The Late 1980s
Elliot Klein managed the $125 million warranty business for American Express Company as Vice President of Cardmember Services. Witnessing the power of product warranties and problems associated with returning products, he assisted thousands of American Express customers by spearheading new extended warranty benefits and service contracts supporting merchandise purchased on their cards.

AmEx promoted warranty protection and related services as a core benefit to cardmembers, enhancing their market leadership. However, Mr. Klein saw much more ahead with the Internet revolution.

1998
When he lost his address book in a New York City taxi, Mr. Klein was inspired to create a lost-and-found service for laptop and handheld computer users. Later that same year, his laptop — which held every important document he ever created — stopped working. Klein quickly contacted the manufacturer for warranty repair.

It was a Thursday and they informed him that it could only be shipped in a box that they would send to him by express courier, arriving by Friday afternoon. The shipping box arrived late Friday. Mr. Klein wasn't able to pack the laptop for repair until Saturday. Then it was picked up Monday, arrived at the repair depot on Tuesday, repaired on Wednesday and sent back on Thursday. Good service, but he was without his valuable PC for a full week.

Mr. Klein decided that there must be a better way. He extended his RFID and reverse logistics knowledge in the warranty return space, figuring that it would save time and money. Combining this concept with his experience in the warranty arena at American Express, he envisioned a comprehensive service with capabilities for shipping, reverse logistics and customer support.

Rather than seeking investment capital to build those capabilities from scratch, the entrepreneur sought appropriate partners. He formed marketing and development relationships with leading handheld makers — Palm and Handspring — to offer the company's retrieval service to device buyers.

The true vision emerged when Mr. Klein realized the incredible opportunity behind radio-frequency identification (RFID) tied to the courier industry leaders and their logistics infrastructure. Striking a key deal with FedEx, ReturnMe™ — the predecessor to and now an operating division of Intellareturn Corporation — would use FedEx's established NetReturn delivery network to ship found items back to customers.

2001
Mr. Klein confirmed the opportunities Intellareturn represented when CIO Magazine highlighted the power of Intellareturn as one of the Web Business 50 for Bricks-and-Clicks Partnerships. At this time, the Intellareturn business was mainly a research and development concept for an application he was passionate about. With the interest in RFID growing, he contacted Motorola to implement the technology with low cost labels based on their "BiStatix" project being readied for launch.

Engineers at Motorola invited Mr. Klein to San Jose for three days to learn more about RFID and helping him to commercialize the Intellareturn business opportunities. They thought it represented a breakthrough application and solution for their product lines. Simultaneously, Mr. Klein read many stories about Fred Smith and how he started FedEx from the ground up. Soon, he began to re-think the opportunities RFID provided for reverse logistics.

Today
With a growing intellectual property library and countless opportunities under development, Intellareturn Corporation is becoming a leader in the burgeoning RFID arena. If your organization would like to accompany us along this exciting journey, contact us for more information.