Innovating Internet
Bill Hynes and Chad Taylor are innovating the internet, a task that sounds as large as it is. Together, they operate United Fiber & Data, a company umbrelled under Think Loud Productions, which houses a recording studio and office space in York, Pennsylvania. They run a 300 mile long fiber optic line from Virginia to New York City, which stores information for companies throughout the Northeast.
Fiber Optic networking moves data at higher volumes and faster speeds than previous technology. They explained that their network can move information at 400 gigs per second, whereas your household Internet service can do about 25 Megabits. “When they say the information superhighway, ours is just a bigger superhighway, transferring data between multiple points in the country,” Bill said. “It is more profitable and it is more efficient. We have over 55 miles of fiber installed in New York City, and it connects 230 businesses, primarily on Wall St. Our line goes through New York and out to Ashburn. 88% of America’s Internet runs through there, and 70% of the world’s.”
Bill is a veteran who worked for Coca Cola after leaving the military. Later, he connected with a friend who was doing computer programming, and they went to Apple to learn about outsourcing program development. At the time, you could sign up and pay $99 a year to be an app developer, and though they’d take 30% of profits, you could potentially make millions in your business – all while leaving the backend work to Apple. “That put the bug in my ear about fiber and fiber optic,” he explained. “Then I talked to Chad and he was like, ‘That’s brilliant. Let’s do it.’ Then we had the fiber optic idea, to figure out a way to add data centers. We literally united fiber and data.”
Chad, on the other hand, is known as having founded the band Live when he was just 13-years-old. He successfully raised enough money to record their first album when he was a senior in high school, illustrating his business savvy. He was an entrepreneur by 17, and in 2010, founded a company called Aurora films, which later became one of the largest visual production companies on the East Coast. Later, he exited the company to build Think Loud. Now, they own and operate 37 separate PNLs, but despite his business ventures, he never forgot about music. He and the band are going on tour again next year.
Bill and Chad agree that one of the most motivating factors for them is creating new jobs and opportunities for their local community. “I never founded a company just to create jobs, but there is something about being in York, my hometown, and seeing the deep loyalty and appreciation, the members of our team and the community and that motivates me more than anything else,” Chad said. “We are accountable not only to our communities but to our employees. Each of these employees have families to support, and if Chad and I don’t do our job, they can’t either.”
Despite the pressure, they are confident about the future: “If we were going to fail, we would have already.”
By: Brianna Wiest
