[Telecom Series] Inside the $1.6 Trillion Connectivity Ecosystem

Ben Edmond is the Founder and CEO of Connectbase, a company that helps telecom, cable, and managed service providers buy and sell network services more efficiently through a digital platform. Under his leadership, Connectbase powers over 4 million quotes each month and serves nearly every major operator across North America and Europe. Prior to Connectbase, Ben served as CRO at Global Capacity, where he led the company’s customer go-to-market strategy and execution. With over 25 years in telecom, fiber, and networking, he is known for modernizing connectivity commerce and reducing transaction friction.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[4:32] Ben Edmond on Connectbase as the operating system for connectivity buying and selling
[8:39] The hidden network ecosystem powering the internet connections businesses rely on every day
[12:44] Ben’s path from MCI into the telecom and networking industry
[18:52] Lessons from bootstrapping a company and acquiring the first 100 customers
[22:35] The value Connectbase creates for both buyers and sellers in the connectivity marketplace
[27:47] Ben on how AI infrastructure creates new demand for connectivity
[34:44] Why Connectbase hosts TCW Live for industry connection and education

In this episode…

The connectivity industry depends on thousands of providers, yet transactions are still slowed by manual processes, disconnected systems, and limited visibility. As demand for faster connectivity grows, how can businesses better match supply and demand in real time?

Ben Edmond, a telecom industry veteran and entrepreneur, shares that the key to reducing friction is digitizing how connectivity services are bought and sold. He explains that bringing real-time data, automation, and visibility into the process enables providers to make faster, more accurate decisions. By aggregating information across thousands of network operators, his platform removes long-standing inefficiencies in how connectivity is sourced and delivered. The result is a more connected ecosystem where buyers and sellers can transact with greater speed, confidence, and efficiency. Drawing from decades in the telecom industry, he also emphasizes the importance of solving deep operational pain points to drive meaningful innovation.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, host Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Ben Edmond, Founder and CEO of Connectbase, to discuss how digital innovation is transforming the connectivity industry. They explore building a platform that streamlines network transactions, lessons from bootstrapping and scaling a tech company, and how AI is improving operational efficiency. Ben also shares insights on industry relationships, conferences, and ecosystem collaboration.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Special mention(s):

Related episodes:

Quotable moments:

“I like to refer to us as the operating system for how connectivity gets bought and sold.”
“Even the largest providers reach only a fraction of locations, which is why they need to buy and sell from each other.”
“My strategy and vision have been aligned since day one.”
“People still matter. Human connection remains essential, even in a technology-driven industry.”
“Our team believes we’re building something meaningful for a critical industry.”

Action steps:

Digitize manual workflows to reduce friction and inefficiency: Replacing spreadsheets, emails, and other manual processes with automated platforms streamlines transactions, improves accuracy, and enables faster decision-making.
Use data to drive smarter business decisions: Real-time analytics help optimize pricing, improve win rates, and uncover opportunities that would otherwise be missed through manual processes and guesswork.
Incorporate AI into everyday operations: Leveraging AI tools can accelerate problem-solving, increase productivity, and automate repetitive tasks, allowing teams to focus on higher-value work.
Build a strong advisory network early: Engaging experienced advisors provides valuable feedback, strategic guidance, and industry connections that can help shape business growth and avoid costly mistakes.
Invest in industry relationships and community building: Conferences, events, and ongoing collaboration create opportunities for knowledge sharing, stronger partnerships, and lasting professional connections in a technology-driven industry.

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Episode Transcript

Intro 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here. I am the Founder of InspiredInsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Ben Edmond. You can check them out at ConnectBase.com. That’s a fantastic domain. I love that domain. We’re going to talk about what you do. And you know, he really works with some of the biggest companies out there, from telecom and cable, and many more. And well, it’s really fascinating his journey. So we’ll get into that. But before I formally introduce you, Ben, I like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. This is again, I was thinking, okay, this is what we’re going to talk about AI. Of course. What conversation is not, you know, complete without an AI conversation? But really, we’re talking about how one company had 18 million API calls with this company.

We’ll get into that. And one of the interviews that came up was Rick Rappe. Rick Rappe. It sounds like this wouldn’t fit with what Ben does, but direct response why direct mail works how to do it right. But Rick has worked with some of the biggest telecom companies out there. Also, from the direct mail standpoint, right? Some other ones in AI that were fun. Ben and Nicole Donnelly shared the AI tools. She’s spoken all over the world on AI, the tools that have transformed the businesses she’s consulted with and worked with. And we really just, I think, spent the whole time going through her favorite tools. There are probably who knows how many on there. So that was a fun episode. Also, Ken McLoud talked about a kind of AI-powered lead generation and automation for agencies. And Joe Levy was interesting. AI alert, basically, it overlays AI with video cameras for security purposes, and it can identify if there’s like a weapon and immediately alerts the authorities of the location, the type of weapon, so they can get there quicker. Unfortunately, in the US, we need that kind of thing with all the stuff that happens. So all those and many more, and InspiredInsider.com.

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I am really excited to introduce Ben Edmond. He’s the CEO and Founder of Connectbase. Prior to founding Connectbase, Ben served as the Chief Revenue Officer at Global Capacity. He was responsible for all aspects of the company’s customer go-to-market strategy and execution. He’s got over 25 years of experience in the fiber, telecom, and networking industries. It’s really a broad expertise from strategy to product to sales and marketing. And they’ve worked with companies I mentioned, you know, from AT&T, Cox, and so many more. So Ben, thanks for joining me.

Ben Edmond: 04:14

It is an absolute pleasure. I’m appreciative of the opportunity to be here with you.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:18

I’m going to we’ll start off with Connect Base and what you do because you have different elements of the business, which I found fascinating. And as you talk, I’m going to pull up the website so people can check it out. So talk about Connectbase and what you do.

