A true entrepreneur, Leroy Wright can sell his telecommunications products to anyone, anywhere—even on the back end of a car in one of his store’s display windows. In just three-plus years, TLC Next Generation has grown into the No. 1 wireless company in the Mid-West.
Leroy J. Wright was raised by blind grandparents in a rough part of north St. Louis. On the surface, those facts would seem like two strikes against a child. Yet, from his grandfather, a door-to-door salesman, Wright learned about hard work and independence. And at the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ Club, located in his neighborhood, Wright learned to play football, which helped him land a college scholarship, which led to his first job at Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems. And that has resulted in his remarkable success as a telecommunications entrepreneur.
Wright, age 30, is chairman and chief executive officer of TLC Next Generation International Holdings, LLC. That’s the umbrella company over Wright Cellular and Next Generation retail stores that offer wireless communications products and services. “TLC” stands for “The Leroy Company.” Currently the 3 1/2 year old company has 25 retail outlets, 137 employees and gross revenues of $12 million. It’s the No. 1 wireless company in the St. Louis area, the state of Missouri and the Midwest—as well as in San Diego, Calif.
“The cellular industry was mostly a mom-and-pop arrangement before we got involved,” Wright says. “You’d find a lot of single stores in strip malls, or carts or kiosks in malls.” Wright’s stores are also located in malls, “but we set up fantastic looking retail outlets between 1,000 and 2,000 square feet,” he says. Subsequently, Next Generation stores not only offer cell phones and pagers but also accessories, Internet service, land line equipment for the home or home office and more. “On a per-store basis, we’re able to sell more than the competition and generate more revenue,” Wright says. Another difference is, “Next Generation is here to stay. With some of the competition you may find a cart today but it’s gone tomorrow. Most of our store leases are five to 10 years.”
Next Generation operates 14 stores in the St. Louis area and eight in San Diego, a market the company entered in December 1998, after Southwestern Bell bought Pacific Bell. “We were the top agent in St. Louis, and when Pacific Bell looked for a specialty retailer in San Diego, that opened up an opportunity for a strategic partnership with them,” Wright explains. In less than six months, Next Generation became the market leader.
Wright is applying his formula for success in other select cities, including San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Kansas City. “We want to enter new markets with at least five stores. We want customers to know wherever they go, in any mall, they’ll see a Next Generation store,” Wright says. “It’s like the McDonald’s philosophy, but on a much smaller scale—for now.”
To fuel Next Generation’s expansion, Wright is constantly looking at different companies in the industry to acquire or merge with to establish as Next Generation stores. Those stores are exclusively Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems agents. “We could go anywhere we want, but we have a great relationship with Southwestern Bell, and because of that relationship we’ve been profitable and successful,” Wright says. He points out once the Southwestern Bell/Ameritech merger is complete, the company will cover three-quarters of the U.S. “That’s not a bad strategic partner for us to have.”
Southwestern Bell also feels it has a valuable partner in Wright. “Leroy Wright is an outstanding businessman,” says Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, former president of Southwestern Bell–Missouri, who recently became senior vice president of SBC Communications in Washington, D.C. “He’s been instrumental in marketing our products in Missouri and California. He’s done a terrific job in growing the market.”
Wright’s relationship with Southwestern Bell began in 1993 when he received his master’s degree from Southern Illinois University–Carbondale, which he attended on a football scholarship. Wright says he always wanted to be an entrepreneur, “even when I didn’t even know what the word meant.” Early on he determined the quickest way to achieve that was to go into sales.
“Sales is an area that allows you to earn an unlimited income,” Wright says. “I did a little research and discovered within the sales arena, the hottest technology industry at the time was telecommunications, and within that, the wireless industry was the fastest growing. So I focused on finding a way to get into this business. It was a stroke of luck that Southwestern Bell was recruiting on campus, and offered me a sales job.”
The first year, Wright went “from nowhere” to top sales person and remained at the top the second year. “The third year I went to management with a proposal to support me in my own company,” Wright says. “They thought it was great, because my philosophy was, whatever I’m producing as an individual employee, I could produce 10 times that with my own company. They’d still profit and to a greater extent.”
