10 Failed Inventor Initiatives, from the Franklin Institute to Quirky

Quirky is a self-proclaimed "social product development" firm based in New York City that turns napkin sketches into finished products. Founded in 2009, Quirky uses the internet to democratize innovation by partnering America's armchair inventors with the wisdom of crowds and the firm's own design expertise. "We started the company to make invention accessible," said Quirky's brash young founder, Ben Kaufman, in 2013. "People come to our site, submit their ideas, and the best new ideas make their way all the way to retail shelves and we do all the heavy lifting in between." 1