Phonism, the extensible network device management company, has raised additional funding and added proven executives to its leadership team. Marc Tribbe and James Lee augment Founder and CEO Steve Lazaridis' efforts by bringing a combined focus on product development and growth. With these additions, Phonism adds 60+ years of experience in telecommunications and technology, at a time when the company is expanding offerings and driving customer growth.
Cloud-based Phonism allows service providers to innovate with a vendor-agnostic, radically simple, less costly way to configure, deploy and support VoIP based telephony devices. With Phonism, providers provision MAC addresses, drop-ship devices, and invoice quickly. This typically means 1-3 additional months of billable revenue and much happier customers.
"Having known Marc and James for years, it made perfect sense to bring them on board. Marc's an exceptional product visionary, and James brings a wealth of expertise in SaaS strategy and operations. Having them join at this critical juncture accelerates implementation of our vision: Be the most extensible network device management solution on the planet," says Steve Lazaridis.
Tribbe is Phonism's first Chief Product Officer, bringing vision, creativity, and product experience. Lee joined as Chief Operating Officer and leads the Growth Team, focusing on marketing, sales, onboarding, and customer success. Together, they have collaborated on multiple business opportunities for over 25 years.
Early in their careers, Tribbe and Lee were colleagues at Cincinnati Bell, working on the earliest VoIP initiatives in the company. Lee became a co-founder of RoundTower Technologies, an IT Solutions Provider, in 2007. For the next 12 years, he focused on sales - helping drive growth from zero to nearly a half billion in annual revenues. AHEAD, a leader in digital business platforms, acquired RoundTower in 2020.
Tribbe founded Park Bench Solutions (PBS) in 2012, the company behind the award-winning "odin" Productivity Platform and API for Cisco BroadWorks. Lee joined PBS as an Advisory Board Member in 2014, then in 2020 as Chief Operating Officer. As a team, they doubled its customer base and quadrupled recurring revenues over the next two years before selling PBS to Rev.io, a telecom billing and back-office software leader.
Since inception in 2012, Phonism steadily built an impressive collection of devoted, longtime clients. Following last year's record-breaking success, the company attracted new investors who infused capital to fuel product enhancements and growth. This funding enables preparation for immediate company-wide expansion. In the past year alone, Phonism doubled headcount and is actively looking to fill additional key positions.
