Wing
Founding members of Wing Ilan Yarden, David Arabov and Greg Dybec.
- Wing is a telecom service provider that uses Sprint's cellphone towers to offer competitive data plans.
- The company is founded by the team behind lifestyle
media site Elite Daily, which sold for around $26 million. - Wing lets customers track their data usage using the company's app, and its average plan costs around $35 a month.
After selling their lifestyle media site Elite Daily for tens of millions, David Arabov and Jonathon Francis took only a short time off before embarking on their next entrepreneurial endeavor.
This time, the serial startup founders are building a telecom company called Wing which promises competitive data usage plans, accessible customer service, and transparency when it comes to billing. The company is born out of the cofounders' shared frustration with the big four telecom companies, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
Arabov told Business Insider that his dealings with his former service provider, AT&T, always resulted in a complicated experience.
"Any time they messed up on my bill, I'd call up AT&T, and it would always take about an hour to get someone on the phone," said Arabov. "I always wondered, 'Why is this so difficult?'"
Arabov's dealings with AT&T made him realize that there was room for improvement.
Wing Wing sends prospective customers a pin to unlock their SIM card and a Wing punch-out SIM.
"The frustration built up over time, and then suddenly we had a lightbulb moment," he said. "We decided that enough is enough and we put our heads down to find a solution."
When it comes to building a telecom company, the biggest hurdle lies in securing access to cellphone towers, said Arabov.
"We realized that it was close to impossible to put up our own towers just because of how expensive it is," said Arabov. "We learned pretty quickly that we would need an agreement with a bigger carrier to lease space on their towers."
Luckily, a cold email to a Sprint executive resulted in a meeting with the telecom company and, a few months later, an agreement: Wing landed a deal to use Sprint's cellphone towers for a monthly fee.
Despite using the cellphone towers of a telecom provider that is technically his company's competitor, Arabov said that there isn't any conflict of interest at stake. He also doesn't think Sprint would kick Wing off its towers if the service grew into a large enough threat.
"The bigger we get, the more attractive we become to a big carrier," said Arabov. "Historically, there's no turnoff for getting too big. Anyone that does have an agreement like this usually gets acquired."
Arabov described the exchange as a mutually beneficial agreement, with Sprint profiting off of its excess bandwidth through Wing's new customers.
Wing is a 10-minute set-up process over text message with easy-to-read mobile statements
While Wing and Sprint might share cellphone towers, Arabov said there are plenty of differences between the two companies.
Wing
A screenshot of what Wing's data usage plan looks like.
Unlike most providers, Wing gives its customers a clear understanding of how much data they're using on their cellphone plan, which is viewable in Wing's mobile app. Additionally, if customers don't use the entirety of their data plan, Wing puts the dollar amount in unused data towards their next plan, so that they're only paying for what they use.
If a new customer is unhappy with Wing, the company lets them walk away with relative ease.
"If you sign up for 30 days and want to quit, we let you," said Arabov. "We try to make it as pain-free as possible."
Arabov said that on average, Wing's customers pay a flat $35 rate per month with its 3GB plan. For comparison, that's the estimated amount Verizon charges for its monthly 2GB plan. And while Sprint offers a similarly priced rate for 3GB, there's reportedly a number of sizeable hidden fees associated with the cost.
Despite the cheaper prices, Arabov says all of Wing's plans are priced for profitability.
If you choose to ditch your provider and switch over to Wing, the company sends out a small box containing a punch-out SIM card and a pin to pull out the smartphone SIM tray. Most of the company's customer conversion takes place over text message and social media, which Arabov described as a major selling point.
"People don't want to walk into stores or be put on hold anymore," Arabov said. "I'd say that an average switch to Wing takes 10 to 15 minutes tops."
Since the company's launch, Wing has received $1 million in funding from investors including Sinai Ventures and Transcendent Holdings.
While the company declined to say the number of its current customers, Arabov says more than 8,000 people have inquired about Wing, including 3,000 in the first 48 hours after a YouTube star (who is still a Wing user) promoted it. He hinted that he has big plans for his company's future.
"We're just now starting to scale on the marketing side," Arabov said. "Not one day has gone by where we don't get new sign-ups."
But a major change lingers in the backdrop of Wing's business plan: If approved, the looming Sprint and T-Mobile merger would pare down the competition in the mobile networking space to only three major service providers. And Wing currently relies on Sprint to stay in business.
Arabov isn't concerned. He claims this seismic shift would only bring more customers to his business.
"The merger will only enhance our service," said Arabov. "There will be less retail competition, creating a fantastic opportunity for us because there will be a lot of frustrated customers."
