It is estimated that there are more than 230 million smartphone users in the United States, and while many cellphone carriers and companies are looking to capitalize on those growing numbers and grow their own profits accordingly, one Boston-based company is looking for ways to make money based solely on reducing peoples’ cellphone bills. CEO James Graham, who at age 22 has already started, grown and sold several businesses, is the co-founder, along with middle school friend John LaGue, of Community Phone. Mr. Graham was awarded $100,000 in seed money by the Thiele Fellowship based on his entrepreneurial track record, and has helped Bostonians save more than $100,000 off their cellphone bills in the past year alone. With a customer base rapidly expanding into the Worcester area, the Wisconsin native is enjoying getting know the Bay State. Born of a growing frustration with people of a certain age and demographic getting taken advantage of by cellphone companies, Mr. Graham decided to find a better approach. The business operates under what he calls a “Robinhood” model, though there isn’t quite a theft and regift happening. Instead, Community Phone buys large amounts of data from the Sprint network at wholesale prices and sells it back to the customers at a fair rate, keeping a slice of the savings for the company’s bottom line.

How exactly do you save people so much money?

Our mission is to help people to understand what they have been sold, and then to see if there is a better solution for them. Sometimes there isn’t, and we can at least provide them with the information they need to understand what they have and why. But more often, they are paying way too much for their needs. The underlying problem here is that the people entrusted with this service of helping them, thus far, have been the salespeople that benefit from overselling and upselling, so we bridge the gap created by that enormous conflict of interest.

What is the biggest hurdle in starting up a business like this?

Our biggest hurdle is the lack of credibility because we are so new, and also because we are young. In this type of industry, trust is totally paramount, and it takes a while to earn that trust. When people start to see that we are doing something genuine and something we care very deeply about, the trust flows from there.

How do you overcome that hurdle? Is it just a matter of time?

Time, and also complete devotion. We started out by visiting libraries and senior centers — the older generation right now is the most vulnerable because they didn’t grow up with this technology, so they are easy prey for aggressive sales pitches. We held information sessions without the expectation of gaining anything from it, but just to have an opportunity to connect with people and show them the facts. Once you spell it out for people just how they are being taken advantage of and how easily it can be corrected, the product — our help — sells itself.

Who are your customers?

Our first wave of customers have been people who are in very desperate situations, and they seek us out because they have nowhere left to turn. These are people who were paying $400 plus each month for way too much data, and we are able to offer them a plan for $25 per month. More than half of our current customers are age 50-plus, and the values for them is not only in their financial savings, but also in having basically a concierge they can turn to for help with their bills. We are hoping, for the next level of clientele, to appeal to people who are deal-seekers and who are always looking to trim their budgets. Our biggest flow of new customers right now is just that — people who have been decades-long customers of a large cellphone provider and who are just becoming aware that there might be a better value out there for them.

Are you the only game in town, or is your corner of the industry full of healthy competition?

Like the newspaper industry, telecommunications may have the guise of diversity, but is really anything but diverse. The big carriers often have their own "virtual operator" as subsidiaries: T-mobile owns MetroPCS, AT&T owns Cricket, Sprint owns Boost. Consumer Cellular is our largest competitor in the sense that they also repackage wireless services for consumers for similar costs and aren't a spawn of a large operator, but they do not focus on privacy nor customer support nearly as much as we think people deserve. We are the only phone company who actually goes to people's homes to troubleshoot if need be, for example.

Do you really have coffee with all of your customers?

We’d like to! Most people are busy and aren’t inclined to stop by our office to have coffee, but the invitation is always open.

Compiled by Correspondent Amanda Roberge