![Growing under the radar
Jameson Berkow, Financial Post 揃 Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010
Ever hear of Fibernetics Corp.? No? Reaching some 85% of Canadas population, it is one of Canadas largest by-footprint telecom providers. Still not ringing a bell?
Dont worry, youre not alone.
Nobody knows about us, John Stix, co-founder of Fibernetics, told the Financial Post in an interview. Because if you think about how weve grown, weve grown under
other peoples brands so weve kind of been flying under the radar.
In just 15 years, Waterloo, Ont., natives Mr. Stix and Jody Schnarr, who launched Stratford Telecom in 1994, have turned an add-on long-distance service provider run
by three people in a basement into a full service-telecom provider with a national infrastructure, more than 150 employees and offices in three countries. And they have
made millions in the process.
How did Fibernetics manage to become an industry leader without anyone noticing?
Mr. Stix and Mr. Schnarr worked at NorthPhone, a now-defunct discount long-distance provider, but decided to go it alone at age 24. What we did know was that we
didnt like working with other people, and since NorthPhone ended up not doing so well we ended up finding a switch provider and starting out on our own.
They convinced Bill Miller, then TD Bank branch manager in Stratford, to approve a $15 000 loan to buy their first PC-based switch. It was a tremendous amount of
money for us back then, Mr. Stix said. But we were realizing that if we could move past per-minute long distance with a focus on flat rates, then we could be a leader at
that time.
They started by offering unlimited long distance between New Hamburg (an even smaller suburb of the small town of Stratford) and Waterloo for $9.95 a month,
compared with Bells 24蔵 to 34蔵 a minute for the same calls. Despite the clear advantage in cost, people were reluctant to switch their long distance plans to an untried
service.
After a month we had 75 people switch, giving us about $1,400
worth of payables and $800 worth of receivables and were
thinking were going out of business, Mr. Stix said. The threat
of bankrupcy forced the two to get innovative. They realized
their switch could handle about 4,000 calls a day without
increasing their costs, and from there began determining how
they could offer free long distance to Stratford residents and, as
Mr. Stix said, maybe someone else would like to take the credit
for doing so.
The owner of the neighbourhood General Motors dealership
stepped up to cover the costs of the service in exchange for a
short advertisement for his dealership to be played before a call
was connected. From an advertising perspective it was brilliant.
But from a self-promotion perspective it was disasterous, as
customers would scarely hear the name of the telecom provider.
On the first day our switch maxed out, basically we went from
about 75 people making about 75 calls per day to 4,000 people
using it within 24 hours, Mr. Stix said. We had to scramble to
get more facilities in because it immediately ramped all the way
up to 8,000 calls per day.
Stratford Telecom had no trouble finding sponsors in
independent pockets across Ontario to cover the overhead in
exchange for free advertising, there was even a real estate agent in
Newmarket who ended up including the tactic in a series of
audiotapes he created on how to be a successful real estate agent.
But customers were still unaware of exactly who was providing
the service. People still didnt identify our brand Stratford
Telecom because they were always identifying it by their local
calling area, which was sponsored by a local advertiser, Mr. Stix Jody Schnarr, John Stix and Michael Brown, of Fibernetics (L-R), pose for a photo with their servers.
said.
However, the plan was to connect all the local calling areas in Ontario (and eventually the rest of Canada) together. But to do so would be too expensive if the company
had to keep paying Bell to use its infrastructure. With the world wide web just coming into the mainstream, Mr. Schnarr and Mr. Stix hatched an idea to provide regular
long distance service at a fraction of traditional costs, which would use voice-over internet protocol [VoIP] technology.
In Canada, we believe we were the first guys to channel a VoIP call from a phone to another phone without needing an internet connection or a computer, Mr. Stix
boasted. That call originated from Waterloo to Toronto and sounded awful, he said.
Call quality aside, the idea took off and later that year the pair landed a very big sponsor: Labatt Brewries. From that came the Labatt Blue Line, a VoIP-based add-on
long-distance service that allowed users to make free calls between any major Ontario communities in exchange for listening to a brief ad for Labatt beer. According to
Mr. Stix, the promotion was meant to last only one summer, but after quickly attracting more than 300,000 users it ended up running for 14 months. Big, big, big
success story for us and for them, Mr. Stix said.
Their success attracted so much attention a company offered to purchase Stratford Telecom for $7.2-million in 2000. The co-founders, barely 30 by then, were happy to
accept a multimillion-dollar opportunity for ultra-early retirement. After six months, both Jody and I were bored and we had an incredibly compelling feeling that we
didnt finish what we were supposed to do, Mr. Stix said. We learned the lesson a lot of entrepreneurs learn, which is never accept your first offer because you sell too
early.
They aggressively re-entered the telecom field after their non-compete clause ended in 2002, launching 295.ca in early 2003. The service provided unlimited dial-up
internet access for $2.95 a month. We could have come up with unlimited dial-up for $9.95 per month, but we would not have gotten the mass adoption, Mr. Stix
said. We were doing 150 sign-ups per day, which for dial-up was incredible.
