This century-old company ran the extra mile to outlast the competition.

How Royal Typewriter Company used a clever publicity stunt to demonstrate the quality of its product and endure the test of time.

Whatever the Silicon Valley dream is today, it started in New York at the turn of last century.

Stories of manufacturers in the early 1900s are so similar to today’s cash-strapped startups looking for their Series B it gives me the chills.

Take Royal Typewriter Company for example. Back in 1904 two startup bros named Hess and Myers set up a little machine shop in the heart of Brooklyn. A year later, with their cash nearly running out, they found their first investor.

Within twenty years, Royal would become the most popular business tool the world over.

Good marketing is all about the product

Royal did little to promote its typewriters, opting to lean on a quality product and innovative designs.

But a year after they sold their one millionth typewriter, that changed.

In 1927 Royal did something that would both demonstrate the ruggedness of their product and gain a ton of free press.

They started airdropping typewriters in crates with little more than a flimsy parachute…