Sharing a Product Idea: Is it Worth the Cost?

On April 25, 2014, Garthen Leslie and Ben Kaufman, Quirky founder and CEO, appeared on the Bloomberg television show, In the Loop, hosted by Betty Liu, to discuss how they had teamed up to move Garthen’s idea to an actual product. Garthen had invented a smartphone application that could control and monitor the operation of a window air conditioner. This invention evolved into the Aros smart air conditioner, a Quirky and GE cobranded product. It had been a little over a year since that appearance; yet a few of Garthen’s close friends and family members still enjoyed kidding him about his “deer in the headlights” reaction to Betty’s question regarding whether or not his share of potential earnings from his invention was enough. As he reminisced about the Aros’ evolution, Garthen wondered if his answer to Betty’s question would be the same if it were asked today.