David Steinberg

InPhonic

In 1986, 16-year-old David Steinberg walked into a failing Westhampton Beach nightclub and pitched the owner: He would pack the place for a 10% cut. The owner agreed, and the following weekend 500 people crammed the club's entrance. The club was hot again, thanks to a kid who wasn't even old enough to get in.

Fifteen years later, Steinberg is founder and CEO of Washington-based InPhonic, a wireless venture that's part virtual mobile carrier, part e-business enabler and part vanity service. InPhonic resells wireless minutes and provides its own data services to enterprise customers. Now Steinberg is pitching multimillion-dollar wireless contracts to the likes of Johnson & Johnson and AOL Time Warner.

Steinberg founded Sterling Cellular in 1993 out of his basement and within five years had one of the largest wireless distributorships in the country, with 58 offices in the U.S. The same understanding of human nature that allowed Steinberg to restore life to washed-up nightclubs still propels his entrepreneurialism.

“What I am, at the end of the day, is a salesman,” Steinberg said. “What I know about is making customer relationships work.”

Steinberg's sales pitch is turning results for the company. InPhonic boasts 3400 customers and affiliates in its network and has resale contracts with most major carriers. According to its own figure, the privately held company has increased its revenue by 37% month over month for the last 14 months.

As enthusiasm for 3G sours, Steinberg actually becomes more encouraged. InPhonic is already surging ahead using 2G technology. Once 3G arrives with high bandwidth and more sophisticated devices, Steinberg said, the company will be unstoppable.

Right now, though, InPhonic and Steinberg aren't even on most radar screens. After all, it's hard to attract attention when people think your sector is a lost cause. Then again, consider the has-been New York night club.