Speaker 1: A new cell phone carrier offers the quality of the
Speaker 1: Verizon network for just forty bucks a month unlimited.
Speaker 2: What's going on on rich Demiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech and today we're talking to
Speaker 1: Miguel ki Roga.
Speaker 2: He is the CEO of Visible.
Speaker 1: This is a brand new startup that is basically an
Speaker 1: mv and O on the Verizon network. So imagine getting
Speaker 1: the Verizon network with that great signal, but for forty
Speaker 1: dollars a month, all included. Miguel, let's talk about this.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, right, thanks for having us so visible. Yes,
Speaker 1: this is basically a company that's owned by Verizon, that's right,
Speaker 1: but it's a startup carrier.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what does that mean. That's yeah, we're owned by
Speaker 3: Verizon but independently operated. And it's interesting you use the
Speaker 3: word mv and oh because that's an often used term
Speaker 3: in the industry. We actually aren't an mv and O
Speaker 3: because we are what's called a facilities based carrier therefore
Speaker 3: a network facilities based so we have essentially Verizon's network
Speaker 3: facilities at our fingertips of the ability to use that
Speaker 3: that we're essentially orchestrating and building the type of experience
Speaker 3: simply use experience, one price, one plan, direct to consumer,
Speaker 3: and that's essentially the difference that we're providing and using
Speaker 3: the best of both worlds.
Speaker 1: Interesting, So an mv and O is more of like
Speaker 1: someone who leases the network from a company and like
Speaker 1: kind of runs their own exactly.
Speaker 3: That's not what we are. We don't lease the network
Speaker 3: in that example because we're owned by Verizons, So therefore
Speaker 3: we have a different relationship altogether.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 1: Okay, so explain to me what Visible is. I mean,
Speaker 1: I already said the forty dollars, but I want to
Speaker 1: hear from you forty bucks a month.
Speaker 2: What do I get for that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's basically forty dollars a month unlimited data, voice,
Speaker 3: and minutes basically on Verizon's nationwide four GLT network. It's
Speaker 3: one price, one plan, all taxes and fees included. And
Speaker 3: the focus for us and our business model is to
Speaker 3: have the simple, most easiest use experience in the wireless
Speaker 3: carrier industry.
Speaker 1: So with forty dollars a month, now, immediately, whenever you
Speaker 1: hear something like this, you hear Verizon, you hear forty
Speaker 1: dollars a month.
Speaker 2: You hear a carrier name that you haven't really heard before.
Speaker 1: You just think, okay, there's obviously some catch so just
Speaker 1: everything out there. The one thing that I do know
Speaker 1: that's different than the typical Verizon network is a speed
Speaker 1: limitation of five megabits per second. That's correct down, which
Speaker 1: you can explain that in a second, but that's basically it, right,
Speaker 1: that's correct.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And the other thing too is to recognize is we're
Speaker 3: an all digital carrier, so therefore we don't actually have stores.
Speaker 3: We actually believe that by providing the ability for a
Speaker 3: customer to order this type of experience from their couch,
Speaker 3: get it delivered to their home, ultimately get up and
Speaker 3: running very quickly and very seamlessly, is the type of
Speaker 3: experience we believe that customers want to have. We did
Speaker 3: two years of extensive research, co creation, serving, talking to
Speaker 3: customers directly of like, what exactly do you actually want
Speaker 3: in your wireless carrier, and what we realized was that
Speaker 3: customers really want simplicity. They want a carrier that's going
Speaker 3: to value their time and make it easy to use
Speaker 3: and understand. And so we've built from the ground up
Speaker 3: a business, a tech stack, a team of employees who
Speaker 3: are focused on customer centric based building of prop like this,
Speaker 3: and essentially that's what we've delivered to our customer.
Speaker 1: And the reality is there are a lot of customers
Speaker 1: out there that are pretty much overpaying on their bill
Speaker 1: because now, for me, I feel like every single month
Speaker 1: I get every single penny out of my bill with
Speaker 1: Verizon because I am using so much data.
Speaker 2: I'm the power user.
Speaker 1: But people like my wife, who I look at her
Speaker 1: side of the bill, just paying the same ninety dollars
Speaker 1: a month, but she's literally using less than a gig
Speaker 1: of data because she's on Wi Fi at work, she's
Speaker 1: at Wi Fi at the gym, when she's streaming Spotify
Speaker 1: in the middle, she's using maps in her car, you know.
