Plugged in to new ideas

Q. When did it become more than just a final project at RISD?

A. Well, even during that summer program, I thought it was an idea that was better than just a project; I thought it was a viable product. But I knew nothing about bringing a product to market. I was working with a family friend who is an intellectual property lawyer. He and I were doing our best to investigate the patent landscape to see if anything similar existed; the answer, essentially, was no. Sometime in 2010, he let me know about a company called Quirky. A few weeks after that I sent them the idea because I was bored in class one day.

Q. Were you frustrated with the problem that this idea helps to solve?

A. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, but I think that annoyance is kind of the seed of necessity because it’s only when something is so annoying, then you’re so frustrated that it feels like you need to invent a solution. I have plenty of little gadgets and I had just spent one too many hours plugging and unplugging and looking at this stupid thing that had eight [outlets] on it when I could only fit five. I spent so much time trying to get that to work that I probably said, “Damn! I wish I could just flex this thing. I wish I could just stretch and make all of them fit!’’ And then I was like, “Well how hard would that be?’’

Q. Turns out not too hard, right?

A. Yeah, apparently not. It wasn’t exactly trivial. You should ask the engineers who worked on it at Quirky; it wasn’t easy. But it’s easy for the consumer, and that’s great.

Q. Is the final product how you envisioned the initial idea?