Meet Chaymeriyia Moncrief, a tech entrepreneur from Alabama and founder and CEO of the prepaid wireless carrier, Tesix Wireless™ Network. In 2020, she launched the “first black woman-owned smartphone brand.”
At 24, Moncrief, who turned down a $4.4 million takeover offer, raised over $5 million and her telecom company ended 2019 with a $10 million valuation. She subsequently ventured into smartphones and electronics.
Moncrief became the first African-American woman to launch her own line of smartphones, according to blackbusiness.com. Her electronic brand is named NSPRE™ Electronics featuring smartphones and other electronics. The brand’s first phone, the NSPRE™ NX Pro, sold out of its first pre-order batch.
Today, Moncrief has introduced her second smartphone, four years after the first one. The second smartphone, NSPRE N1, “builds on the success of her flagship smartphone release, incorporating feedback from users and integrating the latest advancements in mobile tech such as NFC, advanced camera modes, and more,” a release cited by Black News said.
“The new smartphone promises enhanced performance, improved battery life, and a sleek, modern boxed design that heavily stands out from the first release,” the release added.
Moncrief had, at the age of 12, already started pursuing her entrepreneurial dream. The Montgomery resident started as a designer under her own branding agency which eventually turned into a business by age 16.
Moncrief, who attended Alabama State University for Business Management and Computer Science, launched a Branding Studio in 2016 before stepping into the world of technology at 24 after she had a bad experience with a cell phone company.
“You go in and they say your phone bill is going to be $98, but you are getting a $150 or $200 bill. I think the final straw for me was a $235 bill, and that is when I said I want my own company,” she told WSFA.
That gave birth to Tesix Wireless, a telecommunications company that announced its launch in summer 2018. “The name [Tesix Wireless] comes from two things: Technology and sixteen because sixteen is when I started my entrepreneurship journey. The name has a personal meaning to me,” Moncrief said.
