More than a year ago, Baehr remembers, the startup he co-founded, Outbox, had worked out an agreement with the regional postmaster in its hometown of Austin, Texas to set aside mail addressed to the company’s customers. Instead of United States Postal Service carriers taking letters to individual mailboxes, Outbox would pick up the mail, open it, scan it, and make digital copies that customers could read via web or app.

Part of the trick was that the service could automatically weed out junk mail, and when U.S. Postmaster General Pat Donahoe got wind of this, he wasn’t happy — at least according to Baehr.

Donahoe summoned Outbox to his office, and Baehr made his pitch, arguing that the company was just a few smart guys with $2 million in financing who wanted to spend the next few years learning about Donahoe’s customers and even sending him data about what these customers needed. Donahoe responded by saying that the customers of U.S. Postal Service were not the general public. Its customers, he said, were a few hundred bulk mailers.