San Francisco, May 8th, 2024 - Gigs, the world’s first telecom-as-a-service platform, announced today the appointment of former AT&T Mobility CEO Glenn Lurie as senior advisor to the company. Lurie will provide strategic counsel and advocacy on key growth levers towards the company’s goals and build out its position as the most comprehensive connectivity operating system in the world.
The appointment comes at a time of significant momentum for the company. Google-backed Gigs, which enables any company to launch its wireless service and subsequently helps them differentiate their product offerings and unlock new revenue streams, is experiencing a surge in demand across various verticals. From popular smartwatch and phone manufacturers to high-growth neobanks, Gigs continues to rapidly expand its customer base and has substantially multiplied its annual recurring revenue every year. With the recent introduction of its AI product, Gigs Operator, an AI assistant that reduces customer support overhead by up to 95%, along with various new product launches and lighthouse customer announcements, Gigs will inspire more progressive companies to launch their wireless service.
“It’s a privilege to welcome Glenn as a senior advisor to Gigs. With decades of industry experience at the highest level under his belt, he understands the dynamics of embedded connectivity like few others in the world,” said Hermann Frank, co-founder and CEO of Gigs. “Glenn’s guidance will prove instrumental in turning our vision of making connectivity seamless, universally accessible, and affordable into reality. Together, we will create a win-win-win outcome for carriers, our customers, and Gigs.”
During his tenure at AT&T, Lurie led negotiations with Apple to bring the first iPhone to AT&T and drove the expansion of connected devices at the company, embedding wireless connectivity to cars, tablets, and consumer electronics that are now integral components of everyday life. He also launched Aio Wireless, now Cricket Wireless, one of the largest and most recognized brands in the country.
“In a short period of time, Gigs has created an entirely new category that is poised to disrupt not only the telecommunications industry, but the entire technology sector writ large," Lurie added. "By simplifying the complexities of launching and operating a cohesive end-to-end telecom product, they are the first ones who have made telecom approachable, programmable, and embeddable for any modern platform. The company's growth trajectory is impressive by any metric, and I look forward to working with the Gigs leadership team to help thousands of innovators enrich their offerings through embedded connectivity in the years to come.”
This is how Gigs works
With Gigs, businesses can seamlessly launch branded wireless services and integrate them into their existing product portfolios, creating new product experiences for users while retaining full control over their brand and customer journey. From fintechs providing branded phone plans alongside their payment cards to retailers offering subscriptions bundled with their mobile devices, or even HR platforms enabling businesses to issue employee phone plans with just a tap, Gigs empowers innovators from various industries.
Before Gigs, companies wanting to offer phone plans faced months of tedious negotiations and integrations with network operators and multiple legacy third-party services. In addition, they had to commit millions of dollars upfront and spend valuable time navigating the archaic patchwork of software components needed to run their wireless service—resulting in a complicated and poor end-user experience. In the absence of a seamless, fast, and intelligent connectivity platform, the high barriers to entry to the world of telecommunications made it prohibitively expensive for entrants to launch a state-of-the-art wireless service and unlock recurring revenue streams, stifling innovation at a moment when connectivity is more important than ever.
Gigs is the only end-to-end connectivity operating system that offers everything companies need to launch and run a fully-featured wireless service on carrier networks across the globe through a single integration. From the best-in-class telecom API, a hosted end-user checkout optimized for maximum conversion, its own payments suite and tax engine, a powerful dashboard including AI-enhanced customer support, and detailed business analytics to entire marketing solutions, Gigs provides everything customers need to launch their wireless service and provide a superior end-user experience.
About Gigs
Gigs is the world's first telecom-as-a-service platform. By enabling any company to launch its own wireless service, Gigs helps its customers differentiate their product offering, increase customer stickiness and unlock new revenue streams through embedded connectivity. As the only end-to-end connectivity provider, Gigs offers a broad set of products and services, including premium wholesale, a hosted checkout, subscription management, payments, analytics, AI, and more. The company is backed by Google, Y Combinator, and prominent business angels and investors like Dara Khosrowshahi (CEO of Uber), Tony Xu (Co-founder & CEO of DoorDash), and Fidji Simo (CEO of Instacart). The company was founded by Hermann Frank and Dennis Bauer in 2020 and currently employs over 80 people in the US and Europe. For more information, please visit: gigs.com.
About Glenn Lurie
Glenn Lurie is a Senior Advisor at Gigs and a General Partner at Stormbreaker Ventures, a specialist venture fund focused on innovation for the connected ecosystem, which includes mobility and wireless technologies, networking, IoT, telematics and transportation, cloud and edge computing, cybersecurity, AI and ML. Prior to these roles, Lurie held several leadership positions, including President and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Operations, where he worked for 27 years.
During his tenure at AT&T, Mr. Lurie played a critical role in ushering in the smartphone era by leading AT&T's negotiations with Apple for the first iPhone and later for the first iPad. He also spearheaded the creation of three innovative businesses within AT&T: the Internet of Things (IoT) division, which connected tablets, cars, smart cities, and consumer electronics to wireless networks; Digital Life, AT&T's home automation and security business; and Aio Wireless, later rebranded as Cricket Wireless, which became AT&T's leading prepaid brand.