Speaker 1: So for someone like her, you're literally going to say
Speaker 1: fifty dollars a month.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think the way to think about it is we
Speaker 3: with that research we did, is we try to focus
Speaker 3: on what does the customer really ultimately need to do
Speaker 3: to use their phone on the go. They're basically doing
Speaker 3: video streaming, they're doing music streaming, they're doing surfing, email
Speaker 3: and using their apps for that type of capability. The
Speaker 3: offering we have and everything that's baked into that offering,
Speaker 3: we believe gives the customers what they need to live
Speaker 3: their life on the go. And so that's why we
Speaker 3: think there's a white basic customers who actually do need
Speaker 3: this type of capability.
Speaker 1: And with the network, it is the full Verizon network.
Speaker 1: So it's not like, you know, some of the towers
Speaker 1: work with Visible some don't.
Speaker 2: You know, you're in a rural area, you're not going
Speaker 2: to get service.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we basically are using Verizons four GLT network, So
Speaker 3: that means that our accessibility to that network would be
Speaker 3: such basically the same as what a Verizon customer is using.
Speaker 3: We're using the network experience combined with the Visible tech stack,
Speaker 3: and those two things combined essentially is what we offer
Speaker 3: to customers.
Speaker 1: And is throttling a thing when it comes to you know,
Speaker 1: let's say I use ten gigs a month, am I
Speaker 1: going to be throttled down to one hundred and twenty eight?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we don't have the concept of throttling. We focus
Speaker 3: more on having the unlimited data, voice in minutes.
Speaker 2: And what about hot Spot?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we actually have mobile Hotspot as part of an
Speaker 3: early access program as well.
Speaker 1: And that's something that you don't see now you said
Speaker 1: early access. So these are people that are signing up
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 3: That's correct. We're still in an early access mode and
Speaker 3: predominantly because we're really focused on listening to customers. So
Speaker 3: this is our opportunity to really listen to our customers
Speaker 3: tailored experience, continue in the tune, and grow the features
Speaker 3: that they're going to need to essentially be satisfied with
Speaker 3: the quality, the high quality experience we want to provide
Speaker 3: to our customers.
Speaker 1: Now, when this service first launched, it seems like there's
Speaker 1: a lot of mystery surrounding it, and I think even
Speaker 1: with your current marketing scheme, which we'll talk about in
Speaker 1: a moment, there's still you're adding to that mystery.
Speaker 2: This is a.
Speaker 1: System that you literally you order your sim from you
Speaker 1: you know, you go online, you order the SIM. I
Speaker 1: guess make sure your phone works. Let's talk about that process.
Speaker 1: So signing up for Visible, I don't go into a
Speaker 1: Verizon store. They'll probably look at you like you're crazy,
Speaker 1: Like what are you talking about? I don't even know
Speaker 1: what this is? Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3: We Basically the idea is you go online on the
Speaker 3: web you download the Visible app. So you go to
Speaker 3: Visible dot com or you go to download the app
Speaker 3: in the iOS app Store today. We're iOS only, and
Speaker 3: really the focal point for that is to say, you
Speaker 3: order it and you basically put in your information. We
Speaker 3: have digital payments. You can use Venmo, you can use PayPal,
Speaker 3: and essentially we'll ship you the sim.
Speaker 2: Can use a regular credit card, yeah, red card, yeah,
Speaker 2: read credit card as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, And you know, obviously you want to do
Speaker 3: a quick kind of check on make sure your device
Speaker 3: compatibility on the iOS works, you know, and then we'll
Speaker 3: ship you the SIM and the next day you'll have
Speaker 3: the SIM in your hands. You basically take the SIM in,
Speaker 3: you plug it in, you activate it using the app,
Speaker 3: and you're good to go.
Speaker 2: And you know, that.
Speaker 3: Allows you to either port a number in or that
Speaker 3: allows you to start a new number if you prefer.
Speaker 3: And basically that's all you need to do. It's pretty simple,
Speaker 3: easy to check out and easy to use.
Speaker 1: So tell me about what phones work on here? You
Speaker 1: said iOS only. How do I know if my iPhone
Speaker 1: works with Visible?
Speaker 3: Yeah? You actually just go to our checkout process and
Speaker 3: in the checkout process will give you the opportunity to
Speaker 3: check to make sure your phone is compatible with our network.
