Freddie Figgers
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[]
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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[]
- 1989 births
- Living people
- African-American company founders
- Florida Atlantic University alumni
- 21st-century American inventors
- African-American inventors
- American technology company founders
- 21st-century African-American people
- 20th-century African-American people