Even before Benjamin Franklin tied a key to his kite, being an inventor has been a hard gig to crack.
Now, everyone can participate in an invention revolution thanks to Adelaide boy turned New Yorker, Chad Hetherington and his 'Quirky' company.
Chad is Vice President of Business Development for a two year old startup called Quirky. Quirky.com is a social product development company based in NYC that makes invention accessible.
The Sundance Channel in the USA has just announced a six episode series about Quirky that will premiere on August 30th in the states.
The show will follow 12 people as Quirky takes their inventions from idea to reality.
The inventors range from everything from a mother of two with her clever all-in one pasta strainer, to a copywriter and father in Kansas City who added a 'twist' to the ordinary can opener with 'Can Do'.
Check out Chad in a sneak preview of the show below.
Chad founded a production company in 2004 when he was just 23 and moved to the USA in 2007 before working for Quirky.
"People from all over the world submit their product idea to our website. We get anywhere from 400-800 idea submissions every single week," says Chad.
The ideas range from simply genius to totally bizarre, yet each shares the same goal: to create innovative solutions to everyday problems.
Every Friday, Quirky selects two brand new product ideas and begins a rapid design phase using the help of over 80,000 people worldwide.
The online community helps Quirky to determine everything about the product from features and benefits to colours and names, to help make it the best possible product on the market.
If the product sells well in pre-sale on the site, it moves to manufacturing where it's sold to mass retailers in the US including Bed Bath & Beyond, OfficeMax, HSN, Frys Electronics, Barnes & Noble and 18 countries worldwide.
"The kicker is that we not only pay a royalty back to the inventor, but also to the thousands of “influences” who contributed to the design of the product," says Chad.
"Some people have made some real money including the inventor of Pivot Power who is set to make six figures this year!"
Check out the Quirky website and maybe even submit an invention of your own! http://www.quirky.com/
For more information on the show go to the Sundance Channel website. http://www.sundancechannel.com/quirky/
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