I'm with Lucas and this is black tech, green money. Culture Wireless is a black owned Internet service provider which delivers fast, reliable, affordable Internet solutions, and Jerome Howard is chief operating officer, working to empower communities with high quality and affordable Internet service. Surprisingly, at least to me, the
digital divide is still a thing. There are still communities all across our nation that do not have access to high quality, high speed Internet service, and the twenty nineteen COVID pandemic exacerbated many of these issues, disconnecting families from each other and friends from community. Culture Wireless and shies that won't happen again. So I asked Jerome about the founding story of this company and how the pandemic provided an opportunity for these innovatives.
An idea that was born out of the pandemic.
Myself being a technologist, our CEO being a technologist, and our friend, our co founder, Bam Sparks, being a culture innovator. We saw how our community was impacted by the pandemic, and then we discovered that the fastest fiber or Internet in Atlanta ran up under this one particular Internet or up under this one particular community, and we said, hey, these are the kind of problems that arose from the pandemic,
and this is what we should be solving. So what does it look like if we provided internet for the hood. And so from there, our CEO went to work and started building out the designs and saying, hey, this is something doable.
I think we can do this, and that's how culture Willis was born.
Yes, I want to start I want to start to talk with talking about the digital divide. You know, is that's still a thing in twenty twenty four, Like what is the landscape like geographically for connectivity in the United States.
Yeah, so that is definitely something that is still a thing. And you talk about AI and all of these things that are being introduced, and that the gap is just even going to grow. So right now, as you can imagine, even our colleges are in danger. I'm sure you've seen the post that Robert Smith made that eighty two percent of our HBCUs are still in broadband deserts. And then if we know the makeup of those HBCUs, they usually sit in a community that is full of you know,
our people. And so now you think about that and growing out not even just limiting to HBCUs and urban areas. Think about the rural areas of America, your South Georgia's your Mississippi, where things are even worse than we've predicted.
You know, people having to drive to.
A local grocery store or McDonald's just to have Wi Fi for internet.
So it's definitely still a thing.
How I mean, there seems to be so many businesses and companies that want to take advantage of the market opportunity. How how is the digital divide where you can get high speed internet in so many places? How is that still a thing these days?
So you have to look at the companies that are providing internet right now. So there are three major companies and their focus is to find their their their customer profile, so they have to go where that bill makes sense. So if you're looking at going to a fluent neighborhood versus you know, a mixed income neighborhood, you're going to make the best business decision for your company. And that's kind of what has driven us to this this pandemic
or this area that we're in right now. It's not just about providing and making sure that access is available for everyone.
It's about the bottom line.
So by us being a smaller company having the ability to be flexible with technologies and not have such large overhead, we can find opportunities where these major, large corporations can.
Is there is there a difference between being able to connect to the Internet from a cell phone versus like a laptop, And what I mean by that is a difference in the opportunities and how you're able to take advantage of resources. And here's why I bring that up.
I have a small business and somebody who works in my company, we were in a team meeting and we were talking about how, you know, you can access a certain app that we use, certain piece of software that we use through you know, an app or a laptop, right because she was having a difficulty getting access to a certain thing from her phone. I'm like, well, just
use a laptop. And she's like, you know, I'm not rich like that to where I've got, you know, just laptops, you know, sitting around, And I'm like, to me, like it was it was I almost took for granted that like everybody doesn't have a laptop sitting around, and it was just like revealing to me as somebody who I try to be, you know, understanding of what's happening around me. It just never clicked that most people don't have a laptop.
Yep, yeah, most people don't have a laptop.
And you think about now, most of the kids that are growing up now probably have never used a laptop outside of their class where when we grew up, having a laptop was necessary to do your classes and to do anything.
But now that's not the case anymore.
And then when you go out to affordability, most of these laptops are.
Not they're not cheap. They're not cheap.
So you know, without the ACP and those affordable programs to help subsidize that costs, the gap grows even wider because our community doesn't have the access nor do we have a lot of those funds just to allocate to buying all of these devices. If you think about most of our community or most of the people that suffer from the pandemic, their their own subsidized living or subsidized income.
And so that's been the challenge over the couple of past years.
And so when you decide, hey, we're going to go start a new ISP, like, like how does like what's the first step you take. And it's like because I'm thinking, like, okay, you know, if I want to go create new app, you know, I'll just you know, pull out, you know, a text editor and start coding and just get to it. Like it's super touper simple, because like nothing to get started.