Speaker 3: Is it most iPhones at this point, Yeah, buy and
Speaker 3: large pretty much all iPhones are. But there's a few
Speaker 3: kind of variations that we know that we don't have
Speaker 3: the right compatibilities. We want to make sure that that's
Speaker 3: clear to our customers.
Speaker 1: Now, there's going to be some people who try to
Speaker 1: pop the sim into an unlocked Android.
Speaker 2: Not gonna work, Not gonna work.
Speaker 3: At the moment. Why not, Well, because we started with
Speaker 3: iOS really to focus our attention around our experience with
Speaker 3: that bunch of customers. Clearly where we're looking at the
Speaker 3: Android community of users. That's something we have a lot
Speaker 3: of customers and members asking us about. It's like, hey,
Speaker 3: when is Android coming? We're working closely on that, and
Speaker 3: you know that's something to stay tuned on.
Speaker 1: So Verizon obviously has this giant network of stores, personnel
Speaker 1: people to help you when you have a problem, whatever.
Speaker 1: How do you guys do that And talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about your current kind of marketing plan where you
Speaker 1: literally have these stores that you've painted your color, that's right,
Speaker 1: and it's like a four or four store not found
Speaker 1: that's right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, it's the four or four store campaign for us,
Speaker 3: and you know, we're doing a little bit of tongue
Speaker 3: in cheek. Look, we're establishing a new brand across the country,
Speaker 3: and when you do that, you have to get people's attention. So, yes,
Speaker 3: it's our brand blue, but it's also kind of a
Speaker 3: way to grab people's attention in a physical space and
Speaker 3: kind of bring them into our digital experience. Yes, it's
Speaker 3: a little eye catching, but it is trying to make
Speaker 3: the point that we took everything that you would normally
Speaker 3: find in a store and we packed it into the app,
Speaker 3: so that way you can go to your app, do
Speaker 3: everything you need to do to basically take care of
Speaker 3: your service and order the service in one clean, simple,
Speaker 3: easy use way.
Speaker 1: Are you selling phones as well? That's not something we're
Speaker 1: looking at at the moment, but it's something that you know,
Speaker 1: we're looking at all customer opportunities in terms of the
Speaker 1: feedback we're getting. So right now it's iOS only, and
Speaker 1: like I said, Android would probably be something that comes
Speaker 1: fairly soon after as well.
Speaker 2: So who do you see is sort of your biggest
Speaker 2: competitor in all this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I don't. I don't think we see
Speaker 3: ourselves of having a very specific competitor in this example,
Speaker 3: because like the offering we have because we're digital only,
Speaker 3: because we're owned by Verizons, we are have basically a
Speaker 3: facilities based career. It's completely different. It's a completely different
Speaker 3: type of approach. And you know, building things from the
Speaker 3: ground up from a blank sheet of paper allows you
Speaker 3: to do things that many others cannot. It allows us
Speaker 3: to be more agile. It allows us to also take
Speaker 3: the best of some of the best infrastructure in the world,
Speaker 3: which is Verizons for GLT network. And I think the
Speaker 3: combination of those two is a really compelling offering. That's
Speaker 3: why we're able to do what we can with our
Speaker 3: experience today.
Speaker 1: So AT and T has Cricket, T Mobile has Metro
Speaker 1: or I think they just renamed it. Maybe it's Metro still,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what Sprint has, but they are
Speaker 1: similar and people would probably comparing them to you what
Speaker 1: sets visible apart.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Ultimately, it's our experience and it's simplicity of our offering.
Speaker 3: We're basically giving customers exactly what they're looking for based
Speaker 3: on all that research we did, and that's why we
Speaker 3: believe that ultimately is a winning combination for us.
Speaker 1: And I still feel like there's got to be a
Speaker 1: catch because I mean, people have listened this long and
Speaker 1: they're sitting there, they're going, I don't understand. I'm paying
Speaker 1: ninety dollars a month on average for an unlimited plan, Right,
Speaker 1: how is Visible giving me Verizon's network, which by the
Speaker 1: way is probably the best network in the US at
Speaker 1: forty bucks a month?
