Of all my ideas, my packaging innovation, Spinformation, was the most difficult to commercialize.
A tremendous amount of effort was required, but it was well worth it.
I made my first prototypes of the spin label out of paper, which allowed me to design many variations. Fundamentally, I needed it to work with the manufacturing equipment.
Prototype made out of paper:
After a lot of work, finally, Spinformation labels!
Applied to containers:
On the day of our commercial shoot with Alex Trebek:
Eventually, the packaging industry took note, and we won industry awards, including two Edison awards.
I remember building those first prototypes at my local Kinko’s. Having a commercial on TV and eventually selling at Walmart was a dream come true.
Here’s what I learned:
1. Some ideas are much more difficult to commercialize than others. Try to learn the difference.
2. It only takes one idea.
3. Big ideas require a team.
Thank you so much for reading!
Stephen Key,
inventRight CoFounder
