Redeeming the Cell Phone

by Henry Kaestner

I was at the Praxis Redemptive Entrepreneurship Summit last week in New York.  I was so impressed with the incredible group of people that Dave, Josh and the team were able to put together in one room.....it was a great privilege to be with them.  The theme, as you might imagine, was about redemption.  There was talk about redeeming all aspects of the entrepreneurial process...even some jokes about what a redemptive email might look like, or how we might redeem the cheeseburger (at one of the breaks we had some incredibly delicious cheese burgers made from a new vegetable product.....really good, but I'm not sure that the cheeseburger is in need of redemption :).)

The presentations talked about how we as entrepreneurs might think creatively about God's redemption for the world and how that might inspire us to think creatively and entrepreneurially about redeeming different products and services to solve some of the things that are in need of redemption around us. 

As a father of 3 young boys, I think that a prime candidate for redemption is the cell phone. 

Enter Relay from Republic Wireless. It effectively is a phone without a screen, designed to allow parents to communicate with their young children (ages 6-13).  Think of what might happen if a cell phone married a walkie-talkie and you get Relay.  The video on the website will tell you most of what you need to know, and there's a page that'll show you how affordable it is.  

Cell phone redeemed.

I should acknowledge that this post is a bit self serving (as I own some Republic Wireless stock), but I'd like to think I'd post this even if I didn't :)