A Credit Card Innovator Cashes In - In 2005, patent attorney and electrical engineer Jeffrey Mullen had an idea that he believed would transform the credit card industry. Instead of programming credit cards' magnetic stripes to one bank identification number (BIN), what if companies were able to make a stripe that would support a changing BIN? In addition to reducing identity theft, such technology would allow credit card users to combine multiple cards on one piece of plastic, shifting their spending preferences for each transaction at the push of a button.
Dynamics, Mullen’s company took the Rice Business Plan Competition’s first place prize of $20,000 in cash and $305,000 in investments and services. In addition, the company landed the prestigious $100,000 Technology Award from Opportunity Houston (which it can collect only if it moves from Pittsburgh to Houston) and the coveted $125,000 investment prize from the GOOSE Society of Texas. |
