Telarus protects our culture in a deliberate way.
Telarus is owned by Adam Edwards, Patrick Oborn, and Richard Murray with investment from Columbia Capital. In 2002, Adam and Patrick bootstrapped the company from savings and commissions they earned as Commission River online affiliates. Telarus first consisted of Patrick Oborn generating leads with ShopforT1.com and Adam Edwards making sales from the steady stream of new prospects. That early stream of the residual commission was re-invested into channel managers who could support new agents, new software developers and employ the services of a patent attorney to assist us with the patent application for GeoQuote®, our new real-time quoting software. In October 2017, Telarus acquired CarrierSales, a competitor in the technology solutions brokerage space, to create the largest privately-held technology solutions brokerage in the country. Columbia’s investment in Telarus will fuel its continued growth as it expands its lead as the largest privately-held technology solutions brokerage. Telarus’ existing management team continues to lead and maintain a majority stake in the company.
Our Leadership Team
Additional Leadership
If you’re interested in speaking with Jennifer about the new Telarus VAR/MSP program, please send a brief message and connect with her.
An award-winning thought-leader with more than 28 years of experience in the technology industry, Basa was named a Telecom Master Mind by PHONE+ magazine, recognized as a Power Seller in Crain's Business, and was a recurring selection by Channel Partners Magazine readers as a Channel Executive of The Year.
Channel Futures awarded Basa both the Channel Influencer award for his vision and impact on the direction of the IT and communications indirect sales channel and the Circle of Excellence award, which honors Channel Executives for their vision, innovation, and advocacy of the indirect channel.
Basa is a high-energy, hands-on leader who empowers individuals and teams to conquer challenges and achieve ambitious goals in the most competitive market conditions.
His teams excel by implementing a unique combination of battle-tested fundamentals, innovative problem solving, high-impact sales and marketing techniques, relationship building, cross-functional collaboration, and old-fashioned hard work.
Basa is known for collaboration, alliance building, masterminding solutions to difficult problems, sharing lessons learned, and teaching real-world techniques that create results. This makes him a popular choice for advisory boards, media appearances, and participation in sales, marketing, and personal development training.
Basa has served as a strategic advisor, board member, consultant, and business coach to various business and non-profit organizations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is a technology solutions brokerage, and what does Telarus do different than other technology solutions brokerages?
A technology solutions brokerage is a distributor that
- Signs carrier contracts and consolidates volume
- Assists its sub-agents with pre-and-post-sales support
- Consolidates commissions from multiple carriers into one monthly commission statement/payment
- Leverages its size to gain concessions from carriers on behalf of its agents. Since technology solutions brokerages pool the volume of hundreds of independent agents into a single contract with each carrier, the community at large does not have to bear the burden of sales quotas, providing for a more stable and stress-free income stream.
Telarus, Inc., founded in 2002 by entrepreneurs Adam Edwards and Patrick Oborn, was created in response to the horrible agent support they received as subagents. Frustrated with long delays that accompanied each price quote request, the level of commission they were earning, the lack of accuracy of their commission checks, and the risks they took entrusting their business to technology solutions brokerages who stood on shaky financial ground, Telarus was born. Agents today will find Telarus is the best, offering real-time quotes on the transactional products, personalized support from industry experts on complex solutions, direct contracts with all carrier partners, audited commissions, and home-grown software that makes agents efficient.
Here are a few of our differentiators:
- Full Service Support
- Sales Engineering
- Base Management
- Project Management
- Partner Support
- Commissions How You Like It
But even more important than the efficiencies we’ve created is our reputation. Integrity is at the heart of our business and we take great pride in doing right by our agents and carriers, even when nobody is watching. Our philosophy is that business is a direct reflection of its owners and management, not an entity you can hide behind while making immoral decisions.
Is Telarus a technology solutions brokerage or a software company?
