Freddie Figgers

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Freddie Figgers (born 1989)[1] is an American technology entrepreneur and inventor, the founder of Figgers Communication.

Life and career[]

Figgers was abandoned at birth and was adopted when he was two days old by Nathan Figgers, a maintenance worker and handyman, and his wife Betty Mae, a farm worker.[2] He grew up in Quincy, Florida. As a child, he enjoyed repairing old electrical equipment, and his first computer was a broken Macintosh that he acquired when he was nine and succeeded in repairing by soldering parts from a clock radio to the circuit board.[1][3] When he was 12, he began repairing and maintaining computers at his school during an after-school program; the director, who was the city's mayor, hired him to repair computers at city hall, and he later wrote a program to check water pressure gauges. He then left school at 15 to go into business,[1] repairing computers in a backyard shed; he launched his own cloud storage service in 2005.[4][5] He financed subsequent expansion by writing software for clients, and in 2009 also dropped out of college at Florida Atlantic University to focus on his business.[4][6]

Figgers' inventions include a GPS tracker that he embedded together with a two-way communicator in the sole of his father's shoe after Nathan Figgers developed Alzheimer's disease and started to wander;[5] he sold the rights to the tracker for $2.1 million in January 2014,[3] but his father died the same month.[1]

Inspired by the death of his uncle, a diabetic, he also developed a networked glucometer, to transmit users' glucose levels to a designated relative and their physician and an alert in case of abnormalities.[1]

At 16, Figgers started Figgers Communication.[3][6][7] In 2008, at 19, he started Figgers Wireless[3] and began applying to the FCC for a telecommunications license to provide internet service to rural areas in northern Florida and adjacent southern Georgia. When he received a license in 2011, at 21, he was the youngest telecom operator in the United States, and as of February 2020 Figgers Communication was the only black-owned telecom in the country.[1][3][8] In 2014 the company introduced a smartphone, the Figgers F1, which incorporated a patented device to trigger "safe mode" at speeds of 10 mph and above, to prevent texting while driving,[1][3][7] and also allowed use by multiple accounts.[5] In 2019 it added the Figgers F3, which provides wireless charging when within 5 meters of a "super base charger", a wireless inconductive charger that the company is seeking FCC permission to produce.[1][3] As of 2018, Figgers Wireless offered nationwide service.[9]

Figgers also offers insurance and a credit card, FiggCash,[9] and another of his companies, Figgers Health, produces technology to assist patients with chronic health problems.[3]

Personal life[]

Figgers is married to Natlie Figgers, an attorney; they have a daughter. He runs a foundation that assists disadvantaged children and families and provides grants for education and healthcare projects;[1][8] he has donated scholarships to high school seniors.[10]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lucy Wallis (June 6, 2021). "Freddie Figgers: The millionaire tech inventor who was 'thrown away' as a baby". BBC News. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  2. ^ Free, Cathy (4 December 2019). "Abandoned as a newborn and called 'dumpster baby,' he's now an entrepreneur worth millions". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 23 February 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Curtis Bunn (February 28, 2020) [February 24, 2020]. "Head of America's only black telecom company wants to change the mobile landscape". NBC Black News. Archived from the original on June 7, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Ricky Riley (August 12, 2016). "Self-Made 26-Year-Old Tech Entrepreneur Creates Multi-Million Dollar Telecommunications Company". Atlanta Black Star. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c Shannen Hill (September 21, 2017). "Figgers Starts Black-Owned Telecommunications Network". Los Angeles Sentinel. Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  6. ^ a b Lynn Hatter (May 5, 2015). "Quincy's Freddie Figgers Is Trying To Shake Up The Cell Phone Business". WFSU. Archived from the original on November 4, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  7. ^ a b Rita Lorraine (July 29, 2016). "Freddie Figgers: Four Patents and Going Strong!". The Black History Channel. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  8. ^ a b Nii Okai Tetteh (December 14, 2018). "Freddie Figgers: Meet The 29-Year-Old Founder Of The Only Black Owned Telco In America Worth $62.3 Million". Kuulpeeps. Archived from the original on January 9, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  9. ^ a b "Abandoned in a Dumpster At Birth, This 29-Year Old Black Entrepreneur Now Owns a $62 Million Telecommunications Firm". Black News. November 27, 2018. Archived from the original on January 4, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  10. ^ "Entrepreneur offers scholarships to graduating seniors". Tallahassee Democrat. May 30, 2017. Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.

External links[]

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