Revolutionizing Connectivity: The IotaComm Story with CEO Terrence DeFranco

Welcome back to Market Movers, the opening bell in collaboration with iota.com.

I recently sat down with Terrence DeFranco, CEO of the company.

Take a look.

Today we're exploring Iotacom, a pioneer in private wireless communications with cutting edge low power connectivity and innovative platforms.

Iotacom is revolutionizing smart cities, smart buildings, and sustainable infrastructure.

In this first episode, we'll unpack Iotacom's mission market opportunity.

And why this is the pivotal moment for the company to make a lasting impact.

Joining us at the New York Stock Exchange is De Franco, CEO of Iotacom.

Welcome and thank you so much for joining us today.

It's great to be here, Remy.

Well, first and foremost, tell us the story behind Iotacom and what inspired you?

Yes.

There's a couple of things.

Number one, we saw an opportunity with regard to some available FCC licensed radio spectrum.

Nextel, as we all know, had a push to talk feature on their phones.

The spectrum that underlied that functionality was available, and so we spent.

10 years or so aggregating this scarce valuable asset essentially coming up with a plan of how we're going to transform that use case from push to talk radio, seeing an opportunity in the internet of things.

On the other side of it was the market opportunity.

So my business prior to launching around the spectrum.

It was all around smart building technologies and one of the big challenges we were facing was really how to provide connectivity through a wide scale or through a large commercial building or facility.

Wi Fi, cellular, and Bluetooth have been terrific, but Penettrating barriers is very difficult.

I mean, coming here in the New York Stock Exchange trying to do a phone call, you really experience kind of the limitations around cellular and so it really seemed that this great asset could really be transformed into a use case that meets a huge market opportunity.

And so putting the two together we kind of look at them as like the Reese's.

Peanut butter cup of chocolate and peanut butter coming together.

There was really a great need in the marketplace and a tremendous asset to build from, and that's essentially how we got started.

Yeah, Terrence, I like that analogy right there and you mentioned market opportunities, so can you tell us some of the macro trends that are driving growth right now?

Yes, so.

You know, the world is digitizing, right, so everything is being connected, the internet is being leveraged for all types of use cases, whether those are on the consumer side or on the commercial side.

Um, what's really driving that evolution today, like digitization started years ago, but what's really driving it now is that quench quenching the thirst. data, especially now as artificial intelligence and these new business models, blockchain, metaverse and digital twins and things like that.

So the more that those business models are emerging, it's really putting a lot more demand on collecting data and so that connectivity and being able to get it in places where otherwise you weren't able to do so, the quench of the thirst of that data is really what was critical for us.

And Terrence, I also want to hear about how your innovating technology is actually solving today's infrastructure challenges.

Yeah, so it starts really with even go back years on how data was originally used to drive outcomes, and that's really what our focus is.

And so putting sensors in buildings, collecting that critical data that otherwise wasn't available is really where we start.

And so now you're looking at having the tools to be able to make decisions.

Visions around data, data driven insights, but what's evolving from there, like I said, is leveraging artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies along with that.

So when you look at being able to kind of play that catch up game of getting data that otherwise wasn't available but now implementing it into these new models that are available, it really is a great time and we're excited to really see the markets adopting these kinds of technologies.

And speaking of which, why is connectivity considered the last mile problem here and how do you actually fix it?

Yeah, so it's delivering connectivity where prevailing technologies around cellular Wi Fi and Bluetooth really didn't fit, you know, we see, you know, proliferation.

And continuing advancement in those technologies, but it still wasn't meeting the need where we just have these gaps of connectivity.

And so that last mile in this case is really what's opening up that opportunity.

We call it a low power wide area network connectivity and the idea is that it's got tremendous superpowers associated with it.

The ability to connect devices on a network like this that can operate on batteries for up to 15 years, the ability to penetrate barriers, so being able to get that connectivity into elevator shafts or electrical closets are very hard to reach places, is another superpower that we're really not able to get from cellular Wi Fi and Bluetooth.

So just simply those capabilities are what really lend itself to that last mile.

But the value proposition is less about the superpower capability.

It's more about getting that data and driving value off of that data, those insights off the data.

So this is more of an enabling technology to allow digitalization to bring value, and it's all about those data-driven insights.

And finally, Terence, while I have you here, tell us what's on the horizon for iota.com.

So we're in the process now of standing up what is going to eventually be a nationwide network.

It's the next and first of its kind, and we're we're in the process of actually installing the first infrastructure right now and working with customers simultaneously on leveraging that connectivity to solve those business problems as we build out our network, so we expect that over the next business cycle or two.

You'll have a nationwide network specifically dedicated to the Internet of things, bringing those superpowers to buildings and cities across the entire country.

At the same time though, we're developing our Delphi 360 platform which really allows that value proposition around the data to be realized by buildings and cities across the city or across the country.

And so marrying those two kind of as our business grows is really what differentiates us really addressing that problem and delivering those solutions in real time.

Um, we're in the process right now of doing a crowdfunding and so folks go to invest.io.com.com, they can actually participate, so we're doing it through crowdfunding, so it's available to the masses, and we're really excited.

We're really at the inflection point in our business right now.

And we're really thrilled to see the kinds of reactions that we're getting from both investors but also from the marketplace.

Well, Terence, great having you here at the New York Stock Exchange and to hear the story of IAO.com, I look forward to continuing the conversation in our next episode.

It's a pleasure being here.

Thanks, Remy.

Thank you.