“Give Your Ideas a Fighting Chance with These 5 Actions” on Entrepreneur
02/26/2014
By Harry Whitehouse, CTO and Co-founder, Endicia
The disruptive industry shaker isn't always the one with the biggest bells and whistles. Instead, the successful first-mover knows that having an idea is one thing, executing it is another, and sustaining that idea -- 10 to 20 years later -- is something else entirely.
When I had my first “big idea,” it was 1989. I had been working with the U.S. Postal Service as an independent consultant and had been tasked with creating a laser-printed envelope that included the then-new POSTNET routing barcode, the destination address and an eagle logo that served as a postage stamp.
That's when this little gem of an idea hit me: if the Postal Service could print postage directly on an “official government” envelope with a PC and printer, then why couldn't an ordinary business person? It seemed simple enough and was sure to save people time because they wouldn't have to drive to the post office. So I filed a patent for PC Postage in 1991.
