll be glad to know you aren’t spreading H1N1 around your frat house.
Commit to your LugeCubes now – only $22.47 in pre-sales. We need 300 to move this thing to manufacturing.
Go go go, get your LugeCubes and earn influence by committing in pre-sales!
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Tue 15 Sep 2009
Quirky Manufacturing Decisions
When we started quirky we thought it would be fantastic if we were able to produce all of our products locally. But just like any startup business, plans change due to circumstances.
When the split-stick hit threshold a few weeks back, we immediately knew sourcing a memory-based product in the US would be a tough task. That, above & beyond meeting our promise to deliver the a quality product to customers within 8 weeks. Oy.
Luckily, we were able to find a manufacturer in china who was able to meet our demands on quality and timeframe, and began working with them immediately.
Our desire to transition manufacturing back to the US is a very strong one. It requires an incredible amount of speed and quality on behalf of the manufacturer, something we are willing to pay a reasonable premium for.
If you are a manufacturer anywhere in the world and love what we’re doing and think you can keep up… let us know.
Keith (our lead engineer) and I are boarding a plane to Hong Kong in a few hours and will provide a few video updates for you along the way. Splitstick has just finished tooling and is going into production/assembly this week (which we will be there to oversee) and Digidude has a production ready prototype which I will share with you later in the week.
Things are really coming along. We’d appreciate hearing your thoughts on our decision – Ben
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Mon 14 Sep 2009
Site Updates and Optimization
Hi All,
Sorry for the site slowness a bit over the past few hours. We have an had an immense amount of stress on the servers due to the heightened activity (all good problems, we guess)! We are working towards making this quirky experience faster and better for you all.
Also, thanks to everyone who has passed suggestions to the tiny little dino. While he is little, he has lots of power. We are taking many of your suggestions and will constantly be pushing updates as we make ‘em.
We are about to unleash a faster quirky site very soon. As always, let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks!
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Mon 14 Sep 2009
An Interview With Jeff Scholen: The Man Behind The PowerCurl
As we always do when a product moves into manufacturing – it’s time to hear a few words from Jeff Scholen the original ideator of our cord wrap for Apple’s MagSafe Power adaptor. Below is an interview with Jeff:
1. When did you think of the idea for the PowerCurl?
I bought my first Mac in May of this year. I hated the cord from the start and got to thinking about how it could be improved to make it slimmer so that it could fit into my laptop bag.
2. Had you tried to make this thing on your own already?
I doodled sketches of how the idea could work, but never finalized it.
3. what do you do? (job-wise, ya know, when you are not on quirky)
I am an engineer for a medical device company
4. where are you from?
Atlanta
5. who/where do you derive your creative inspiration from?
Who: I believe all good things (including my creative ideas) come from God.
Where: I am a vacuum for information. Every so often, 2 or 3 pieces of information will clash and an idea will pop into my head.
6. What do you wish quirky had that it does not already?
It would be nice to have a count of units sold/earnings online after pre-sale is done. It would help to motivate myself and others to submit more ideas. I’d also like a description of what people do to gain influence listed online to better understand the process.
7. What store would you love to see PowerCurl in?
Apple or apple.com of course!
8. What is your favorite deli meat? What is your favorite cereal?
Roast beef is my favorite, but I don’t eat it much. Turkey is better for me. Cereals come and go, but Cheerios is a classic. -
Fri 11 Sep 2009
A New Quirky Record !!!
Well, it’s just about 5:45 pm here at the quirky HQ and we have already sold 650 units of the PowerCurl. That’s absolutely insane. You all rock.
Thanks for your support and enthusiasm this week as we hit threshold on two products (remember Scratch-n-Scroll hit threshold earlier this week) and had our first crazy quick & quirky event.
Split Stick, DigiDudes and other updates will be coming again very soon! Hit us over the weekend if you have any questions…we’ll be here!
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Fri 11 Sep 2009
That Was Quick! – Another to Threshold!
We literally just sold over 200 units of the PowerCurl in just over an hour. This thing is HOT.
PowerCurl hit the online store yesterday at 10:30 am and well, now it’s 10:30 am and we have already hit threshold. Fastest quirky product to hit pre-sales yet.
Good thing is …. you can still buy it at the low price of $9.99
Wow, we are seriously impressed and HAPPY over here at the quirky HQ. Those sleepless 38 hours have paid off.
Another quirky product off to manufacturing! Thanks to all our influencers! -
Thu 10 Sep 2009
Kickster: The Case That Makes A Stand
Yes, we know, one product in 24 hours seemed crazy enough. But never put it past the quirky to accomplish the seemingly impossible. We are happy to announce the launch of Kickster as well.
quirky’s kickster is an awesomely new case designed by the quirky community and apple enthusiasts worldwide within 24 hours of apple’s announcement of the 5th generation iPod nano. We designed this scratch resistant case with the maximum combination of beauty and function.
This case maintains a slim profile while adding a ton of functionality. We’re talking: hard plastic exterior, cord wrap, shock-resistant silicone core, as well as full body and screen protection.
Oh, but that’s only half of it. This case comes packed with a hand steadying video grip that transforms into vertical and horizontal kickstands. For more product specific details, check out the product’s page.
Also, please be kind: our render farm had a technical glitch circa 5 am this morning so there are currently only low resolution renders. We don’t have all the views we wanted to show you, but keeping to our promise, we have launched this product. We will be updating the images throughout the day. What we can promise you now, is this thing will be fantastic!
Commit to pre-sales now!