But if you want to start at ISP, like there's structural, infrastructural things you got to do, I imagine, And so like what's the first things you do when you try to try to start a company like this?
Yeah, so this place was new to me.
I came from security, I mean joined you know, our co founders and building this company and our CEO who comes from the telecom industry and over thirty years of experience from AT and T to bail South to you know,
the various companies. And the first thing he did was to look at the lay of the fiber, seeing what's available in the area, seeing where the towers are, seeing where you know, the last company has laid fiber, Where would we be able to access it, and if we did, how how far is that from the actual community that we wanted to connect to. So that's the first thing you have to do is just understand the lay of the land. And then the second thing you have to
do is just get your LLC. It's really that simple. It's really that simple.
Like it's not a permit that you need to start an ISP.
It's not like you have to have so many certifications to do this type of technology.
You just really have to start. And that's exactly what we did.
And we said, you know, putting our expertise together and putting out wheel and you know how bad we want this to happen, we can do it. And so it was just that simple figuring out what was available, figuring out and trying to find partners that were able to help us, and then just doing it and staying committed to the task.
We recognize in our community that there's a value in having really strong partnerships with companies that an't bigger, you know, and they're more establishing, etc. I know, you guys are partners with Verizon, T Mobile and probably others. Can you talk about, you know, some of the critical things you needed to do to be prepared for those opportunities when those opportunities presented themselves.
Yeah, So first we had to show that we had growth, we had an actual business, and we had a customer base to actually market to, and then they wanted to see our marketing strategy. How are we activating in the community, How are we getting these customers to be interested in culture Wirelens.
So that was the biggest thing.
Show our commitment and show our actual numbers of you know, what our predictions.
Were and just from all of the groundwork we've laid.
So it had to be interesting to them in order to even be interested in our partnership. And then we had to show them our commitment to just investing into the community. So while we do have those partnerships, we feel that it is valuable for us to own the
infrastructure that we're laying into these communities. So we're actually spending our own dollars and not depending on these partnerships our major networks to lean on their infrastructure solely, but actually developing and investing our own dollar to have this infrastructure for ourselves so that we can build upon that
as well. And I think that helps our message to show that you know, these guys are serious, these guys are committed to their goals, and why wouldn't we want to partner with someone who's from the community, knows the community and it just the message has traveled very well.
Where there certain programs that they had or when you say, you know, well, look Verizon has this one particular program. If we reach out to them about this, we can find our way in. Like what was that relationship introduction?
Like well, so.
They all have a sort of situation or a partnership set up where any small carriers can partner with larger major carriers to resell their services. So that is the thing it's called MBN or where smaller companies can resell those packages. But what most people don't know is those connections are many where you have direct connections to like a T Mobile or Verizon, those are very few where you have to have some type they have to feel connected to your brand.
In order to have a direct connection.
They'll let you resell all day, But to get the wholesale numbers or to get the best numbers that are very possible, you have to have a direct connection to the major providers, and for that, your messaging has to align with their company goals. And I think we fit a lot of the things and places that they're looking to expand into. And I think, like I said, the message has carried very well, whenever we're out pitching cultural violence.
In solving the digital divide, I find this quote that you had mentioned sometime ago in another interview where you said, we know that solving the digital divide is more than just about having internet. We have to look a look at this from a holistic approach. In order to solve the divide, we have to create a pipeline, pipeline for kids to enter into STEM fields, even at an early age.
And I want to talk about that particular thing, because there is one thing to get them connected, it's another thing for them to be able to see the opportun t unity that technology allows them to have and not just be consumers, which we over index as consumers only internet and not building products. Can you talk about what culture Wireless is doing and what you guys as are serious about in order to you know, make sure that we're getting educated in STEM fields.
Right, so you know, we're very passionate about this, just because that's that's exactly what I experienced growing up. So I'm from a rural town in Georgia by the name
of Alimo, Georgia. I was I think I was the only kid on my block that had a computer and if it wasn't for my parents, you know, being educators, I probably wouldn't have had the opportunities that I had, just going to different camps and actually experiencing different technologies, and that's what grew my my my excitement about the field.
And it's all about exposure and so growing up knowing that how can you start a company that is about technology and not being able to trigger them early to want to start something, and so we had to find partners in the community where we've gone ahead and thrown these stem labs where we teach people how to you know, we teach them about technology, but doing it in a way where it is interesting to them. So for young ladies having a STEM lab where you're making lipsticking and
you're building apps. What you're doing dragging code, but you're playing music at the same time and to the app. You have to make it interesting for them to be attracted to it. You have to show them how it's connected to something that they want to do. Like on the NBA Games, there's a statistician that is giving the person all of the numbers that stem and so you have to make that connection where you don't think of it or technology or stem being an office job.