To form Wright Cellular, he raised capital from private investors and kicked in personal savings, too. The first year, the company earned $700,000 in revenue, and grew from four to 16 employees. It ranked fourth in the region out of about 200 other cellular operations.
Up to this point Wright had targeted business users as his primary customers. To balance the business and reach his goal of becoming the top cellular company in St. Louis, he focused on individual cell phone users and Next Generation—in 1997, he became the top-ranked cellular company in Missouri, with 15 stores in St. Louis area malls.
Wright was first rebuffed by the owners when he approached them about a buy-out, and by banks when he approached them about financing. But he put together a solid business plan and attracted investors such as Civic Ventures, a St. Louis venture capital firm that put up $1 million in equity, plus NationsBank, which contributed another $500,000 from its venture capital fund.
The deal was done six months later, with Wright owning 75 percent of Next Generation, and Civic Ventures, NationsBank and other investors owning 25 percent.
Frank Jacobs, chairman and chief executive officer of Falcon Products and a board member of Civic Ventures recalls meeting Wright. “He’s an incredible salesman and really delivers on what he sells,” Jacobs says. “He reminds me a lot of myself when I was young. Nothing will stop him.” What impresses Jacobs most is that Wright “goes out and finds people who have done a variety of things and gets them to talk to him. Then he makes his own decisions and gets the job done. I admire him, because he’s very persevering and knows what he wants to do.”
Wright’s perseverance and hard work were recognized in 1998 when he was named the first Young Entrepreneur of the Year in St. Louis, and went on to become one of 10 national finalists in the Ernst & Young, LLP annual competition. “I was ecstatic about it,” Wright says. “It gave me a chance to meet a lot of great people, and especially, to hear the same story in different variations. After all, entrepreneurship is based on the same formula wherever you go.” He was nominated by his wife, Dana, who directs the Central West End branch of the Red Cross. The Wrights have two sons, Jesse, 7, and Malcolm, l.
Looking ahead, Wright sees nothing but continuous growth for his company. “This is a limitless industry,” he says, pointing out San Diego only has 14 percent wireless penetration, and St. Louis, about 17 percent. Nationwide about 60 million people use cellular service and an estimated 300 million are projected to use it by 2005. “That’s just over 50 percent saturation,” Wright says. As the market becomes more saturated, he believes “the wireless device will be totally different from anything we perceive it as today.” Specifically, people will use their cell phones for paging, voice mail, text messaging, e-mail and as a personal organizer. “Ultimately,” he forecasts, “you’ll be able to use your cell phone as your personal computer.”
Wright is a member of the board of the RCGA. His term began in January 1999. He’s honored to “sit in the same room” among individuals “who make decisions about very important issues and get behind the initiatives that can drive change in the region,” he says. “I believe I can contribute by bringing a perspective of one who actually grew up here, a native who went away to college and came back. I feel I have my finger on the pulse of the area and know the issues well.”
Possibly the activity that provides the most personal satisfaction for Wright is serving on the board of the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ Club. “Martin Mathews, the executive director, was like a second father to me,” Wright explains. “He saw me on the streets with my blind grandfather and took me under his wing when I was just a kid.” As a result, Wright believes he’s the perfect example of what the club can do for an individual. “There are plenty of negative things I could have gotten into,” he says. “It’s a club that truly changes lives and touches more than 10,000 children every year, teaching them that people may have differences, but we’re not that different.”
Wright also enjoys sharing his story with children through St. Louis Public Schools’ Role Model Experience Program. He estimates he’s given about 200 speeches throughout the district. “I do this, because I want to do whatever I can to motivate young people, to tell them success is attainable. I never feel I’m too busy to talk to kids.”
Nor is he too busy to forget his primary mission. “I want to be extremely wealthy,” Wright says. “I believe taking the company public and doing the right things with it is the way to go, not just for myself and my family, but to benefit others and help them find success as well.” The kid who wanted to be an entrepreneur but didn’t know what the word meant always viewed himself as “someone who’d start a business that would affect the lives of a multitude of people. I never saw any other path for Leroy Wright. That’s my calling and that’s what I’ll do with the rest of my time on earth.”
