Quirky.com Founder and CEO to speak at VCU’s da Vinci Day

By Tom Gresham

Ben Kaufman, the founder and CEO of Quirky.com, which weds product development with social media, will be the featured speaker at VCU’s annual da Vinci Day.

Kaufman, 24, who Inc. Magazine four years ago named the top entrepreneur in the country under the age of 30, will speak on April 13 at 1 p.m. in Commonwealth Ballroom B at the VCU Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave. A reception will immediately follow his presentation, which is free and open to the public. Kaufman will speak about the Quirky model, social media and product design and development.

Kaufman’s first entrepreneurial venture was the founding of an iPod accessory company called mophie when he was still in high school. Mophie won “Best in Show” at MacWorld 2006 and was acquired a year later. Kaufman launched Quirky in June of 2009. Quirky uses a unique technology platform to facilitate social product development.

Each week Quirky brings two brand new consumer products to market by enabling a fluid conversation between a global community and Quirky's expert product design staff.  The world influences their business in real time, and Quirky shares its revenue directly with the people who helped them make successful decisions. For more information, go to http://www.quirky.com/about.

Da Vinci Day serves as a celebration of the da Vinci Center for Innovation at VCU and the work that students produce. A collaboration of VCU’s Schools of the Arts, Business and Engineering, the da Vinci Center for Innovation is a unique collegiate model that advances interdisciplinary innovation and technology-based entrepreneurship. Through academic and other program offerings, the da Vinci Center catalyzes innovation through the unity of arts, business and engineering communities as it prepares students to enter a product innovation career and supports learning initiatives by partner organizations.

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia recently approved a new master’s degree in product innovation at VCU. The graduate track, which will launch in January 2012, will be run through the da Vinci Center.