A Leading tech corporation to keep watch of in the future
On the wall in the board space of its London premises - just off Shoreditch's main road - dangles a sheet of A4 paper in a simple frame. There, in plain text, Avanti’s aim is explained: "To be the international leader in Ka band satellites, make a lot of money and enjoy the fun."
Avanti Communications is a comprehensive telecoms company. Perhaps this doesn’t seem as exciting as the Tech City start-ups that surround this Aim-listed enterprise, but this presumption would be an oversight. While the self conscious youngsters of Silicon Roundabout have a seriousness about them, the enterprise is bravely launching satellites up into the sky.
David Williams, along with David Bestwick, set up the company in the noughties. Williams wished to be a singer-songwriter at university, but when these hopes failed to manifest he ended up needing a regular job. From the lower tiers of a financing financial institution he rose through the ranks right up until he was able to gain capital for telecoms and mass media companies. In the 1990s, there were a great amount of other groups who were endeavouring to do what the business is currently working on, but Williams got discouraged seeking to produce solutions to back these enterprises. The massive corporations "chickened out" as they didn't have the financial risk drive. Williams thought to himself: "I have confidence in this business segment, I’ll do it personally."
"Bestwick is the real mind behind this firm - he is the scientist who invented the tech. He had the understanding to realise why we need to continue being adaptable and why we should style the satellite the way we do," says Williams. "He and I are completely contrasting in our skill sets and our traits and our character . And we work just perfectly with each other."
Its intercontinental telecoms network at the moment consists of a few satellites and four surface terminals, delivering extremely high-speed dual receiver data packs in around 56 states across Europe, the GCC space and Africa. Differentiating your corporation from your rivals is important for any corporation. For the company, this is seen through the frequency at which it manages information. Williams points out that your cellphone runs on 3 gigahertz, while BSkyB is employing around 17 GHz. Its geostationary satellites work on 30 gigahertz. When he began attempting to get funds for a Ka band satellite way back in 2002 "people thought we were utterly crazy" for working at this higher frequency band. "There was a single fellow in America doing the same and they thought he was insane too." He is amongst Williams’s closest friends and offered for sale Hughes Communications a year ago for well over $1 bn.
Williams crowns his team with the corporation's victories. He takes pride in the office atmosphere he has built, and his essential recommendation for those aiming to start their very own business enterprise is: "You shouldn’t consider being a business owner as getting things done on your own. If you do, you are making a mistake. An entrepreneur should have helpful advice, requires friends and requires collaborations."
