The leadership of our technology vendor that helped us launch IncentOne’s first product had grown up in the telecom business. They told me that they had been building a service that allowed each individual to have their own personal “800” number that would be the only number anyone would call. An individual could set preferences that would direct it to ring on their office phone, office phone and cell phone at times they set. Imagine that—you only had one number and it rang wherever you wanted. Seemed like a great idea. But despite a great service and clear value for the consumer, they were having trouble selling it. They were pitching it to the telecom companies. I had two reactions. First, wouldn’t telecom companies be the last companies that would want this service. Wouldn’t someone using one number instead of many have the potential to hurt their revenue? Second, it seemed to me that the telecom companies—with all of their technological resources, probably already had this technology. I suggested that they look for a market that didn’t live and breathe telecom. Was there a place in which this service could add value to the consumer but wouldn’t be measured against or by the leading thinker in the telecom space? After all, even though the technology might not be unique, the service would clearly benefit consumers. Was there a market where companies were looking to provide differentiating services like this to consumers? After some debate, we thought about the credit card companies. They were constantly spending marketing dollars and offering consumers value added services if they signed up for one of their credit cards. Capital One, American Express, Citibank, Discover, Master Card and Visa, among others, were spending lots on customer acquisition. Wouldn’t a service like this offered to a new credit card holder differentiate an offering. They started offering it to that market and one of the major credit card companies became their biggest customer. Same product. Different market.