Freddie Figgers is one of the youngest and most accomplished entrepreneurs in the United States, having founded the country’s first minority-owned telecommunications company and designed numerous innovations, including cloud-computing systems, smartphone handsets, and remote data-tracking systems for hospitals.
But this rising star might never have survived much past birth. When he was just hours old, Figgers was abandoned in a dumpster by his biological parents. Thankfully, he was discovered and “was adopted at two days old by two lovely parents,” as he explained in a video for his phone company, Figgers Wireless, on YouTube.