After founding and serving as CEO of MRP Mobility, a Triad entrepreneur has started a consulting firm that will help other wireless companies develop their own strategic plans.
Colt Parsons, a Winston-Salem native and member of Triad Business Journal's 40 Under 40, was a member of the inaugural cohort at Winston Starts, a startup incubator in Winston-Salem, and has now founded a technology consulting firm, Worldwide Wireless.
Parsons started MRP in 2016 but decided to leave the company once he felt he could no longer grow. So he sold the MRP brand as well as its Asia/Pacific and European branches to three different entities for an undisclosed amount.
“I always want to level up in life and … just improve, and there was a point where I was already kind of at the top of my game and there was nowhere for me to go,” Parsons said.
The need to improve, along with “just wanting to get a job” after leaving MRP, led Parsons to start Worldwide Wireless.
Worldwide Wireless is a consulting firm for companies involved in the wireless and technology industries. Its goal is to help companies in the technology and mobility space achieve sustainability by establishing global partnerships, building streamlined supply chains and bringing products and services to market both domestically and internationally.
Parsons started Worldwide with childhood friend Kaylyn Cumbo, who also served as chief technology officer at MRP. The consulting firm has three full-time employees, nine part-time consultants and 12 clients under contract.
“I think we’ll probably hit 20 by mid-April,” Parsons said.
Most of the firm's 12 clients are in the U.S., but Worldwide Wirless also serves customers in Europe, Australia and the Middle East. Worldwide has a secured revenue of $450,000 based on deliverables.
One of its 12 clients is FanPark, based in Winston-Salem at Winston Starts. The company is built around an app for reserving a parking space at arenas, stadiums or venues before events.
Logan Harvey, CEO and co-founder of FanPark, said Worldwide Wireless was essential in helping plan and execute the mobile device deployment strategy for the service.
“While Covid negatively affected our business, we’re excited for our continued work together with Worldwide Wireless as we go about improving parking,” Harvey said.
Going forward, the biggest challenge Parsons sees for Worldwide is hiring. He wants to have a “pull and plug” system in place so that the employee best-suited to meet the needs of a particular client can be brought in to work on that issue.
“Everybody doesn’t work on everything,” Parsons said. “We are very collaborative, so that’s how we manage and distribute the work amongst the business.”
After four years at MRP, Parsons sees himself with Worldwide for the long run.
“I think I’m going to do this for a while,” Parsons said. “I really enjoy helping other people reach a level of success."