If they could acquire enough customers, the company could apply to become a competitive local exchange carrier, the CRTC designation given to telecom providers that
have enough market share to support an autonomous infrastructure. At the time the company was paying Rogers upward of $100,000 a month to use its VoIP
infrastructure, so getting CLEC status would mean major cost savings, as well as respect among the telecom giants.
The pair set about building companies that would generate the revenue needed to reach that status. 295 was doing well with such an aggressive price point (other
companies charged $15 to $20 a month for the same service), but they needed to go further. In 2004 they launched WorldLine, a pioneer of VoIP phone-to-phone
services in Canada. Building off the 295 brand, WorldLine offered unlimited long distance in Ontario for $2.95 a month. With as many as 300 families a day signing up
for the no-contract add-on service, it was attracting sponsorship deals from major media outlets such as Sun Media, Astral, Chorus and Transcontinental in Quebec.
Lo and behold we were growing exponentially and into other provinces, Mr. Stix said.
By mid-decade Fibernetics was incorporated, with its subsidiaries 295.ca and WorldLine sporting a combined customer base in the tens of thousands. Clearly, the next
expansion needed to be in customer service. A brief failed experiment in Kitchener, Ont. was followed by the the opening in 2005 of the 60-seat Fibernetics Call Centre
in Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic, which the company plans to expand to 150 seats.
It was a good choice because it was the same time zone, they have French from Haiti and Spanish as well which is great because weve always dreamt of expanding into
the United States, Mr. Stix said. Later that year, Fibernetics request for CLEC status was approved.
After taking on their first-ever investment from Toronto venture captialist Howie Fialkov, the company invested in a series of meta-switches that allowed Fibernetics to
generate its own dial tone, provide 911/411 service, basically everything that a full-fledged telecom provider can do, Mr. Stix said.
The massive savings from no longer paying incumbents like Rogers and Bell to use their facilities made it possible for Fibernetics to build a software development division
in Bulgaria and staff it with 12 full-time programmers. We need our own software because now we have more than 100,000 customers and our own network is growing
very rapidly, so were plugging in infrastructure as fast as we possibly can.
The Fibernetics network runs west to Vancouver and east to Quebec City, although Mr. Stix has plans to be in Halifax and St. Johns soon.
With the 2009 launch of a commercial PBX phone service for businesses, Fibernetics Corp. is showing no signs of slowing down. It has been a complete game-changer
for us, weve become the gold standard, the Google of telecom, Mr. Stix said. He has a plan to launch a service this fall that he said will abolish the need for long-distance
plans for cellphones in Canada.
Financial Post
jberkow@nationalpost.com](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/fiberneticsfinancialpostgrowingundertheradar-12916337804191-phpapp02/85/Fibernetics-Financialpost-Growingundertheradar-1-320.jpg)
Fibernetics Financialpost Growingundertheradar
- 1. Growing under the radar Jameson Berkow, Financial Post 揃 Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010 Ever hear of Fibernetics Corp.? No? Reaching some 85% of Canadas population, it is one of Canadas largest by-footprint telecom providers. Still not ringing a bell? Dont worry, youre not alone. Nobody knows about us, John Stix, co-founder of Fibernetics, told the Financial Post in an interview. Because if you think about how weve grown, weve grown under other peoples brands so weve kind of been flying under the radar. In just 15 years, Waterloo, Ont., natives Mr. Stix and Jody Schnarr, who launched Stratford Telecom in 1994, have turned an add-on long-distance service provider run by three people in a basement into a full service-telecom provider with a national infrastructure, more than 150 employees and offices in three countries. And they have made millions in the process. How did Fibernetics manage to become an industry leader without anyone noticing? Mr. Stix and Mr. Schnarr worked at NorthPhone, a now-defunct discount long-distance provider, but decided to go it alone at age 24. What we did know was that we didnt like working with other people, and since NorthPhone ended up not doing so well we ended up finding a switch provider and starting out on our own. They convinced Bill Miller, then TD Bank branch manager in Stratford, to approve a $15 000 loan to buy their first PC-based switch. It was a tremendous amount of money for us back then, Mr. Stix said. But we were realizing that if we could move past per-minute long distance with a focus on flat rates, then we could be a leader at that time. They started by offering unlimited long distance between New Hamburg (an even smaller suburb of the small town of Stratford) and Waterloo for $9.95 a month, compared with Bells 24蔵 to 34蔵 a minute for the same calls. Despite the clear advantage in cost, people were reluctant to switch their long distance plans to an untried service. After a month we had 75 people switch, giving us about $1,400 worth of payables and $800 worth of receivables and were thinking were going out of business, Mr. Stix said. The threat of bankrupcy forced the two to get innovative. They realized their switch could handle about 4,000 calls a day without increasing their costs, and from there began determining how they could offer free long distance to Stratford residents and, as Mr. Stix said, maybe someone else would like to take the credit for doing so. The owner of the neighbourhood General Motors dealership stepped up to cover the costs of the service in exchange for a short advertisement for his dealership to be played before a call was connected. From an advertising perspective it was brilliant. But from a self-promotion perspective it was disasterous, as customers would scarely hear the name of the telecom provider. On