Invention takes a Quirky turn

Even after raising $40 million as a tech entrepreneur, Ben Kaufman, 25, still says his first round of funding was the most difficult.
It wasn't just because he was fresh out of high school, having celebrated only 18 birthdays at that point. It was because he had to convince his parents to raise the $185,000 he needed by remortgaging their Long Island home — not to pay for college, mind you, but to back a kid's dream of producing a really cool pair of headphones.
"I always say it was the hardest convincing I ever had to do with any investor," Kaufman recalls. Before taking that money and heading to China to find a manufacturer, all he had was a prototype concocted out of ribbon and gift wrap.

Invention takes a Quirky turn

Even after raising $40 million as a tech entrepreneur, Ben Kaufman, 25, still says his first round of funding was the most difficult.
It wasn't just because he was fresh out of high school, having celebrated only 18 birthdays at that point. It was because he had to convince his parents to raise the $185,000 he needed by remortgaging their Long Island home — not to pay for college, mind you, but to back a kid's dream of producing a really cool pair of headphones.