Advanced Technology Ventures :: News -
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Published on: 2/4/2006
Last Visited: 10/3/2008
"To reach the mass market, the big carriers tried to be all things to all people, and it ended up being their downfall," says Matthew Johnson, cofounder of Visage Mobile, a software outfit in San Francisco that is helping bring new MVNOs to market.
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Johnson founded Visage in 2001, when he was an entrepreneur-in-residence at St. Paul Venture Capital looking for new businesses.He might have started his own wireless company if not for the prohibitive startup costs.But with Virgin Mobile beginning to make headway as the first big American MVNO, Johnson saw an opening for someone to manage the behind-the-scenes technology.
He has raised $50 million from St. Paul, Emergence Capital Partners, Worldview Technology Partners, Mobius Venture Capital and others.He recruited his chief information officer from Virgin Mobile and his head of operations from Sabre, the airline reservation system.Johnson contracted with Convergys, which handles billing for biggies like Sprint and British Telecom, to translate the carriers' fee structures into the rate plans appropriate for each MVNO client.