Elon Just Launched 650 Cell Towers Into Space. The Biggest Winner Isn't Starlink — It's a Startup You've Never Heard Of.

Look at a map of the world's cell towers sometime. It surprised me when I did.

90% of the Earth's surface doesn't have one. Oceans, deserts, mountains and most farmland sit outside the network entirely.

The technology was never the problem. It was the economics.

But last November, the FCC issued Order DA 24-1193. It gave SpaceX the right to send a cell signal from a satellite in orbit to the phone in your pocket.

You don't need a new handset, and there's nothing to install.

Almost overnight, 400 million people came online.

And SpaceX adds another 52,000 every day.

But SpaceX doesn't make money from what those people do on their phones. SpaceX sells the connection. Once the signal reaches the handset, its job is over.

Imagine a farmer in Indonesia who gets a signal for the first time

He downloads a few apps. Listens to music on the bus. Plays a game while he waits for his crops to load at the depot. At night he watches the news. He does this for hours every day, because that's what people do with phones.

And every minute of it is worth money.

Every app on his phone is selling his attention to a brand. An ad plays before the song. A banner sits at the bottom of the screen. A video ad runs between the headlines. It works the same way in Jakarta as it does in Chicago.

And as it happens, a small firm in Chicago makes the software that runs those ads.

It's called Mode Mobile.

It has about 96 employees in Chicago. And it built an operating system that takes the ad money flowing through a phone and gives a cut of it back to the user.

You listen to music… you earn.
You play a game… you earn.
You charge your phone… you earn.

The money comes from the brands. They pay for your attention every time you use your phone. And Mode cuts you in.

490 million people have used the platform so far… in 170 countries.

Its users have earned more than a billion dollars and left 2 million five-star reviews on Google Play.

Mode's software works on any android phone. But the company also sells its own handset — the EarnPhone — with the software already loaded on it.

Best Buy, Walmart and Amazon all put it on their shelves.

And it sold out… everywhere.

Mode hasn't gone public yet, but the demand is already there. Two funding rounds sold out. More than 60,000 people have invested over $100 million so far, and the company has reserved a Nasdaq ticker — $MODE.

Management is targeting a poitential IPO in the next 18 to 24 months.

Here's why I'm paying attention:

• Deloitte's #1 in the U.S. — Fastest-Growing Software Company in 2023
• $115M+ in lifetime revenue — 32,481% revenue growth
• 490+ million users across the Mode ecosystem — over $1B in user earnings
• Profitable business model — $11.8M in EBITDA in 2025¹
• Ticker $MODE reserved on Nasdaq — $0.52 pricing available for a limited time

Here's what that growth looks like when you put the numbers side by side:

Sources: company-reported figures and offering materials at invest.modemobile.com; Deloitte Technology Fast 500 (2023). ¹EBITDA is proforma, non-GAAP, company-reported figure. Forward-looking statements, including any IPO timeline, are not guaranteed.

The Roku playbook — one platform earlier

I remember when Roku went public. It was September 2017. The company had $400 million in revenue and was still losing money. They didn't make TVs. They made software… an operating system that sat inside TVs.

You'd buy a TCL or a Hisense and Roku's software was already on it. Most people didn't even know it was there.

Every time someone watched a show, Roku got paid. Every ad that ran on that screen, Roku took a cut. You see the similarity here.

The stock opened at $14. Four years later it hit $479 — a 3,300% return. $10,000 turned into more than $340,000.

I thought about Roku when I found Mode. The model is the same. Mode built an operating system for phones that sits inside the device and takes a cut of every ad that runs on it.

The difference is the market. Roku had 270 million smart TVs in the US to work with. Mode has 7 billion smartphones.

And Mode hasn't gone public yet.

Two rounds have already sold out.

The ticker is reserved on Nasdaq.

Once it lists, 52 cents per share disappears forever.

I've missed these before. I don't plan to miss this one.

Prior-round results and pricing per company offering materials. Pricing is set by the Company; prior demand does not indicate or guarantee value. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur.

The Investment Terms

Mode Mobile's current Reg A+ offering is priced at $0.52 per share with a minimum investment of $1,300 (2,500 shares). The company's previous two rounds sold out entirely, attracting over 60,000 individual investors that have committed more than $100 million.

Bonus Share Structure

Mode is offering tiered bonus shares to incentivize larger commitments: