For some reason, Freddie Figger’s mother left him at a dumpster shortly after giving birth to him – something that she would probably regret.
At two days old, a couple, — Nathan and Betty Figgers – adopted Freddie.
Now at 29, Freddie is CEO of a $62 million telecom company founded on the back of a gadget he had invented meant to help him track his father, Nathan who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The device, which functioned as a GPS tracker and a two-way communicator, was inserted into Nathan’s shoe.
“I could pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey dad, where are you at?’ and he doesn’t have to do anything, just lean down and talk into his shoe and I can track his location,” inspiremore.com quoted Freddie as saying. “That program was very successful and I had a company reach out to me out of Kansas and they bought the program from me for $2.2 million.”
He used the money as start-up fund for what is now Figgers Communications, a telecommunications firm valued at over $62 million. It’s also the only minority-owned company of its kind in the U.S., according to inspire.com. The company’s anti-texting and driving software was also a hit. Freddie has likewise created a cell phone with a built-in wireless blood glucose meter for people with diabetes.
Freddie’s knack for tinkering goes back to his childhood days. He got his first computer when he was nine but it wasn’t working. He fixed it and made it work. He then became a computer technician at 12 years-old. At 15, Freddie was already creating his own cloud computing services.
“I believe turning caring into action, and if you see a problem find a solution to deliver an impact to change someone’s life,” Freddie said in an interview.
