Jay Frank is a passionate entrepreneur working to better the world of channel sales. His perseverance and ethical drive displayed throughout his career have led him to his current role as the founder of Symbiotic.
Tell Us a Little About Your Background.
I'm a very concerned citizen of the Earth, a man of grit and mirth. I've been in channel sales for 25 years. My brother and I started Nice Touch Communications directly after Bill Clinton signed the [Telecommunications Act of 1996]. And from ’97 to 2020, I was the co-founder of Nice Touch Communications and within that time frame, I developed a platform, which is the precursor to Symbiotic, called Telecom for Charity.
I see the possibility of shifting or disrupting channel sales for good. And I’m here to develop a new channel sales enablement vehicle that offers profit and purpose. Opt-in when you want to use it to align with your concerns as the seller and attract buy-side interest with the promise that it will have an impact through the transaction.
What Was Your First Job?
I was born a hustler/entrepreneur. My brother and I sold candy a couple of months after Halloween, sold fireworks, delivered papers, and raked leaves. The first real job was delivering pizzas — actually, no; before that, it was cutting grass. I must have cut ten thousand lawns and delivered ten thousand pizzas by the time I was 18.
Tell Us About a Mentor of Yours. What Is the Most Important Lesson You Learned From Them?
Getting into channel sales or starting Nice Touch Communications, for me, was a means to an end. I never thought that I would end up on this career path. It was always a means to an end. I [didn’t] know where I was going to go, and it made a good living.
But during that timeframe, and to this day, I've yet to find anybody beyond paid outsourcing coaching that has been a mentor to me. For sure, there's been plenty of respected individuals in the industry I've come to meet. But in terms of mentorship, I've kind of carved this vision, by my own will and interest, of finding my place in society and business where it fits my resolve and character with openness, but never finding any support in terms of mentorship that I can comment upon.
I wish that was not the case. I am wide open to support from from any, any, any faction. I have a saying that's all hands on deck, all systems check, and all mediums to meet not only the climate crisis but the biodiversity crisis, as well as society's lack of hope and whatnot.
What Are You Most Proud of In Your Career?
I'm proud of establishing Nice Touch Communications in ’97 and building a respectable business from the ground up with no support. Just pure hustling and entrepreneurship to provide for myself and my family for 25 years, to create this vision of profit and purpose through transactions, to stand deep with the conviction and commitment towards it for better outcomes for all — and to not give up. Perseverance and hope in the possibility, against — I wouldn't say all odds, but it has certainly been an uphill battle, being that we're absolutely looking to disrupt business as usual.
If You Could Change Anything About Your Industry, What Would It Be and Why?
There are a number of things. Direct communication has been a struggle. I feel like there are ways to means, and we have a solution for sales enablement that's add-on, opt-in. It's been super difficult just to have conversations with people of means that can consider what Symbiotic has to offer in terms of sales enablement for their distribution company. There are thousands of existing distribution channels, none of which are branded, none of which are social impact, and the partnership expands possibilities for all.
Tell Me About Symbiotic and Your Mission.
Thanks for asking this important question. Symbiotic is a Social Impact As A Service platform that has evolved over 15 years of vision into an easy button of social impact and transaction. Symbiotic addresses the cost of doing business between buyer and seller, procurement and distribution, which is the commission earned at the transaction level.
What we do is carve out social impact, in the form of embedded philanthropy that aligns with the customer-chosen nonprofit, so long as it aligns with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (which is more or less the gold standard of social impact goals). We look to connect motivated buyers looking for social impact and/or sustainability to channel sellers who are primed for profits and purpose, for addressing trillions of dollars of spend, where we can help rebalance planetary inequities one transaction at a time.
Symbiotic is a movement at the ground level that's potentially ubiquitous and infinitely scalable — an antithesis to Amazon. With Amazon being the ease of transactions, Symbiotic looks to be the ease of social impact in transactions, for B2B to start.
We believe Symbiotic is a brand-name possibility of radical concepts and hope. When the planet and society need it more than ever, we’re an easy button for social good and transaction, hopefully to attract business and lower the cost of acquisition. We shift acquisition from kickback to impact. I’m not trying to offend anybody, but I know personally the paradigm of burning business with kickback, and sometimes that's a lot more expensive than the social impact we have to offer.
So we look to add social impact into channel sales folks’ briefcases, and at the very least, give them the ability to go to market to customers that are looking for solutions that meet their requirements, plus working with companies that add value to ESG concerns and or commitments.
We have the possibility to connect subject matter experts to opportunities via the conduit of social impacts and the cutting-edge technology at hand to do so. We can connect the dots, building blocks, for a better planet.
What Lasting Contribution Do You Hope to Make to Society/The Professional World?
I want to bring profit and purpose to the channel. A lane where you can sell your services with purpose, knowing the cost of doing business is social impact and it's not cheap. But a mechanism that can open up bigger doors, larger customer opportunities, and create a social impact that matters to society.
We wish to build a brand name of radical common sense and hope that that becomes a movement.
The call to action that we have right now is a challenge, and we're testing the premise. We're leading with social impact through transactions. The promise of such — via a Symbiotic partnership — will that attract buy-side opportunities?
Heading into a recession with an existential climate crisis, and having ESG commitments — Symbiotic can help. We help in the way that enterprise companies procure IT infrastructure services, and the challenge is: if we can't meet or beat your requirements for IT infrastructure services, we will plant 100,000 trees on your behalf. All the details will be on a dedicated landing page to share with potential customers to help close business.
If anybody is on the fence about buying from your solution or any solution, we believe that the promise and premise of social impact in transaction that allows your customer, and perhaps ESG commitments if applicable, we can help you close that business with a bit of philanthropy.
If People Want to Be a Part of Your Mission, What’s the Best Way to Contact You?
The best way to contact me is via email at jay@bsymbiotic.com. At this moment, we’re looking for allies in the space. We’re easy to partner with — in fact, we flipped the traditional RP into a request for partnership. We wish to build a brand of apolitical attributes and connect the dots in using business as a force of good. We hope to partner with you and create better outcomes, one transaction at a time, and help you sell.
To network with Jay, be sure to connect with him on LinkedIn.
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