Post-mortem. Quirky closed in September 2015. The account below was written after the end, with the outcome known. Separately, a blind test with the evidence cut off at March 2014, before the end, returned: not called safe. How the blind test works.

Quirky

Dead invention-crowdsourcing startup, bankrupt since 2015, brand now an idle shell

Blind testEvidence cut off March 2014 · Ended September 2015 · Result: not called safe

What happened

Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing (September 2015)

Why it did not hold

Quirky ended as a company in 2015; what survives is a bankruptcy remnant holding a brand name and no operations.

Quirky was a website where regular people could submit product ideas, get feedback from other users, and potentially sell their inventions. The company went bankrupt in 2015 and shut down in 2024. It is not hard to replace because big companies like Amazon and Walmart can run their own invention programs, and artificial intelligence can now do all the main jobs Quirky did: generating ideas, testing them with voters, making design drawings, predicting what customers want, and connecting inventors to manufacturers. The only thing that might matter is whether the company's new shell owner, Q Holdings, actually tries to restart the website or sells the Quirky name to someone else in the next few months, but there are no signs of either happening.

AI pressure: None apparent. Company has no active platform or staff, so no AI product is currently displacing it in any market.

Bigger players: None apparent. Amazon and Walmart could run invention programs, but there is no live Quirky business left for them to threaten.

What protected it. None: the operating company is dead, only Q Holdings LLC's dormant brand and IP purchase remain.

Timeline

2024-04-24Wikipedia confirms Quirky's invention submission platform is no longer accessible
2021-01Wink smart home hub suffers nine day outage after subscription rollout
2020-07-27Wink begins enforcing mandatory $4.99 monthly subscription to stay solvent
2017-Q1Flex discloses $59M sale of Wink to i.am plus, a $38.7M gain
2017-09Quirky relaunches with licensing only model, partnering with Shopify and HSN
2016-07-15Quirky's Chapter 11 reorganization plan confirmed by bankruptcy court
2015-11Wink sold as going concern to Flextronics for $15 million
2015-09-22Quirky Inc. files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
2015-08CEO Ben Kaufman steps down amid layoffs of 111 employees
2015Q Holdings LLC buys Quirky's brand and IP for $4.7 million at auction

Also gone

Chegg closed 2026 Course Hero closed 2026 One Hour Translation / Blend was absorbed 2026

All 62 post-mortems →

This page is a post-mortem, not a live assessment, and it carries no band. The blind-test result is the only part made without knowledge of the outcome.