Thirteen years ago, Darryl and Angela Morin started their company, Advanced Wireless Inc., in their one-bedroom Oak Creek apartment. Today, the company does business in 49 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan and the United Kingdom, and they hope to have an installation in China by the end of 2008.
The Morins’ American entrepreneurial journey, however, sprouted from very humble roots. They are the descendants of Hispanic migrant workers.
Darryl’s father, Santana Morin, his mother, Haydee, and their family grew up in south Texas, but spent much of their time traveling across the Midwest, picking cabbage and tomatoes.
Angela’s father, Rafael Perez, is the son of a migrant worker, and he married his wife, Delores, in San Antonio, Texas. Rafael also served in the Vietnam War.
Darryl says he and his wife are grateful for their Latino heritage and the sacrifices made by their parents.
“Because the entire family was always moving and working, my father is a graduate of the third grade,” Darryl said. “Through sheer hard work and determination though, he managed to start a small asphalt company and he has put all three of his children through college. Because of that, all of us will be eternally grateful to him and my mother.”
Santana formed Morin Brothers Paving just north of Chicago. From age 11 until after he graduated college, Darryl worked for the small paving company. Daryl started out at a meager 25 cents an hour and eventually grew to $5 by the time he was 16.
“There were times that I was working 70 to 80 hours a week and would have literally nothing of a paycheck,” Darryl said. “I’m appreciative to my father and my mother though, because without learning those life lessons early on, I wouldn’t have nearly close to what I have today.”
The journey to forming Advanced Wireless began after Darryl graduated from the University of North Texas with a degree in business administration. Darryl was working for his father’s paving company, but he was not interested in doing it as a career. Darryl landed a job as a marketing associate at an Ohio-based company called Telxon Corp. He did quite a bit more than just marketing, however, and eventually gained enough knowledge about the technology and the customer base to take on an even larger role. He was promoted to sales associate and was given an area in Wisconsin to promote.
The rapidly growing company offered him a position in Ohio, but Darryl had met his soon-to-be wife and wanted to stay in Wisconsin.
That’s when he formed his own company.
Advanced Wireless is a full-service provider of wireless networks, mobile computing and printing, advanced data capture and wireless voice-over-IP predominately for enterprise businesses.
“Many of our customers have multiple locations either throughout the region or United States,” Darryl said. “Our core competency is really implementing, designing and supporting these systems to make them reliable, and to minimize the administrative costs associated with them.”
Advanced Wireless is currently located at 5007 S. Howell Ave. in Milwaukee but is growing and planning to move again. The company is in the planning stages of designing a state-of-the-art facility near Ryan Road in the Franklin Business Park.
The new 6,000-square-foot facility will utilize “green” energy-efficient technology, as well as the latest wireless networking diagnostic equipment, Darryl said.
“One of our goals when we decided to embark upon this project was to prove that you could be a world-class organization and not be a huge multinational corporation; that a small business could provide world-class solutions and support,” he said.
According to Darryl, that goal has been achieved. The company remains small by having only around 10 employees serving clients all over the globe, including large firms such as Mills Fleet Farm, Ashley Furniture, Harley-Davidson Motor Co., Quad/ Graphics Inc. and GE Healthcare.
Advanced Wireless also is the official wireless provider for the U.S. Bank Championship at Brown Deer Golf Course in July.
Angela serves as vice president for the company, but also is the majority shareholder.
“I attribute AWI’s success to our associates’ personal approach to customer development and service, as well as a strategic plan that remains focused on our core competency, providing best of breed, low-cost of ownership mobility solutions,” Angela said.
“The way we design and select the equipment we use is very cautious. We don’t have the resources to be flying out everywhere fixing things,” Darryl said. “So the majority of our company resources are focused on testing the equipment of various manufacturers, to make sure they deliver what their specification sheets say they can deliver.”
During “stress testing,” Advanced Wireless employees will literally try to break the equipment by pouring coffee or soda on it, dropping it, etc., to keep the cost of maintenance and support down.
“When we incorporate the equipment as one of our solutions, we want to be able to guarantee that the product is going to do what it is purchased for, and it keeps our after-sales support costs lower as well,” he said.
Advanced Wireless provides 24-hour technical support and offers next day on-site technical support for mission-critical system emergencies anywhere in the continental United States. One of Darryl’s proudest moments came when he received a technical support call on Christmas Day. He was forced to call some employees into work.
“I was overwhelmed to see the attitudes of the people that came in,” Darryl said. “They looked at it as our opportunity to prove that the little company could … who else would do this on Christmas Day?”
Darryl and his employees found and fixed the client’s problem in four hours.
“That’s when I knew we had formed the organization we had hoped to form,” he said.
Advanced Wireless Inc.
Principals: Darryl and Angela Morin
Industry: Wireless technology service and support
Address: 5007 S. Howell Ave., Suite 330 Milwaukee, 53207
Web site: www.advanced-wireless.com
Employees: 10
Growth plans: Will break ground in a few months on a new facility in Franklin.
