Most innovation occurs when we take existing technology and adapt them in interesting, novel ways. Take this LED lamp by Jake Dyson [son of the famed Dyson vacuum inventor] featured in an article that I tweeted recently.

As mentioned in the article he wanted to solve unnecessary inefficiencies with the LED light bulb.

LEDs are so tiny and power efficient that they can fit in almost any design you could imagine, but these same designs end up roasting the lights in their own heat. So lights that promise to last decades on the box–an environmental coup in terms of waste and energy savings–will degrade quickly, grow dim within a few years (or even months), and their color temperature shifts. The promised engineering capacity of LEDs hasn’t played out in the marketplace. 

By attacking the inherent design flaws that cause overheating, Dyson and his team created a lamp that will last over 50 years using zero new technology!

I believe a great lesson can be taken from Jake Dyson’s success. In business you can achieve success by adapting a current technology, making it far more efficient and even making it better.

As I mentioned earlier I’ve done the same at every stop along my career from Learning 2000 (education software), to Motricity (mobile services) and now Solavei (social commerce). Success can be achieved in any industry as long as you take the time to step back and question the status quo. You never know when the answer will be right in front of you!

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Motricity and I parted ways in the summer of 2011 but I’m extremely proud of the company and its employees and all we achieved together. I had an idea in early 2001 to create a global leader in mobile data solutions and services and it became Motricity. Over the past decade, we built an enterprise with more than $100 million in revenue and a market value that exceeded $1 billion.

We had many goals along the way, such as:

• Creating industry-leading technology that would enable the largest mobile operators to deliver mobile data and content.
• Providing employment to hundreds of extremely talented employees.
• Taking the company through each stage of growth, including the capital markets.
• Delivering a strong return for our investors and creating a company with a value greater than a billion dollars.

I’m proud to say that we achieved each of those goals.

Some investors have sued Motricity and raised distasteful and untrue allegations about me and the company, among others. But, many people had great experiences with Motricity, including hundreds of employees who earned a good livelihood, customers who were provided beneficial technology and services, and many investors who received significant returns.

Someone I don’t know has created a website with my name that says some nasty and untrue things about me and the company. No one is taking credit for creating this site.

I’m prohibited from saying much about the class-action lawsuit, but here’s what I can share: I’m one of 10 people and eight companies named in the lawsuit.  Motricity’s lawyers and I believe the suit is without merit.

The fact is: I’m proud of what Motricity accomplished under my watch. I founded Motricity and spent nearly a decade building it into a business that was valued at more than $1 billion.

When I left, I still owned a majority of the stock I had when the company went public in 2010. I still own much of the stock today.  When Motricity’s stock dropped, it’s likely that very few could have lost more than me.

In short, this is how Motricity’s lawyers characterize the lawsuit: “the Complaint’s defects are numerous and its merits nonexistent.’’

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