Or someone in a lab in a white.
Cod doing running experiments and you're never talking to anybody. Technology is much more than that, but you have to give them that exposure and so culture Wildy we understand that and we have to develop that pipeline very early.
So we seek out partners in the community that are holding those type of events so that we can bring in engineers and it not be the first time that you know, you see an engineer whenever you get to college, but you see them when you're in elementary school in the middle school, so you can expire to be that person. And then we also do the same thing with seniors, letting them know that hey, you still can have a bunty for life and you know, still be active with
computer skills. So we go from grade school to the elderly, like, you know, you don't have to sit in your home and just not be tech savvy. We can teach you how to interact with different games or how they interact with your family, be a zoom or find some type of remote job. So that's the basis of how we connect to the community, just finding different partners on how we could get in there.
And actually let them.
Experience, have hands on labs teaching them about ACP whenever it was available. How do you get those codes or get those discounts to apply?
And what is the ACP like, talk to me more about that.
So ACP was a program that the government had called Affordable Affordable Connectivity Program. It actually ended yesterday and hopefully the bill gets passed that it is extended. But that was a discount program for anyone that qualified. Pretty much anyone that seek government assistance would get thirty dollars a month off of their technology bill or out for their internet bill.
And if you're on tribal.
Land that that cut down that that discount increased to seventy five dollars. So, like I said, that funding actually ran out and so the end of that program is able. But the last day to sign up was yesterday, which was February seventh, and we are waiting to see if that bill is gonna be passed. But you know, we use programs like that to incentivize and get people to come out. So you know, hey, participate in the STEM lab. We can give your a discount of device and then
you get internet service from that. And so that's kind of how we drove engagement to get people interested in the technology and then connecting them and then just showing them. You know, first of all, they had to be about community service, you know, helping them and and going a little bit above the extra mile just to get them connected and say hey, we're with you through this entire process. We're not just gonna let you give your device and throw you out there and call us if you need
help accessing that device. We can do that and that's how we've been able to grow throughout the community.
And so can you talk about where the needs are when we talk about as you mentioned AI and coding, we talked about you know, when we talk about some of our most vulnerable like because a lot of the times and brought up seniors, they get left out of the conversation when we talk about technology. Can you talk about where the needs are and what you're seeing.
Yeah, So, as far as in the industry, if you're if you're like I said, if you're not aware, there's a big push and I'm just gonna talk about it from a for an ISP standpoint, there's going to be a lot of companies going out and installing fighter around the country right now, So there's going to be a big need for technicians in the field to do this work, from construction work to land fiber optics, understand how fiber options work works, and then going to the communities installing
those fiber option services throughout the community.
So that's one a space.
If you have no desire to sit in the office, or if you have no desire to be on a computer all day, if you're an outside person, there's a need for you in that space if you're coming and you want to learn more technical skills. One of the biggest growing areas right now is security. How do we secure these networks, how do we secure their devices, how do we secure the apps? How do we secure our programs that are connected to credit cards and financial institutions.
Security is one of the most the highest growing spaces in now, and so those are the real two big areas that I see a need in AI of course, but you know AI. Everyone is talking about AI right now, but you're still gonna need security on top of any technology that is being released. So those are going to be my two. And I'm always gonna leave security because that's my background. But I've seen that space is spanning over time like crazy man.
It was another quote I found from you where you said, you know, America is made up of different cultures, but our culture just so happens to be black. But that's not the only culture that we're trying to connect. When you think about the vulnerable people in our country and who could take advantage of the things that you provide, where's like, how do you direct the market opportunity because this is culture wi, So do you talk about we are building for black people by black people, or this
is for just people. Talk to me about how you think about that.
Yeah, so this is a black company, but we're not a black company, if that makes sense. We're not only trying to connect black people. The connectivity problem. Our issue is not just for black people. We have rural America where most those people don't look like us. Those farming communities are those communities that are not located anywhere near city. All of those don't look like black people, but they still have culture.
That's their culture.
