I was an entrepreneur from my, from my early days.
I think my first business was a very iconic business.
It was selling my mom's clothes while she was away.
It was a really good business, you know, 100% profit margin. Until one day I got caught.
And then my mom shut down the business.
Hi, everyone.
Mike Sievert here.
Welcome back to another episode of Sidekicks Conversations,
where we sit down at the iconic Sidekicks pub here at T-Mobile's
Bellevue headquarters to talk to some of the most interesting people
whose lives and stories affect the T-Mobile community.
Today, I'm joined by none other than Marcelo Claure,
who actually used to lead our company as CEO of Sprint from 2014 to 2018,
and Executive Chair from 2018 right up to our merger in 2020.
Today he serves along with me
on our Board of Directors, which makes him one of my bosses.
As the number two guy at SoftBank he was one of the world's
biggest investors and also engineered that famous turnaround at WeWork.
He's a wildly successful entrepreneur and an investor
and so much more. Marcelo, welcome to Sidekicks!
Hi Mike, so good to be here, so good to see so many familiar faces.
So I'm excited to have a chat with you.
Well, no kidding.
So you started at Sprint in 2014 When Masa asked you to
join the company and do that.
So why'd you say yes to him and come here to Sprint in 2014?
Having a chance to, you know, run a company
that at that point in time was 120 years old, had an iconic name,
was fighting for survival, and was probably one of the toughest jobs.
I just found it as an amazing challenge and something that I was excited to go
and lead and move my family to Kansas City and go for it,
and put up a good fight against you and the other guys.
And you've played a role in creating a truly iconic company.
I want to come back to your time
at Sprint and at SoftBank, but maybe we start at the beginning.
You know, you're an incredibly successful entrepreneur.
You grew up in Bolivia.
How did you find yourself in entrepreneurship?
I was an entrepreneur from my from my early days.
I think my first business was a very iconic business. It was selling
my mom's clothes while she was away.
You were selling her clothes while she wasn't around?
Correct.
Without her permission. Right.
So that didn't last too long.
And then, you know, my second business is I went to school in Boston,
and I was really frustrated by being the poorest guy in campus, probably.
So then I started buying and selling frequent flyer miles
and made it a business.
And I think I was like the richest kid in one semester.
Because I had a lot of employees and making a decent amount of money.
So that taught me that, hey, I was in the U.S.
and anything was possible.
Like John Legere and I here on the T-Mobile side,
you worked really hard to bring about this new company of ours.
And I got to watch you in action
doing all that when we were partners trying to make this happen.
What drove you during that time?
Why did you work so hard to create this version of T-Mobile that we have today?
It was, like I was saying, a merger made in heaven.
I mean, all the stars were aligned.
We could actually have an amazing network.
We could actually not only win by price or win
by being scrappy, but actually win by having the best product.
And I knew that it was,
it was up to us to actually put the U.S.
back in leadership on 5G and force Verizon and AT&T to really compete.
I mean, if you look at what we've accomplished, it's amazing.
I mean, you know, we forced Verizon to get rid of all their media assets with
forced AT&T to get out of that business so they can focus, and compete.
And I remember having those conversations at Congress, remember?
In those congressional hearings
or at the FCC or the DOJ where we actually made a commitment.
I said: If you approve this merger, we're actually going to make the U.S.
market more competitive.
And at first they didn't believe us.
They say it's not going to happen.
Three players are going to make it less competitive.
But I think we all knew at heart
that it was easy to sell because it was the right thing to do.
It was going to be the right thing for the country, for consumers.
Well, part of it, I hear you saying we knew we were right.
And that's sometimes when you're right, it's worth fighting for.
I mean, I think today
almost two and a half years after the creation of this company,
most objective people, if they're willing to be honest
with themselves, would look at this market and say, you know what?
Those guys made it a lot more competitive.
They were right.
It's more competitive on price,
head-to-head competition, and it's more competitive on quality.
Because we brought about a environment where AT&T and Verizon have spent
tens of billions of dollars trying to catch the 5G lead that we have.
And that's exactly what we promised would unfold.
What gets you excited about the new era of the Un-carrier? Today's T-Mobile?
