Chaymeriyia Moncrief is making history in the IT industry as the first Black woman to own a smart eyewear brand, thanks to her inventive skills.
She told Canvas Rebel, “Ever since I was eight years old, my fascination with technology, computers, and gadgets has been a big part of my life. The dream of having my own smartphone and electronic brand has been with me since childhood, where I spent time drawing and sketching how I envisioned my smartphone would ‘look.’ When I saw the first iPhone, it was what really increased my urge to create my own smartphone brand one day. This idea is what led to Tesix Wireless Network.”
Tesix Wireless Network is a prepaid wireless carrier or telecoms company that launched in the summer of 2018 — a move that was fueled by a bad experience she had with a cell phone company.
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Moncrief revealed that she began her entrepreneurial journey at the age of five, inspired by her family. She said that from elementary school until she was sixteen, she came up with a lot of business ideas, always selling something at school, and she followed through on all of her ideas.
After graduating from high school in 2013, she purchased her first contract phone with a big carrier. She initially thought she would only be paying $90 a month, but she soon realized that more money was going into her phone bills than she had anticipated. Before long, her monthly phone bills were over $150. But a ridiculous monthly charge of more than $200 went too far.
She mentioned that after thinking about the rates on her statement, she started figuring out how postpaid providers operate. She was charged for excessive data usage, activation fees, and a variety of other expenses. She ended the contract after realizing that the bills were far higher than her biweekly income from her job at Taco Bell, where she was making slightly less than $400 a month.
The entrepreneur recalled, “The “aha” moment for Tesix Wireless hit me while working on my smartphone idea and I started to think, If I launch a smartphone, why not add my own phone service to it. But, lacking a understanding of what to research at that time, the things that came up, I couldn’t even imagine having access to these things. My research showed I needed 100s of millions of dollars, land, towers, and infrastructure– I temporarily left the idea alone until 2017.”
In 2017, she realized that she needed to shift her focus towards researching how to launch an MVNO/prepaid wireless carrier. “Once I had this understanding, my research took off and this is when I really started to execute on the idea,” she said.
Following Tesix Wireless’ announcement, the company attracted several customers and private investors. With this interest, Tesix Wireless received investing and acquisition offers from investors, taking the company to $5.9 million in value, even before its launch, reported eurweb.
She said this of the company: “Everything is included in the bill. When you pick the $25 plan that is what you pay, when you pick the $45 plan that is what you pay every month no fees. Everything is transparent and straight forward something you aren’t getting with the others.”
Two years after starting the millennial-focused wireless carrier Tesix Wireless Network, she created NSPRE, a consumer electronics brand with the goal of “inspiring the culture through social technology.”
Her brand has grown significantly since its inception in 2020, raising $1.5 million in funding throughout its first year. NSPRE established its headquarters in Alabama in 2021, with its popular release being Smart Glasses.
The glasses, which contain two-way microphones for phone and video chats and an in-directional sound that allows for sound privacy, were a turning point for NSPRE, laying the door for future advancements such as the NX Pro Plus LE.
Other features include the ability to control music, answer and reject phone calls directly from the glass legs, and add prescriptions to lenses.
Moncrief’s smart glasses include Gen 1 and Gen 2, which have different playback times of seven and twelve hours, as per POCIT.
NSPRE’s success rate kept rising following its launch, and by December 2021, it had secured an extra $450,000 in funding. In 2022, the company also unveiled the Solace Smart Glasses and the cutting-edge Sophomore Smartphone design.
Moncrief told Voyage ATL last November, “The fact that I am one of the only African American women to launch a smartphone and wireless carrier, no matter the hardships, is one of my proudest moments all around—stepping into such challenging spaces and making it past year 5.”
