On the Reading Edge

Patrick Mish likes to give his employees reading assignments.

Reading, he says, is a great way to broaden the mind and enrich the soul. But he also knows it's a great way to work on product development.

Mish is the chief executive officer of M-Edge, an Odenton-based company that designs accessories for electronic reading devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble nook.

"The assignments force them to use these devices and ask 'how can I make this reading experience even better?'" says Mish, a 1994 Arundel High graduate.

From slick jackets to tiny lights and flexible stands, M-Edge has latched onto the emerging popularity of e-readers, growing from a home-based, husband-and-wife operation to a company that employs more than 50 workers. Sales of e-readers could surpass 11 million by year's end, according to industry estimates.

"There's a lot of long-form readers out there, and they're passionate about it," Mish says. "You'll read more books when you pick up one of these things than you've ever read before. It makes it easier to read, easier to get the books you want and you just start going through stuff."

While the Amazon Kindle is the e-reader that everyone knows about, Mish and his wife, Devon, founded M-Edge prior to the Kindle's emergence into the marketplace. They purchased one of the first e-readers, a Sony PRS500, in 2006 and immediately began devising ways to make it easier to use by designing protective jackets, lights, stands and other accessories.

"It's ultimately about making the electronic reading experience the best it can be," Patrick Mish says. "We're passionate readers and we're passionate about the reading experience."

Early on, Mish worked full-time as an engineer at Northrop Grumman, concentrating on designing M-Edge products at night. Business truly took off when Amazon introduced the Kindle, and M-Edge sold out its inventory when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos appeared on television with Oprah Winfrey.

Ironically, though, it was a flaw in the Kindle's presentation that led to M-Edge's success.

"The jacket that came with it was a real piece of junk," Mish said. "That was the opportunity…it was a little bit of good luck. We had a lot of great products out there and serve the needs of people."

M-Edge now has formal partnerships with Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and is watching closely the emergence of the Apple iPad as an e-reading device. While Mish says he was initially skeptical of the iPad as an e-reader because of its size, the company introduced accessories for it in April.

At the moment, the company is gearing up for a big holiday push, when its new warehouse space will be filled with seasonal workers looking to ship out a horde of products. The next 45 days, Mish says, will be a critical period for the company.  

"It's been amazing to watch how this market was just for people who were on the technology leading edge to something that's much broader," Mish says. "The idea was born out of our passion. It was something we stuck with and said 'hey, let's give this a shot.'"