April 30, 2003

The Canyon Courier, A Field Of Dreams—In Reverse

By Siegfried Brian Barger.

When you're an entrepreneur, you need all the help you can get. Evergreen technology start-up company WisperTEL probably hopes that the location of their offices, on Gold Mine Lane, portends the company's prosperous future. Once president and CEO Barry Pier pauses in his rapid, enthusiastic techno-speak about the firm, he's the first to confidently agree. He and Michael Brinks, Director of Business Development, will add just as quickly, though, that reaching a stable point in their business has not been without its challenges. After all, the young company was incorporated on Halloween of 2001. "It's been a scary ride at times," Barry muses.

But the ride has also been one of accomplishments in a difficult climate. Let's face it: WisperTEL is a telecom company that has emerged at a time when existing leaders in the industry - just take a look at the likes of Qwest or WorldCom - have crumpled like aspens hit by an out-of-control snowplow. WisperTEL - the formal name is wisper Telecommunications, Inc, with a lower case "w" - expects to be successful by doing what other high-speed providers aren't: offering wireless high-speed broadband Internet service to communities not served by the giants. Residents in Morrison, Golden, Evergreen, Conifer, Genesee and even some in Pine, now have an fast alternative to the standard, screechy, dial-up access most residents currently possess.

WisperTEL doesn't provide high-speed access by laying thousands of miles of costly cable. They do it with air. Their business is based on using a growing network of mountaintop radio towers, coupled with next generation wireless technology, to transmit information over the airwaves to an expanding 1500 square mile service area. Not that you'll catch Brinks or Pier climbing any of the towers to install their high-tech equipment. "We don't like heights, not even roofs,"Pier says without hesitation.

Pier is an engineer by training and experienced wireless executive who has held positions with the likes of Advanced Radio Telecom and US West. In the fall of 2001, he elected to cash in his 401k plan, surprise his wife with a second mortgage on their home, and set out to build a business that would serve markets being disregarded by other carriers. Michael Brinks, a business development and marketing executive, and one of the early founders of ICG Communications, was recruited a few weeks later to help write a business plan. By February 2002, the WisperTEL network was in "trial mode." It had one mountaintop antenna delivering wireless high-speed service to a small customer base in the foothills. How small? Six households. Barry Pier is proud to point out, however, that "every one of them is still a customer today."

With a small but operational wireless network in place, and a detailed business plan, Pier and Brinks began the brutal search for more capital to fund the firm's growth. After meeting with nearly thirty VCs - venture capital firms - it became obvious that the big money men weren't going to be seriously attracted to funding a telecom start-up. So Pier and his crew chose a different direction: they presented their plan to wealthy private investors. After perhaps a hundred individual presentations, WisperTEL was able to reach its initial funding goal early this year: closing in on $1 million dollars. Each investor received an 8% convertible note, with warrants that allow the notes to be exchanged for stock in the company in 2004.

One of the elements that attracted investors is the company's unique "on demand" marketing approach in which new service areas are opened up only as a critical mass of potential subscribers emerges. This practically ensures that once WisperTEL begins delivering services to a new region, profitability is not far behind. Pier calls this marketing strategy the "reverse field of dreams - if they come, we will build it." Critical to the approach is WisperTEL's ability to install necessary equipment within a few weeks, not months or years like the giants. The result: consumer demand can be met almost immediately.

WisperTEL's strategy of using debt to fund the business has left the company largely employee-owned. Like all entrepreneurial enterprises, WisperTEL's employees, from CEO Pier on down, worked from the inception of the corporation through the first part of this year with no pay, receiving, rather, equity - that is, ownership - in the business. The company issued its first pay checks on March 1st, and Michael Brinks chuckles as he succinctly characterizes the sentiment of its small high-tech workforce: "We're all very excited."

Barry Pier is excited, too. WisperTEL's subscription base is growing, and the business is expected to be profitable within the next six to nine months. Although WisperTEL is valued at $4 million today, Pier has his sights set much higher. With a franchising plan now in place to foster national expansion, he sees the company being worth $100 million or more over the next decade. What else would you expect from a company headquartered on Gold Mine Lane?