How a dream that we all put together is finally evolving.
And it's just such a pleasure to, you know, be proud in the product that
you're selling, right?
And be able to tell people about it and see, you know, the story that we
started writing, how it has evolved.
And that to me, that's a lot of pride I think we have an incredible future.
You know, we have the best network.
We have the best spectrum assets.
We have momentum.
Well, you see our competitors fading.
So I think we're in incredible position in terms of continue with this leadership.
I’m going to be here until we celebrate the day that we are number one.
And that we be Verizon in total number of subscribers,
which is something that I think this company deserves.
Obviously a huge concern
on our customers’ mind, our employees’ minds is the economy.
No one can really predict it, but you are obviously a highly successful
investor and you're looking across a wide lens right now.
How do you view the months ahead
from the standpoint of inflation, the risks of recession?
And do you see not just risks, but do you see any opportunities ahead
as a function of all that? Depends who you ask.
Right? And time will tell.
But, you know, I look at opportunities like today. Most of the best companies ever
were founded in times of crisis. Even if times get more difficult,
I think it's an opportunity for us for T-Mobile to continue to grow.
To continue to provide great products
and to continue to do it at a lower price, which was the original promise.
We're going to have to run our company very smartly, very efficiently.
But if we do it right, I just love that opportunity that you just described.
You know, it's a chance for us to stand up for the American consumer and business,
because when you're stressed out, this is an essential product.
People aren't just going to drop it. It's different than 2008.
I mean, a wireless device is the primary connection to your world.
It's your life. But there might be a flight to value
meaning a better product at a lower price, as you just said.
And if we can stand up for more people and give them what they're looking for
and have their back with something like Price Lock at the exact moment
that AT&T and Verizon are using inflation as an excuse to gouge their customers,
it's just a wonderful opportunity for us, if we run the company smartly
to stand up for that. You know, I love that.
And there could be other opportunities out there as well.
As you said, dynamics change things. And opportunities present themselves.
You know, we have to be ready to seize on them
and be ready to serve customers who need us more than ever.
What do you see
out there in technology or in consumer trends
that has you excited right now as an investor or as a consumer?
There's going to be more innovation and disruption in the next five years
than in the whole history of the entire lifetime.
And that is, you know,
the fact that we're going to be part of that,
how the world is evolving. And we're in the middle of three revolutions.
Obviously, everybody knows about AI, artificial intelligence
and how AI, is redefining the world.
Then we're also living, I like to say the blockchain economy.
I know you're going to see blockchain
play a prevalent role, especially in financial services.
And then lastly, I'm a big believer in electric revolution or electric vehicles.
And we're seeing that, you know, we're going to have such a rapid emergence.
And I like to say that electric vehicles will do
to cars, to traditional combustion engine cars,
what cars did to horses in the past.
We're in the middle of so much change.
And, you know, I look at TMO. You know, we sit right in the middle.
You know, we power a lot of these things.
A lot of people don't give us the credit that we deserve. Because guess what?
There's AI if people are not connected. There's no autonomous
driving vehicles in the future, a fully autonomous city,
unless cars will be connected. And blockchain…
metaverse requires… massive connectivity.
So the key and this is where Mike and myself get excited is how can we,
you know,
be able to get part of all those revolutions apart
from just providing the connectivity that we do. Which, by the way, is great.
Any advice for me as the leader of our company going forward?
Embrace technology.
Um, I think we have such an incredible
opportunity ahead of us with all these changes.
And sometimes we're just so focused on our day-to-day
of how many net ads we have and all that, that we forget of what's coming.
Hey, a lot of change, a lot of disruption, a lot of innovation.
And we have to be at the forefront of that.
Because remember, there will be no technology revolution
unless we provide that amazing connectivity that we do.
That's great advice.
Marcelo, thank you for spending the time with all of us today.
We really appreciate it. It's so great to have you in the building.
Thank you. You bet. Cheers. Good to see you.
Thank you.
And that is Sidekicks Conversations for today.
I look forward to bringing you more
stories in the future from the people most of interest to the T-Mobile community.
From right here in Sidekicks! Or maybe even… from out on the road.
Thanks for watching.