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Bandwidth, Raleigh, NC

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2014 American Business Awards

Company: Bandwidth, Raleigh, NC
Entry Submitted By: PAN Communications
Company Description: Bandwidth, founded in 1999 by David Morken, is the leading choice for those looking to do new things with communications. We provide voice, 9-1-1 and SMS services at a remarkable value through courageous co-creation with our customers. By providing a better way to do telecom, our customers are free to focus more energy on their end-users and less on back office operations.
Nomination Category: Management Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Maverick of the Year - Consumer Products Industries

Nomination Title: David Morken, CEO and Co-Founder

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2012 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

More than half of Americans carry a smartphone today. Families with more than one smartphone are paying outrageous rates—sometimes more than $4,000 a year. David Morken knows a thing or two about smartphone bills – he has 6 children, each promised an iPhone for bringing home straight A’s. In Morken’s home, the phone bill was second only to the mortgage. He saw an opportunity: Leverage the powerful Wi-Fi networks in our homes and offices for coverage. Morken set out with an audacious goal to give every person the ability to get a smartphone. His belief is that smartphones should empower, not impoverish. Morken challenged his team of skilled engineers to “fork” the Android operating system to enable native Wi-Fi calling on a phone. After months and months of development time, the team had perfected the experience. Republic Wireless is the first mobile smartphone service ever offered that uses Wi-Fi natively to make unlimited calls and send SMS messages and use as much data as you’d like. If the network signal strength is weak or you don’t have Wi-Fi access, no problem – the phone operates just a like a regular smartphone on the nationwide network of Sprint.

While Republic Wireless is new, Morken is not new to the world of entrepreneurialism and taking bold chances. He started his first company, e-filing.com, the first online tax filing service in 1994, while in law school at Notre Dame. He was struggling to pay the bills with a wife and two kids at home in a small apartment. He sold the business in 1995 when the US Marine Corp knocked on his door to bring him into active duty. After 4 years of service, he founded Bandwidth.com in a spare bedroom in his apartment. Today, Bandwidth is the sixth largest voice carrier in the United States.

Bandwidth is a communications technology company that powers leading brands like Skype, Vonage, Google Voice, Pinger, Pandora and many others. Bandwidth has a long tradition of challenging the big guys and disrupting the telecom market. They took it to a new level with the launch of Republic. After hearing “you’re nuts,” from more than a few sources, Morken and team set out to test their hypothesis, so they opened a storefront in Dec 2011 and launched a beta offering, with a no-contract, unlimited talk, text and data plan for just $19/month. The original goal was to sell 500 phones in a few months. In the first 24 hours, more than 100,000 people registered for the beta. The next few months were a whirlwind for the business – they added more than 100 employees, invested in back-office systems to scale for millions of members and developed partnerships with Motorola, Sprint and Google.

Today, Republic has tens of thousands of members and continues to generate incredible attention. In 2012 alone, the company was featured in lengthy articles in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, Fast Company, and on Fox News, and ABC World News Tonight. Morken’s vision is becoming reality – people everywhere are able to afford a smartphone for the first time. And everyone in the industry is taking notice.

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Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the nominee:

David Morken is the CEO of Bandwidth, one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing communication technology companies. Founded in 1999, and a certified CLEC in 49 states, the company is headquartered in Raleigh, NC. The company has two operating divisions – wholesale & enterprise and consumer & SMB, and Morken has led each through tremendous growth since its inception including, most recently, the launch of Republic Wireless.

Prior to founding Bandwidth, Morken was called to active duty by the Marine Corps in 1995 and served four years as a Judge Advocate, criminal prosecutor and headquarters company commander. Morken is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School and a member of the Virginia Bar Association. He received his undergraduate degree from Oral Roberts.