If I like going out and hunting and being in a wilderness or farming, that's a culture. That's not my culture, but that is a culture. So we wanted to make something a brand that lets you know, like, hey, we're all about culture is what makes us. It doesn't have to be one specific culture, but culture is what makes America. Culture is what connects us. And so, you know, while I'm very proud and supportive but my culture, I recognize and understand that other cultures have needs and it just
doesn't look like one thing or another. We have connectivity issues in the hood, but we also have connectivity issues in the country.
It's all culture, and we're here to solve that need. This is a black company, but we're not a black company.
So so how does like a remote workforce change the dynamic when you talk about, you know, the digital divide and our lack of connectivity in so many areas, you know, because I imagine it would widen the gap of the digital guide.
So if you think about it, if you have a community that is sixty eight percent black and most of those guys are are most of those people are want team or only have available warehouse jobs or working at the prison, they have no option to even apply for a remote job because one they don't have the connectivity that supports it.
Two they don't have the device to even apply for those jobs. Let alone hold those jobs.
So that even widened this gap and limits what income they can have they have and that speaks to my hometown as well.
Like most of the people there and they are limited.
To working at the warehouse, or working at the prison, or working at the factory, and they don't have the option to apply for a remote job. So what does it look like if we go to that community and now we provide four G cbrs five G network called fiber network, so that they now can apply for those type of jobs.
They can sit at home home and.
Have a job that is above memum wage without leaving the comforts of their home. So it's very important that we touch these communities and provide the communications or the technologies for them in order to just expand the horizon.
And it's not and it's not the only thing limit to them is where they live.
That that shouldn't be. That shouldn't be, not an America, not in twenty twenty four, It shouldn't be. So that's that's that's that's why we feel our mission is so important.
When you're doing the work that you're doing, you know, community service, word, job training, you know you're assisting in.
Areas like that.
How does a startup do so many things successfully?
It goes back to partnerships. You know, we understand that we're good at what we're good at. We have to have great partners that understand the makeup of the community. They know the residents a little bit more than we would in a particular area. So you have to go where you have to partner with people who know how
to do the things that you're not good at. And so that has been a successful cultural Wireless, making sure that we partner with organizations that you know, are from the communities that we're looking to serve, and then asking them how can we be of help? How can we be of service to you so that we can help everyone in the community achieve a goal. And so it's all about it's all about partnerships. It comes down to partnerships.
And you know, congratulations, you recently started a fiber roll out. You know you're not just mobile anymore. You talk about what that means. I have an imagination of what it might mean to be in the fiber, but can you tell me about that.
Yeah, so fiber right now is the fastest connection that you can get. But understandably that is also the expensive the most expensive technology or expensive process in order to deliver services or deliver technology to a community.
So we've been lucky to one join an.
Open access network down in Clayton County where we partner with an infrastructure company that recently bought up one hundred and thirteen miles a fiber and then they wanted to connect the residents of that area, so they actually had the foundation and we came on as the ISP to
operate as the service for that company. So we didn't build in that way, but we also just want a project in Crenshaw Destination Crenshaw where they're looking to connect twenty seven thousand residents and businesses along that development, where we will be rolling out and building our own fiber.
And so.
Like again, that's one of those things where we take pride and owning the infrastructure of these communities so that we can figure out the best way to advance technologies or advance that community. Maybe it's providing sensor so that crime goes down, or we can under stand the air
quality and the areas that we're living in. Owning that infrastructure and laying that fiber allows us the ability to expand and really develop some type of community as a service and platforms that we could really change our neighborhoods upon.
And you know, the fiber it allows you to do so much.
It gives you the ability to do so much in our communities, from smart cities to you name it, and so owning that infrastructure and putting that in the ground has been a great asset for our company.
You know, I want to talk about pivots a little bit, because you know, almost every startup has to. You know, we come in the game with a certain idea of what might work in the marketplace, and you know, you you you do a little bit thing, a little bit different over here, you change a little bit over there
to find that product market fit. Talk to me about things that you guys assumed in the be and things that you said, you know what, let's let's kill this over here and focus more on what's working over here.
Yeah, I'll say one thing that we probably assumed is that, you know, because we're going to areas where no internet service provider is that people would automatically just signed up like Hey, this is the fascinating that here, this is the thing, this is the newest hottens. These guys are you know, really a part of the community. We're just gonna go ahead and sign up.
Yeah. Nah.
Now, so you know, we had to really educate people. So you know, we had to tell what is fiber, what does fiber look like? What is the difference between five grand wireless? Is our network built by somebody else? Or we are we owned by somebody else? Those are the type of questions that you know, we had to go and really just sit in front of the community and say, hey, you know, we are trying to build this ourselves. We're not on by anyone, We're not a
face for anyone. We're coming in the community and building this ourselves. These are the type of programs know, whenever we sign you up from ACP, no, we're not inviting the government into your home to click on to see what you're watching and clicking on.
