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Planet Money just did a podcast on Pigeon.ly. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/03/13/392862778/episode-610-the-prisoners-solution http://www.npr.org/blogs/m

by tswartz 12y ago

Planet Money just did a podcast on Pigeon.ly. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/03/13/392862778/episode-610-the-prisoners-solution http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/03/13/392862778/episode-... Fascinating to listen to the founder talking about the difficulty of starting a business as a former convict. Its ironic that because he was in prison he best understands the target market, however being in prison meant banks and other investors viewed him and his business negatively. (edit: Planet Money did the podcast on Pigeon.ly, not another company)

YokoZar 12y ago
Planet Money's podcast was about this very company -- they just changed their name. It's mentioned somewhere midway through the episode.
- tswartz 12y ago
  Oh, I must have missed that. Good for Frederick. Their new business of providing prison local phone numbers for families out of state to use was genius. That probably saves inmates so much money in long distance calls. I'd guess that the vast majority of inmates are incarcerated far from their home and family.
  - dublinben 12y ago
    The concept of an expensive "long distance call" has been eradicated in every other aspect of life. It's too bad that prisoners and their families are being taken advantage of by the service providers here.
    - nocman 12y ago
      Actually that's not entirely true. There are a lot of places in the U. S. at least that still have very poor to no cell phone coverage, but do have landlines. In most of these places, calling to anywhere but the area around the nearest town is a long distance call (with a commonly 7 - 12 cent per minute charge on top of the monthly local phone access charges) -- unless you don't consider that expensive. Believe me it can add up quickly.
bmoresbest55 12y ago
Yup. I just listened to this podcast yesterday it was quite good. Nice to hear about someone that made something good out of a bad situation.

by tswartz 12y ago

YokoZar 12y ago

Planet Money's podcast was about this very company -- they just changed their name. It's mentioned somewhere midway through the episode.

tswartz 12y ago
Oh, I must have missed that. Good for Frederick. Their new business of providing prison local phone numbers for families out of state to use was genius. That probably saves inmates so much money in long distance calls. I'd guess that the vast majority of inmates are incarcerated far from their home and family.
- dublinben 12y ago
  The concept of an expensive "long distance call" has been eradicated in every other aspect of life. It's too bad that prisoners and their families are being taken advantage of by the service providers here.
  - nocman 12y ago
    Actually that's not entirely true. There are a lot of places in the U. S. at least that still have very poor to no cell phone coverage, but do have landlines. In most of these places, calling to anywhere but the area around the nearest town is a long distance call (with a commonly 7 - 12 cent per minute charge on top of the monthly local phone access charges) -- unless you don't consider that expensive. Believe me it can add up quickly.

bmoresbest55 12y ago

Yup. I just listened to this podcast yesterday it was quite good. Nice to hear about someone that made something good out of a bad situation.