the first day our switch maxed out, basically we went from about 75 people making about 75 calls per day to 4,000 people using it within 24 hours, Mr. Stix said. We had to scramble to get more facilities in because it immediately ramped all the way up to 8,000 calls per day. Stratford Telecom had no trouble finding sponsors in independent pockets across Ontario to cover the overhead in exchange for free advertising, there was even a real estate agent in Newmarket who ended up including the tactic in a series of audiotapes he created on how to be a successful real estate agent. But customers were still unaware of exactly who was providing the service. People still didnt identify our brand Stratford Telecom because they were always identifying it by their local calling area, which was sponsored by a local advertiser, Mr. Stix Jody Schnarr, John Stix and Michael Brown, of Fibernetics (L-R), pose for a photo with their servers. said. However, the plan was to connect all the local calling areas in Ontario (and eventually the rest of Canada) together. But to do so would be too expensive if the company had to keep paying Bell to use its infrastructure. With the world wide web just coming into the mainstream, Mr. Schnarr and Mr. Stix hatched an idea to provide regular long distance service at a fraction of traditional costs, which would use voice-over internet protocol [VoIP] technology. In Canada, we believe we were the first guys to channel a VoIP call from a phone to another phone without needing an internet connection or a computer, Mr. Stix boasted. That call originated from Waterloo to Toronto and sounded awful, he said. Call quality aside, the idea took off and later that year the pair landed a very big sponsor: Labatt Brewries. From that came the Labatt Blue Line, a VoIP-based add-on long-distance service that allowed users to make free calls between any major Ontario communities in exchange for listening to a brief ad for Labatt beer. According to Mr. Stix, the promotion was meant to last only one summer, but after quickly attracting more than 300,000 users it ended up running for 14 months. Big, big, big success story for us and for them, Mr. Stix said. Their success attracted so much attention a company offered to purchase Stratford Telecom for $7.2-million in 2000. The co-founders, barely 30 by then, were happy to accept a multimillion-dollar opportunity for ultra-early retirement. After six months, both Jody and I were bored and we had an incredibly compelling feeling that we didnt finish what we were supposed to do, Mr. Stix said. We learned the lesson a lot of entrepreneurs learn, which is never accept your first offer because you sell too early. They aggressively re-entered the telecom field after their non-compete clause ended in 2002, launching 295.ca in early 2003. The service provided unlimited dial-up internet access for $2.95 a month. We could have come up with unlimited dial-up for $9.95 per month, but we would not have gotten the mass adoption, Mr. Stix said. We were doing 150 sign-ups per day, which for dial-up was incredible. If they could acquire enough customers, the company could apply to become a competitive local exchange carrier, the CRTC designation given to telecom providers that have enough market share to support an autonomous infrastructure. At the time the company was paying Rogers upward of $100,000 a month to use its VoIP infrastructure, so getting CLEC status would mean major cost savings, as well as respect among the telecom giants. The pair set about building companies that would generate the revenue needed to reach that status. 295 was doing well with such an aggressive price point (other companies charged $15 to $20 a month for the same service), but they needed to go further. In 2004 they launched WorldLine, a pioneer of VoIP phone-to-phone services in Canada. Building off the 295 brand, WorldLine offered unlimited long distance in Ontario for $2.95 a month. With as many as 300 families a day signing up for the no-contract add-on service, it was attracting sponsorship deals from major media outlets such as Sun Media, Astral, Chorus and Transcontinental in Quebec. Lo and behold we were growing exponentially and into other provinces, Mr. Stix said. By mid-decade Fibernetics was incorporated, with its subsidiaries 295.ca and WorldLine sporting a combined customer base in the tens of thousands. Clearly, the next expansion needed to be in customer service. A brief failed experiment in Kitchener, Ont. was followed by the the opening in 2005 of the 60-seat Fibernetics Call Centre in Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic, which the company plans to expand to 150 seats. It was a good choice because it was the same time zone, they have French from Haiti and Spanish as well which is great because weve always dreamt of expanding into the United States, Mr. Stix said. Later that year, Fibernetics request for CLEC status was approved. After taking on their first-ever investment from Toronto venture captialist Howie Fialkov, the company invested in a series of meta-switches that allowed Fibernetics to generate its own dial tone, provide 911/411 service, basically everything that a full-fledged telecom provider can do, Mr. Stix said. The massive savings from no longer paying incumbents like Rogers and Bell to use their facilities made it possible for Fibernetics to build a software development division in Bulgaria and staff it with 12 full-time programmers. We need our own software because now we have more than 100,000 customers and our own network is growing very rapidly, so were plugging in infrastructure as fast as we possibly can. The Fibernetics network runs west to Vancouver and east to Quebec City, although Mr. Stix has plans to be in Halifax and St. Johns soon. With the 2009 launch of a commercial PBX phone service for businesses, Fibernetics Corp. is showing no signs of slowing down. It has been a complete game-changer for us, weve become the gold standard, the Google of telecom, Mr. Stix said. He has a plan to launch a service this fall that he said will abolish the need for long-distance plans for cellphones in Canada. Financial Post jberkow@nationalpost.com