Ben Edmond: 04:32

So at a high level, 10000 foot view, we help the connectivity industry. So think of those telecom companies, cable companies that sell connectivity in the business-to-business side of the world, digitize and transform how that gets bought and sold historically, lots of friction, lots of manual processes, lots of fragmentation in this market. That drives the need for a better way. And connect bases that I like to refer to as the operating system for how connectivity gets bought and sold. And we sit in that in-between layer between all these big companies and help digitize and transform the experience of buying and selling something. So it feels more consumer-like where you’re clicking a button and getting a result.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:24

Let’s talk, let’s break that down a little bit with, you know, bought and sold. And maybe we’ll take an example from each on the, on the buy side. I know you work with BCN. Do you want to talk about what I mean for people who don’t know what BCN is, and how it worked, how you worked with them through Connectbase?

Ben Edmond: 05:43

BCN is a fantastic organization that’s best understood as a managed service provider. So they go out and help enterprise customers of theirs manage the IT stack overall. Soup to nuts and connectivity is a big part of that, and the reality for managed service providers like BCN, there’s no one provider. There’s this collection of hundreds to make up the fabric to deliver to their customers. We help transform that experience for them, really, you know, digitizing their supplier base so they can query a set of locations from one of their customers and, in real time, get answers back on what providers can serve with what products at what price, so they can be responsive to the needs and make decisions not just on price, but really understand quality. Because when you’re managing what’s going over the network, whether it’s, you know, services for voice or security or cloud-based services, the network helps shape the experience that you’re going to get. So the quality of the network and making decisions on that is part of what we do for Jeannie and Team over at BCN.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:03

What about on the sell side? So that’s on the buy side.

Ben Edmond: 07:08

Yeah, absolutely. Sell side. Some of the great experiences we’ve had are companies like Cox Communications, where we’ve, you know, helped transform Cox’s ability to reach into the wholesale market and the channel market and really drive their ability to be connected to their buyers. So instead of swivel chairs or emails or manual processes or meeting people a couple times a year at trade shows, we create a bonded state between the buyer and the supplier, Cox in this case, and many others.

And that allows them to really scale up the participation in every single deal and opportunity for their connected buyers and then understand it once again, shaping so they can position their capabilities the best. And as we have grown rapidly over the last ten years since we started, we have added new potential relationships to those wholesale suppliers that traditionally have been hard to find. And, you know, going into the managed service providers, the carriers, the large, you know, global buyers, and making it easy for them to transact.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:27

What’s an example of a type of buyer for Cox? Because, you know, my mind always goes like the end customer, but sure, that’s not who we’re talking about here.

Ben Edmond: 08:39

No, not at all. If you think about the connectivity industry, you know, most people know the big brand names. But the reality is there’s, you know, over 13,000 physical last mile owners that actually own network into buildings around the world, and 2300 of them happen to be right here in the United States. So a lot of fragmentation at a location level that then aggregates up and has to be connected to make this Zoom call actually work. It is those companies that we serve first, those service providers that physically own something.

And because they don’t own everything everywhere, they have to buy and sell from each other to make their connectivity work for their particular customer base, whether it’s a multi-location business, us as individuals talking across Zoom in the home, the network itself is not a one-point thing. It’s a multi-point thing. And so we serve the buyers at like Genie at BCN, the managed service providers, the large carriers, the telcos, the cable Co’s, and help them buy from the suppliers that they want to buy from.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:55

It’s interesting. I don’t know if this is a comparable example, but I picture I used to see some billboards for like Cricket Wireless, which is like just a wireless. Yeah. You know, it’s not really a known brand necessarily, but they’re probably buying data and information from it, which could be Verizon or Sprint or one of these bigger companies, because they’re not going to have their whole network. So, a smaller company may buy whatever they need from a larger company. Is that accurate?

Ben Edmond: 10:28

You got it exactly right. And that happens, you know, because of geography, you know, the world’s big, the country is big. And it’s a very capital-intensive thing to build a network. So they tend to be in pockets of concentration. And not everybody, even the biggest companies in the market are large single-digit percentage reach into the actual locations, and they have to buy and sell from each other to make it all work.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:57

Yeah, I think cricket uses like AT&T or something like that. But you know, it’s like, okay, well, we have this customer base, but we need the infrastructure there, and we need a larger parent organization for that infrastructure. So we can kind of do the rest of the whatever it is, customer service, and onboarding, and things like that.

Ben Edmond: 11:19

Sales, marketing, and customer service are all kinds of different ways to create value in the market and a big $1.6 trillion ecosystem. So some try to do everything. Some try to just own the infrastructure, some try to, you know, be a wholesale-only carrier. It’s all over the board. What we want to do is ensure that the people with supply can find the demand. And the people with demand can find the supply optimally with as little friction as possible.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 11:51

Yeah, it was interesting. Then, you know, one of the interviews, it was the story behind ESPN, the birth of ESPN, and the founder of ESPN, and Mike Soltis and Garrett Sutton wrote this book. And I think it’s a documentary now on ESPN, but it’s similar because when he first started ESPN, I don’t think of ESPN as a startup, but it really was a startup. And he put his family’s money on the line and credit cards on the line. But he had to borrow, like you said, like he didn’t have infrastructure. So I think he went to local, you know, the local stations, and had to figure it out because he didn’t have all the infrastructure.

Ben Edmond: 12:33

So absolutely.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:35

I love it. Now, this just seems so random a business model. How did you even get into this? Like I’m going to connect.

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[Telecom Series] Inside the $1.6 Trillion Connectivity Ecosystem With Ben Edmond