Hear from the “Rising Star” of the 2020 Fourth Revolution Awards.
Global connectivity is a problem that CEO and Founder Danny Gardner and the Mesh++ team set out to solve 5 years ago. What began as an engineering exercise is now a network solution bringing internet reliability and accessibility to what have historically been hard to reach locations.
We talked to Danny after Mesh++ took home the Rising Star award at the 2020 Fourth Revolution Awards. He tells us how the company has grown from the beginning and what's in store this year.
Where did your idea and value proposition start?
We're solving a problem that a lot of folks around the world are working on- global connectivity. It's something our team is very passionate about. The idea was a fun engineering project, to see if this would be possible. It was only a year later that people started to say, "you could sell these."
How has your business grown since the beginning?
The business has doubled approximately every year. I first started full-time in late 2017, when I moved to China for four months to build our prototypes. Next we moved to San Francisco, and then mHUB in mid-2018, and finally graduated from mHUB at the beginning of 2019 (but didn't move far- our office is right down the street!). We hit an inflection point this summer with a greater need for work-from-home and e-learning networks, installing networks across the country. Now, we're bringing access to thousands of people every week.
How has being in Illinois, or even being in the Midwest, helped shape your company?
I like to think we're practical, even though we're solving a humongous problem. One company alone is not going to be able to solve the internet problem for 3.2 billion people. Being in the Midwest has taught us the value of leveraging local hard work, of starting small and growing sustainably, and of being realistic about how the solutions before us fared. We are, after all, standing on the shoulders of giants. Also, there's no shortage of telecom talent in the suburbs of Chicago.
What growth do you expect to see in the next few years?
Last year, we demonstrated credibility. This year, we will demonstrate scale. We're automating many of our processes to be able to take in as many projects as possible. By 2022 we aim to be able to support any entrepreneur that wants to bring internet to their community, regardless of technical expertise.
Stay up to date with all things Mesh++ by visiting their website here.