Both. When Telarus founders began the company, they found it was not acceptable that quotes took days, even weeks, to come back. It was not acceptable to manage a large base of customers using Excel spreadsheets. It was not acceptable to be in the dark with relation to all of the carrier’s service footprint. The only way to build the technology solutions brokerage of the future was to invest heavily in software so that the necessary efficiencies could be built into the quoting, customer management, accounting, and commissioning systems. Today Telarus is consistently one of the top producers with each carrier we represent. Telarus is heavily involved on the back end as we generate millions of lines of source code each year with our team of software developers who have built our robust systems on the foundation of PHP, Cold Fusion, mySQL, SQL Server, Java, and JavaScript.
Having our own software development division enables us to produce tools at the request of our agent partners and employees. All of our peers have to license outside software and any modifications are extremely difficult, which is a challenge Telarus does not have.
What Is the ownership and financial structure of Telarus?
Telarus is owned by Adam Edwards, Patrick Oborn, and Richard Murray and backed by Columbia Capital. In 2002, Adam and Patrick bootstrapped the company from savings and commissions they were earning as Commission River online affiliates. Telarus first consisted of Patrick Oborn generating leads with ShopforT1.com and Adam Edwards making sales from the steady stream of new prospects. That early stream of residual commission was re-invested into channel managers that could support new agents, new software developers, and to employ the services of a patent attorney to assist us with the patent application for GeoQuote®, our new real-time quoting software. In October 2017, Telarus acquired CarrierSales, a competitor in the technology solutions brokerage space to create the largest privately-held technology solutions brokerage agent in the country. Today, Adam, Patrick, and Richard each own a one-third share of the company. All of our growth has been internally financed through operations. By keeping creditors and outside investors from tainting our decisions or changing our focus on our number one goal Telarus has empowered itself to revolutionize the way carriers sell network solutions through the agent channel.
How much commission does Telarus pay their agents?
Telarus pays its agent and VAR partners a residual commission according to the terms in your contract. We offer pass-through as well as fixed commission percentage payments which are negotiable based upon the volume and growth potential of a new partner. The standard rates that we pass will be revealed to you once a non-disclosure agreement is in place. To get started, complete your agent application and we contact you with further details. As a Tier 1 technology solutions brokerage, Telarus enjoys the highest commissions available from each of our carrier partners, so our pass-through is, in many cases, higher than what you can earn working with a carrier on your own.
How and when are commissions paid?
Telarus pays out commissions on the 28th of each month via Electronic Funds Transfer (ACH). International agents can receive their commission via PayPal.
How long after a sale does it take for commissions to be paid?
The answer varies between 30 and 90 days. The main factor is the time it takes for the supplier to credit approve your client, install, turn up their service, and send or collect a first bill. Once the supplier receives its first payment from a client, Telarus is paid around the 15th of the month, just 13 days ahead of your payday which is the 28th of each month. Bigger networks will start to commission as soon as the first site is turned up and billing, and continue to grow until the entire network is billing.
Looking for a company who is small enough to feel the impact of your contribution, yet large enough to provide career stability and ongoing mentoring?
Welcome to Telarus – the company built from the ground up to foster, celebrate, and reward excellence. As an industry thought leader, we’re looking for the best and brightest to join our team and to make an immediate impact.
Interested in Becoming a Partner?
Get Started”I needed resources, people with integrity, and people with experience. Telarus wants to see me succeed and the amount of support around me is really overwhelming. If I don't succeed, it's because of me, not because Telarus didn't give me the support I needed to succeed. It's like going into battle by yourself, or going into battle with an entire team with different expertise behind you; by yourself, you wouldn't last very long.
Elan CraneWheelhouse Virtual Solutions
”When I chose Telarus as my partner, it was because of their knowledge in the industry and their relationships. I help customers get off premise and onto cloud. It's the experience and selections that Telarus comes to the table with that allows me to put together real solutions. Then they support me and make me look better.
Jill BlankenshipCEO at Frontline Group LLC