Still, what Quirky has done for many inventors is to make placing a product on store shelves an attainable aspiration. And that has attracted a crowd of enthusi

Still, what Quirky has done for many inventors is to make placing a product on store shelves an attainable aspiration. And that has attracted a crowd of enthusiasts: a million registered users, 66 percent male, with the largest single cluster between the ages of 26 to 36. The rapid metamorphosis from Kluster -> NameThis -> Quirky has been pretty astonishing. The most brilliant aspect of this company is that it doesn't just "say" it values the community for its ideas and contributions. It really does. Ben is the rarest kind of CEO ... charismatic but honest. Over a million community members today... and I was one of the very first (#63), having earned, as of today, just a shade under $20K in royalties. There's a huge value and business opportunity for companies who are honest enough to adopt this model. Most startups (especially those in YC land) allocate profit sharing _exclusively_ to early employees and the VCs. But the Quirky model really turned that idea around and offered one of the first profit-sharing opportunities to folks from userland. This is a company to be greatly admired, and it's already leagues ahead of the game in many respects.