Speaker 3: Right? Yeah, this is this is geared towards a very
Speaker 3: specific type of customer. We're gearing towards customers for digitally
Speaker 3: savvy or single line accounts essentially, and want the type
Speaker 3: of simplicity and offering that this provides. That's not for everybody,
Speaker 3: and that's okay. You know, we're really focused on the
Speaker 3: type of digitally savy customer or customer value simplicity on
Speaker 3: a single line basis. So we believe that's why it's
Speaker 3: super interesting.
Speaker 1: What about fees, you know, activation fee, thirty five bucks
Speaker 1: for that, Do you have any of those things?
Speaker 3: Nope, it's forty dollars. Yeah, it's all forty dollars all in,
Speaker 3: basically all taxi fees. And again that's like part of
Speaker 3: what we're trying to accomplish is like what does a
Speaker 3: customer actually want? Like I don't want to think about
Speaker 3: all the little line items on a bill. I just
Speaker 3: want to say, here's my price, I get my thing.
Speaker 3: I allow me to do the thing that I want
Speaker 3: the service to do. Like what is wireless character's supposed
Speaker 3: to do. It's supposed to connect you with other human beings.
Speaker 3: That's the whole point. And so we believe that eliminating
Speaker 3: that friction allows us to be a better experience.
Speaker 1: And the name Visible, Yes, where did that come from?
Speaker 1: That was also part of our market research. We just
Speaker 1: felt that it was a good way to kind of
Speaker 1: emphasize what do we stand for as a brand.
Speaker 3: We focus on transparency. We focus on providing value to
Speaker 3: our customers in a collaborative and co creative way. And
Speaker 3: we believe that by being Visible, we can showcase how
Speaker 3: we're really providing the type of simplicity we believe that
Speaker 3: customers really want.
Speaker 1: So explain to me a little bit more about the
Speaker 1: relationship between Visible and Verizon. So you guys are independently
Speaker 1: sort of operated, that's right. Do you meet back with
Speaker 1: like this Verizon CEO and kind of tell them what
Speaker 1: your plans are and you know, talk with him. I mean,
Speaker 1: because some of the things that you're doing are directly
Speaker 1: in competition with them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's interesting the way we operate. We
Speaker 3: are independently operated. Obviously, we have a very strong partnership
Speaker 3: with all the things that we need to be successful.
Speaker 3: And really that's why we get the best of both worlds.
Speaker 3: You know, we're we're in close contact and collaboration with
Speaker 3: all the different communities that we leverage and tap into.
Speaker 3: But what this relationship structure allows us to do is
Speaker 3: give us that access to the large capital infrastructure, the
Speaker 3: best and brightest of you know, network engineering combined with
Speaker 3: the best and brightest of kind of newer thinking and
Speaker 3: modern tech. That's how essentially we believe innovation can happen.
Speaker 3: And it's a huge bet on innovation how we think
Speaker 3: modern businesses can continue to evolve.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about the new iPhones
Speaker 1: have a e SIM capability. It's rumored or it's supposed
Speaker 1: to be active this year, maybe next year, and here
Speaker 1: in the US kind of a different concept for people
Speaker 1: to be able to activate align by scanning a QR
Speaker 1: code with their camera on their phone. So will Visible
Speaker 1: take part in that? And that actually offers a big
Speaker 1: opportunity for you guys as well.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Yeah, I mean the way you're.
Speaker 1: Putting a SIM in a phone is something and I've
Speaker 1: done a million times, but not everyone has.
Speaker 2: Not everyone wants to, or knows or even understands what
Speaker 2: that means.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Look, you know, we've built the Visible experience, We've
Speaker 3: built the Visible techs doc to be future proof. We
Speaker 3: want to capitalize on every single move that happens from
Speaker 3: a technological landscape, whether that's a network level, whether that's
Speaker 3: the phone and OEM level, whether it's e SIM or
Speaker 3: anything else like, those are things we want to capitalize on.
Speaker 3: So absolutely, there's things like that that we're closely focused on,
Speaker 3: and as things come to market, we're going to definitely
Speaker 3: take advantage.
Speaker 1: Miguel ki Roga, CEO of Visible, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining me today. If you want to learn more about Visible,
Speaker 1: go to the website it is rich on tech dot tv,
Speaker 1: or you can check the show notes as well. If
Speaker 1: you like the show, go ahead and share it with
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Speaker 1: best way to let your friends know that you're learning
Speaker 1: something here. All right, I'm Richidmiel, Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 2: Bye bye,