We have to have those type of conversations.
So we really had to embed ourselves and make sure that we were answering those little bitty questions that we never thought anybody would ask. We have to answer those and make and show them like, hey, you know, we're a part of the community. We're gonna answer every question that you have. But we're providing this technology for.
You because you're doing things in communications. I wonder you know what your experience has been like having to work with governments and how that is navigating it and getting support. Can you talk about that?
Yeah, so, you know, I'm in Atlanta, so uh so a lot of our government officials look like us. And you know, Atlanta is one of the few cities where I feel like everyone support everyone, you know, as long as you have a good mission or right a good business.
I feel like Atlanta is one of those places where we have a good mixture between business and the government, the school system, the entrepreneurs of the city, like we all work together, and just being able to have that one on one relationship or knowing someone that you went to high school with or for Andre Mayor Dickens. He was an advisor at Georgia Take while I was there,
so I had him prior to being a mayor. So whenever he came to our grand opening or our kickoff, our lunch party, and so it's having those type of relationships in the government that you know, it's beneficial whenever you're trying to grow a company or trying to do something in the community. Because they know you, they know they've seen the work you've put in, they've known the.
Things that you've done in the community. So that definitely helps.
On the federal side, we've started working with this and what we found there is it's all about relationships. Making sure that your your face is seen, making sure that your voice is heard, attending those meetings, and actually being involved even if it doesn't benefit you. You know, hey, you might have to volunteer for something, or you might need to go to an event that has nothing to do with your business, be seen, be an asset, and those are the ways that you you know, you are
able to partner with the government. Now, the process is long. You may not get paid on something that you know for a while, but that's that's procurement. That's the process that they have. You know, it takes some time to get paid by the federal government. You have to build a business that you're not just solely depending on that. But you just have to make sure you have a
good relationship, networking, make sure you attend those events. Like I said, make sure your face is seen and your voice is being heard, and doing positive things things throughout the community. And that's the only way that you'll be able to have some type of relationship or some type of great partnership with government entities.
You know, there's a quote that I love, and maybe it's not a quote, but it's more philosophy in that you can do well while doing well. You can do good while doing good. And you know a lot of what I hear you talking about is passion for you know, helping communities who deserve and should have a right to be connected and have an equal playing field like many of us. Do you know you and I are on
a high speed internet right now. I assume you're on, and so there are communities who are held down because they don't have that access. At the same time, you're building a business that hopefully, you know, becomes humongous in time, and so can you talk to me and I guess talk to entrepreneurs who are listening to this in your thinking about doing well while doing well?
Yeah, I think that, like you said, you can do well while doing well making sure that your money does good.
Good capital a good use of capital.
I let me see the best way to ask this question from from from our standpoint or from how I look at it.
Our community has been one.
Of the least developed areas and most oftentimes everything that is associated to our community or our group or our demographic. You know, we get the last bit or we get the last portion of it.
So we have the biggest room to grow.
We have the best margins that you can think of because we are the least development and so there's opportunity in that. But at the same time, you have to make sure that you're not using our people and just trying to come and get money out of the community and go do something else with it. And I think when you have an authentic message, our community really sees that.
We can tell that, and we can tell who is really just coming to take from the community or who's really really trying to invest and make sure that the community as.
A whole does better.
And whenever you have that authentic voice along with the good product, I believe that the community sees that and you can definitely do well once you invest in your people or in these communities, because we haven't we haven't had that development I heard I had.
I went to a.
A session where Ambassador Andrew Young was speaking and he was talking about, you know, look at everybody wanting to have interest in Africa. Right now, everybody is trying to move to Africa or have some type of business set up in Africa because it's been the least development. And so now it's about making sure that we have the right companies that are going to Africa, we have the right partnerships that are going to so that we can
build an actual connection and expand the community there. But with the right intentions and so there are a lot of ways that you can do well while doing well, and you know, I feel like there's a lot of margin, a lot of opportunity in our companies and we just hope that everyone that comes or tries to work in this space has an authentic Going.
To Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast network in night Heart Media. Is produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas. Learn more about my Guess and other technics. Up is the innovators at afrotech dot Com enjoying Black Tech Green Money. Share with somebody, go get your money, Peace and love.