Kickstarter has made a name for itself as a site that gives new businesses a chance. With a good idea and marketing plan, and a stellar video, many, many individuals have found their dreams have come true because of the likes of Kickstarter. If you have not heard of Kickstarter, it’s a website that allows individuals to have their creative projects independently funded. From a film, photography trip, to a new product. Backers then decide if they want to fund the project, and the creator comes up with price points and different offers that backers would receive for their funds. The project has a time limit and the amount of money the creator needs to raise has to be funded 100% for the project to go forward.

Recently while looking online for a case for my iPhone, I came across: Quirky. The name of the site first caught my eye, and then as I started to dig deeper, I realized it was a Kickstarter-esque website. Rather than having backers, the site lets you submit your idea, and others that visit the site can vote for your idea. There is a time limit. Every Thursday you can watch live as Quirky votes on what idea they will begin to develop. The individual with the original idea is involved in the entire process, and once the product is ready you get to sell it on their site.

Quirky allows your inventions to come to life, with the help of others who may just have the expertise to make something happen. They have a variety of categories, from kitchen items, to play, to travel, to electronics. When you look at the detail of the product, you will find who invented the product, where they are from, how many ideas they have had, how many votes they received, how long it took to develop the product, and how many units they have sold. That is transparency!

One invention I thought was clever was the Broom Groomer. It has almost like a comb attached, so that when you use the broom to pull the dust into the dust pan it gets all the remnants off the end of the broom. Clever. Or the Brim toilet brush. I have been trying to find a brush that gets in the hard to clean spots in a toilet.

I am going to head back to quirky.com and see what other inventions inspire me.