Entrepreneurship is about meeting unmet or underserved needs. Sometimes those needs are those of the entrepreneur. To wit, the Airstream Trailer (see above).
In the 1920’s Wally Byam who had grown up in rural Oregon now lived in Los Angeles and missed the great outdoors. “Byam, a magazine publisher, couldn’t wait to ditch his suit and tie to go camping on days off, but his wife proved less enthusiastic about sleeping on the dewy ground.”
He devised a compromise, elevating their tent on a wooden platform that sat atop the chassis from an old Ford Model T; the Byams’ own car then towed the tent-laden contraption.” Thus, was born the legendary Airstream Trailer.
This short article from Smithsonian, traces the hundred-year history of the Airstream trailer over the past century. Advertised as “an airplane without wings.” Mr. Byam’s efforts resulted in “a triumph of design and marketing, and it helped create the very idea of the modern road trip”. (The success of a hit 1953 comedy starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, the “Long, Long Trailer,” was great free advertising).
Mr. Byam’s product created an event , the American Road Trip, that in turn drove demand for the product. Much like hardware drives software, which drives hardware and so on. That’s entrepreneurship. Learn how “How the Airstream Hit The Open Road.”
