Networks and carriers
Rural cellular markets, the first US PCS launch, carrier promotions and convergence strategy.
US Cellular · Sprint PCS · Verizon Wireless · T-Mobile
Interactive Digital Media Group · Since 2006
Mobile, end to end. Businesses on autopilot.
IDMG brings thirty years across the whole mobile ecosystem, from the first US PCS network to messaging, retail, content, payments and device identity. We also own businesses that mostly run themselves, on AI operating systems we built.
HISTORY CHECKEST. 2006
- Subject
- Interactive Digital Media Group, LLCMobile advisory, AI operations, investment
- Bench
- Senior operators and specialistsMatched to each engagement
- Clients
- From Verizon Wireless to Khosla VenturesMost of it under NDA
- Operates
- Restaurant, salon suites, warehousesAll run remotely, all on systems
- First mover
- First commercial PCS network in the USThen North America's first consumer direct mobile storefront
Status: clean. Network active, ready for the next build.
Verizon WirelessSprint PCST-MobilePhotobucketSamsungNavioDisneySony BMGFOXKhosla VenturesBOKUGroupMeSkypeJawboneVSCONeustarLiberty MediaAcxiom DigitalExperianWalgreensRadioShackSam's ClubRecipero
Horizontal by design
We've worked every layer of the mobile stack.
Most people know one slice of mobile. The hard problems live between the slices, where a carrier, a retailer, a bank and an insurer each hold part of the picture. That's where IDMG is useful, to founders, to boards and to the companies we advise.
Messaging
The first US commercial direct messaging link with AT&T and the first enterprise SMS link with Sprint.
Unimobile · AT&T · Sprint PCS
Devices and OEMs
Factory direct programs, cobranded experiences, preloads and OEM distribution.
Samsung · Motorola · Nokia · Jawbone
Retail and distribution
National retail accounts, the first consumer direct mobile storefront, in store programs.
Walmart · Sam's Club · RadioShack · Walgreens
Content and apps
Licensing, digital rights and app partnerships.
Disney · Fox · Sony BMG · Photobucket · VSCO
Advertising and measurement
Wireless ad serving, an industry ad measurement initiative and mobile ad tracking across 49 countries.
Advertising.com · Acxiom · Unilever · P&G · Honda
Payments and billing
Carrier billing, reverse billing patents, stored value accounts and merchant networks.
BOKU · Bill To Mobile
Identity, fraud and trust
Device history, ownership and fraud prevention for carriers, recyclers, insurers and police.
Recipero · Callcredit · TransUnion · Experian · Neustar
How we work
We find the broken handoff and build the trust layer around it.
Most companies don't have a product problem. They have a coordination problem: too many parties, no shared record, and nobody trusted to sit in the middle. That's the job. Every engagement follows the same three moves.
Map the ecosystem
Who holds the data, who carries the risk, who gets paid. Draw the whole market before touching the product.
Example: carriers, retailers, insurers and police all hold a piece of a phone's history. Nobody held all of it.
Build the trust layer
The neutral record everyone can check. Identity, entitlement, ownership, payment. Get that right and the revenue model follows.
Example: Navio's rights over IP platform let Disney, Fox and Sony BMG sell through one storefront.
Make it run without us
A playbook, a dashboard and a rhythm the team owns. If it needs any one person in the room every day, it isn't finished.
Example: Rosalie's Grill runs on a daily financial control system its GM operates from Pennsylvania.
The network
Small firm. Deep bench.
IDMG works through a network of senior operators and specialists. We bring in the right people for each engagement, and you deal with one accountable partner.
Product and platform
Product definition, roadmaps, intellectual property and integration requirements.
Carriers and devices
Operator deals, OEM partnerships, retail distribution and the circular device economy.
Payments and fintech
Carrier billing, merchant networks, mobile banking and new revenue models.
Identity, fraud and trust
Device intelligence, ownership records and the data partnerships behind them.
Go to market
Channel strategy, partnerships and the first hundred customers.
Operations and AI
Business operating systems: dashboards, nightly checks and AI coaches for the team.
Network members work quietly and under NDA. Introductions happen once there's a fit.
Businesses on autopilot
Owned by IDMG. Run by people and AI.
IDMG owns a restaurant, salon suites and industrial real estate. Each runs remotely with on site managers and an AI operating system that checks the numbers every night and flags what needs a person. It's where we test everything we recommend.
AI operationsThe playbook
5
phases from a blank page to a running command center
Business Operating System
The system behind every business in this portfolio, now offered to clients: a private dashboard where software checks the numbers every night and people make the calls.
What it teaches: AI recommends, a person decides.
HospitalityChambersburg, PA
5:30
AM, when the nightly sales and cash check runs
Rosalie's Grill
A wood fired pizza restaurant run on its own operating system: nightly sales and cash checks, food cost tracking, a weekly leadership packet, and AI coaches that help the GM think like an owner.
What it teaches: did every cash sale reach the bank? Start with one question.
Beauty real estateFlorida
27
private suites, 27 independent businesses
Bayfront Salon Suites
A building full of entrepreneurs. Each suite tenant runs their own brand; the landlord's job is to make the space, the booking and the experience feel effortless.
What it teaches: a platform is only as good as its tenants' success.
Industrial real estateTriple net
6
flex warehouses, all triple net leased
Flex warehouse portfolio
The quiet engine. Long leases, tenants who carry the operating costs, and a clean ledger. Boring on purpose.
What it teaches: the best systems are the ones you never have to think about.
The founder
David Dillard. Thirty years, one thread.
IDMG's founder has spent his career building trust into markets that didn't have it, from opening rural cellular markets in 1991 to tracing stolen iPhones across borders today. Pick a year.
2006
IDMG
Founder
Started Interactive Digital Media Group to design mobile revenue models, define intellectual property and get products to market. Consulted on convergence and innovation for Verizon Wireless through 2009.
- Clients from Disney Interactive and Khosla Ventures to Liberty Media
- Won the bid to write the Maryland Broadband Cooperative business plan
- Published patents on reverse billing for content purchases
- Adviser to SocialMuse, the Austin startup behind the leading Android media player (2011)
IDMG clients
Who IDMG has worked with.
VSCOBoomCloud360Verizon WirelessKhosla VenturesGroupMe / SkypeBOKUBill To MobileJawbonein8Mobile (SongID)MixZingMedio SystemsTelescopeNeustarDailey & AssociatesAcxiom DigitalReciperoLiberty MediaDisney InteractiveFox InteractiveHondaPlayer XSocialMuse
Most of this work was under NDA, so the specifics stay with the clients. The short version: revenue models, product definition, intellectual property, integration requirements and getting things launched.
IDMG initiatives
Ideas IDMG funded itself.
DPEX
A digital profile exchange for targeted customer acquisition, built on consent rather than scraping.
Merchant Exchange
A mobile banking hybrid where non competing merchants help each other acquire customers and own the relationship directly.
Client lounge
The playbooks, for people we work with.
Clients and friends of IDMG get the field guides we use to build AI run operating systems with Claude. Sign in to open them.
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Contact
Got a market nobody has wired together yet?
Advisory work, a board or partnership conversation, an investment, or a second opinion on something you're about to build. Send a note with the short version.