Today we’d like to introduce you to Chaymeriyia Moncrief.
Hi Chaymeriyia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Montgomery, AL, and it’s where everything began for me. Entrepreneurship started for me when I was very young, and according to my family, it began as young as five and carried on into my adulthood. Up until the time I was 16 years old, I had started many businesses to find my footing. My most successful was launching a Branding Agency that quickly became a top agency in my city and huge recognition. One thing for certain, I have always loved design and tech, but my love for tech was the one thing that eventually led to two startups that changed my life.
Loving technology and gadgets, I knew when I saw the first iPhone that I wanted to have my very own smartphone and electronics brand one day, and I would draw these sketches of exactly how I wanted my phone to look and work. It wasn’t until I was 17 years old, fresh out of high school and working my first job, and had my first contract phone that I had the “Aha” moment for launching a wireless carrier.
I was sitting and working on sketches and research for launching a smartphone, and I thought, if I want to have my phone smartphone, why not add my own phone service to it too? After some brief research, I quickly saw this was much easier said than done and quickly left the idea alone. I was struggling to pay a $200+ phone bill under contract, and that alone is what brought the idea of the carrier in the first place.
Fast forward to 2017, still working on being able to launch my electronics brand, I revisited the idea of launching a phone service because now I had a better understanding of what to research, and from that point on, I worked towards launching my career. In late 2018, I officially launched Tesix Wireless, one of the first and only African-American and women-led prepaid carriers in the US.
Before even launching, I received an offer of $4 million to buy out the carrier based on our extensive pre-orders for activation and the waitlist. Turning it down, I launched the carrier on December 28th, 2019, and the journey started from there.
Two years later, I finally was able to do what I had dreamed about since middle school — launched my consumer electronics brand, NSPRE Lifestyle, and my very own smartphone the NX Pro Plus.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In such a gruesome space of tech and launching a wireless carrier, there is no such thing as a smooth road. Even though I raised millions in funding, that did not smooth the road or even prepare us fully for what was ahead.
One of the biggest challenges is fighting for credibility in a very picky space. When you’re going up against some of the biggest carriers in the world, ones that have massive influence, years in the game, and millions of subscribers, both contract and prepaid, you have to fight for the trust of consumers. This is something that we still face as a startup carrier.
Yes, we amassed 10K+ mobile subscribers at one point, but there were still massive growing pains because honestly, I feel that I grew too fast and too quickly, causing some major mistakes. One mistake that almost cost my brand $4.6 million was due to having so many subscribers and a lagging backend that resulted in me not catching customer data abuse. This is where customers were using hundreds of gigs of data and abusing the networks we used. While I was able to negotiate the cost down to $400K, it was the things that literally almost took the carrier out completely. It was either to pay the dues or lose the contract with the platform.
Another huge setback was the pandemic. This caused many customers to move to lesser plans or not pay their bills, and we saw a massive 43% decrease in revenue each month. This also caused us to lose upwards of 3,000 mobile subscribers due to customers cutting out bills.
We also saw huge challenges in having to change our prices almost six times to keep up with the demand and the cost that we paid to the carrier. This also turned customers away and caused us to lose another thousand or so subscribers. Our goal was to keep prices low and never have to change. There was one point where I attempted to keep the prices where they were and avoid another change, and I was only profiting about $0.42 per customer. Unfortunately, that proved unattainable, and the last change resulted in a loss of more customers.
As far as my electronics brand, the growing pains were heavy there too, but honestly, I feel it’s easier to manage than the likes of a wireless carrier. We faced many import issues, including customs losing $60,000 in inventory that was pre-ordered by our customers, resulting in $200,000 in revenue, which we had to return due to not being able to recover the products. I think this has been one of my electronics brand’s biggest setbacks.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about NSPRE & Tesix Wireless?
I am the founder of two startups: NSPRE, a consumer electronics brand, and Tesix Wireless Network, a prepaid wireless carrier. I believe what sets me and my brands apart is my non-traditional approach to marketing and my unique product offerings.
My electronics brand not only has a flagship smartphone but also a line of smart glasses that has truly taken the brand to new heights. With my wireless carrier, I believe my ability to leverage social media to reach my audience has allowed me to stand out significantly. We brand ourselves as a “millennial-focused carrier,” and as a millennial myself, I use this to my advantage.
The fact that I am one of the only African American women to launch a smartphone and wireless carrier, no matter the hardships, is one of my proudest moments all around — stepping into such challenging spaces and making it past year 5.
Under NSPRE, I have launched our most cutting-edge tech yet: a line of smart glasses. Alongside the line, we also have a line of earbuds and, of course, our flagship smartphone.
As for Tesix Wireless Network, our plans are “Pay as you see” — zero fees, no activation costs, and only one plan.
What makes you happy?
I am a huge techie, and being able to wake up every morning and work in my own company, completely surrounded by technology, my happy place, is an exciting thing. Being able to work on things that allow me to express my creativity endlessly in an ever-growing space is pure happiness for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nsprelifestyle.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsprelifestyle/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nsprelifestyle/
- Other: www.tesixwireless.com
Image Credits
Images in Tesix Wireless Popup Store: Boohill Images Professional Photos of NSPRE+Model: Tim Caver
