When Bill Jarvis bought his first cell phone, the experience nearly sent him to his grave, but, then again, he was supposedly already dead.
In 2001, Jarvis was starting a wireless company in Hawaii, but until the network was up, he needed a phone through what would soon be a competitor. So he headed into a store to get one.
“How many minutes do you use?” the rep asked.
“I don’t know,” Jarvis said. “I’ve never had a cell phone.”
“Well, would it be 1,000? Or maybe closer to 1,500?” the rep asked back.
“Really, I have no idea within 500 minutes of how many minutes I use because I’ve never used any minutes,” Jarvis said, already beginning to get frustrated.
He settled on 1,000 minutes, but after learning about overage charges, he reluctantly ponied up more money for more minutes in case he went over. He had similar frustrations in deciding about other features, such as roaming and text messaging.
“I’m just glazing at all these options,” Jarvis says about the experience.
Having unconfidently made his decisions, he then begrudgingly filled out the contract application. As the rep entered everything into the computer, a concerned look came across his face, and he told Jarvis that he would need a $1,000 deposit.
“Really? Why is that? What’s the reason code?” Jarvis asked.
The clerk had never seen it, so he got his manager.
“Oh, it says you’re dead,” the manager said, while looking Jarvis in the eyes.
Jarvis joked that he had felt under the weather that week but that he was definitely feeling fine — and alive — now.
Realizing that there was a mix-up, the manager and employee called the credit department, which wouldn’t budge. They then called the Social Security Administration, and 45 minutes later, they were finally able to convince the credit department that Jarvis was, indeed, alive.
“It was at that point that I absolutely knew that there was a market and an opportunity to do this in an entirely different way,” Jarvis says.
He went on to start and grow Mobi PCS into a multimillion-dollar organization. He still serves as Mobi’s CEO, and in February 2008, he also became CEO of Revol Wireless, an Independence-based wireless service provider founded in 2005, which simplifies the cell-phone experience by offering lower price plans, unlimited usage and no contracts. With more than 400 employees at Revol, Jarvis, who has 24 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, is taking a company that has already experienced rapid success, having generated more than $100 million in revenue last year, and making it even better by hiring the best employees, setting priorities and looking for new opportunities.
