FAST FACT
Ring-u is targeting companies which need phone service for two to 20 lines and up to 50 extensions.
With Chattanooga’s small business scene flourishing, a local company is offering a so-called internet-based “plug and play” phone system to that segment of the market.
“It’s an extension of things we’ve done in the past,” said Ring-u founder Phil Sieg. He created the company with Mike Harrison, who developed Chattanooga Online, which was called the region’s first internet company.
Sieg, who led a developer of technology geared toward seniors known as SeniorTech LLC, said he and Harrison each were free at the same time and that spurred the business that’s been up and running for about seven months.
The idea of Ring-u is to make business phone systems easy, Sieg said.
Harrison said that while commercial phone systems typically require a technician, Ring-u is designed as a simple, do-it-yourself product.
He said initial set-up takes about 15 minutes. It’s comparable to setting up an office printer, said Harrison.
“Once initial set-up is complete, the system reaches out and configures individual phones,” he said.
The service is built around Hello Hub, a small computer designed by Sieg and Harrison. Customers buy the Hello Hub, which is available on Amazon or the company’s website, then purchase phone service from Ring-u. Customers also can buy phones from Ring-u, or any other vendor, or use existing phones, according to the company.
Sieg said customers pay monthly fees and no contracts are required. He said pricing is based on phone lines and not the number of employees or extensions and is lower than most systems.
Harrison said Ring-u’s phone system is about the price of an office laser printer while those of other companies “area about the price of a car.”
Ring-u is currently located at the Hamilton County Business Development Center at Cherokee Boulevard and Manufacturers Road. But Sieg said the company has bought a building on Dayton Boulevard and hopes to be in that facility by year’s end.
So far, Ring-u’s system is in 26 states, said Sieg, calling business “a slow, steady climb.”
“We’re trying to figure out how to ramp that up,” he said, adding the company is searching for a sales and marketing director. With three employees currently, they’re looking at add a couple of more sales people later, Sieg said.
He estimated the business, created with less than $250,000, has a lot of up side. He’s hopeful Ring-u can hit between 3,000 and 5,000 customers within a year or two.
“Then we’ll decide if we keep or run it or sell it,” Sieg said.
Hamilton County’s small business incubator is the third largest in the country, according to the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, which runs the site. Chattanooga’s 140-acre Innovation District, meanwhile, was created in 2015 as a place where entrepreneurs, tech-based startups and business incubators can mesh and create a so-called innovation ecosystem.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.