Neel Popat is the CEO and co-founder of Popcorn, a software-first 'next-gen telco' that sells one global eSIM phone plan with unlimited talk, text, and data across 180+ countries and no roaming fees. A British-Indian former finance professional turned serial founder, he coded a viral message board at 13, studied mathematics at LSE, spent a decade inside investment funds, then built the crypto-investing app Donut through Entrepreneur First. When Donut's custody partner Genesis went bankrupt, Popat fought through the wind-down and returned 100% of user funds before channeling the lessons into Popcorn.
TextNow is a Waterloo-born wireless company that gives people phone service for free by letting advertisers, not subscribers, foot the bill. Started in 2009 as a way to dodge texting fees, it has grown into the largest provider of free mobile phone service in the United States, offering unlimited talk, text, and free essential data over a nationwide 5G network through its app-based MVNO. With roughly 10 million monthly active users and revenue north of $100 million, TextNow built a real telecom business on a simple bet: communication should be a right, paid for by ads rather than by the people who can least afford a phone bill.
US Mobile is a New York-based mobile virtual network operator that lets customers build their own wireless plans and switch between Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile on a single line. Branded internally as Warp (Verizon), Dark Star (AT&T), and Light Speed (T-Mobile), its 'Teleport' multi-network technology and eSIM-first approach have pushed it toward a self-styled 'Super Carrier' that now also bundles Starlink home internet. Founded in 2015 by Ahmed Khattak, it has grown from a niche unlocked-phone reseller to roughly a million customers.
Ahmed Khattak is the founder and CEO of US Mobile, the only American carrier built natively on the public cloud that lets customers ride and switch between all three major networks (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) on demand. A Pakistani immigrant who landed on an F1 student visa, he spent a decade clawing US Mobile to $100M in annual recurring revenue, then doubled it to $200M in nine months. Before that he co-founded GSM Nation, a $130M unlocked-phone marketplace that taught him how the carriers really make money.
SIMO is a San Francisco mobile-connectivity company whose patented virtual SIM (vSIM) lets devices roam across 300+ carriers in 140+ countries with no physical SIM card. Founded in 2009 as Skyroam, it now powers the Solis line of pocket hotspots for consumers and an embedded chipset/cloud platform used by enterprises, automakers and IoT fleets.
Marc E. Jones is the Board Chairman of Aeris Communications, a San Jose-based IoT connectivity company he has led since 2005 and served as President & CEO from 2008 through early 2025. A Stanford undergraduate and law school graduate who grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, Jones transformed Aeris from a company on the verge of collapse — personally investing alongside employees to rescue it — into a global IoT platform managing nearly 100 million connected devices including 41 million connected vehicles for Fortune 500 clients such as Chrysler, Honda, and Bosch. Named by Goldman Sachs as one of the nation's best entrepreneurs in 2012 and 2013, he also serves on the boards of CDW, Ingersoll Rand, Stanford University, and Stanford Health Care, and chairs Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), a nonprofit dedicated to advancing underrepresented minorities into executive roles.
Sunil Kaul is the CEO of Airlinq, a Silicon Valley-based enterprise IoT platform company serving automakers, mobile network operators, and enterprises with a secure, scalable, AI-powered platform for connected vehicle and IoT ecosystem management. With over 20 years in telecommunications, Kaul has grown Airlinq into a globally recognized leader in IoT connectivity management, earning top rankings from Kaleido Intelligence, Counterpoint Research, and Frost & Sullivan, while forging partnerships with major names like Volvo, Verizon, NTT DOCOMO, Jio, and Tata.