Mark Winograd and two fellow graduates of Brown University, Ben Lux and Mike Woods, founded NuLabel in 2009 out of a capstone project that looked to eliminate the need for “always-sticky” glue on shipping labels, following the advice of a professor who worked at a label company. NuLabel produces activatable adhesive labels that are only sticky when you want them to be, eliminating the need for wasteful backing paper. The labels are dry to the touch before being activated using a water based spray. This product can save both small and large businesses significant amounts of extra cost, waste, hassle and production delays. It is estimated that every million traditional labels produces over a ton of backing paper waste. NuLabel eliminates this waste entirely, while delivering a more efficient version of the ubiquitous shipping label that drives our modern world. Mark Winograd’s idea of NuLabel shows that a multi-million dollar idea can originate out of an already so well established product such as the shipping label. It also shows how an already well established product can be further simplified and made into a new business idea that disrupts the industry.
References:
http://www.630wpro.com/2015/04/13/630-under-30-max-winograds-multi-million-dollar-unsticky-glue/
http://www.nulabeltechnologies.com/#intro
https://www.inc.com/profile/nulabel
This idea has a lot of potential to grow. However, I think shipping companies would be hard pressed to move to this unless this is a cheaper alternative.
It’s always interesting to see how very marketable and profitable ideas such as this can also have a positive social or, in this case, environmental effect even if that wasn’t the initial intention. Similarly, as with the case of the biodegradable beer can packaging, the opposite can also be true: being environmentally aware can result in a product which is not only helpful, but profitable.