Meet William F. Carroll II | CEO & Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with William F. Carroll II and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi William, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My thought process behind starting my own business is that I needed to solve issues. There are always new issues arising that people need solving. If I am able to solve an issue for them and it can be scaled to many people that becomes valuable. This is something that can be turned into a business.

With Fewer Cards the main problem I wanted to solve was the dependence on business cards, spreading germs. not being sustainable and having to run out of business cards when at events. The Fewer Cards contactless business cards was able to solve all of these problems and introduce new solutions for other challenges as well.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The modern smart business card was invented, introduced to the world and patented by William F. Carroll II. With sustainability and technology at its core, Fewer Cards’s mission is in it’s moniker—to reduce our carbon footprint with bamboo contactless business cards that allow people to transfer contact information and other functions in a contactless way with QR codes and NFC technology. In a world still in the throes of the COVID pandemic and to slow down climate change, this card has all of the elements of a product that needs to be successful, to make a cleaner environment and economically impactful change. It helped to solve a problem in a new way.

CUSTOMIZABLE , PROGRAMMABLE CARD PATENT: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/cc/1c/03/83a463c2708e04/US10867148.pdf

Some of the biggest challenges is gaining access to capital. According to a 2020 article in Black Enterprise less than 1% of venture capital goes to black founders. Seventy percent of venture capitalists are white and only 3% are black; LatinX only represents 1%. With a large amount of unconscious biases that’s prevalent with in the technology startup community being a black entrepreneur my journey was never easy. However the way I see it the harder the challenge the stronger I become and the stronger the Fewer Cards brand becomes. I have learned that I have to stay focused, continue to innovate. I will take up any challenge because I am a problem solver. I have the mind set that no challenge is ever too big.

The lessons I learned is that everyday matters. I try to maximize my days by not worrying about trivial distractions.

I want the world to know that Fewer Cards pioneered modern smart card technology that is utilized around the world and that Fewer Cards is focused on helping our society become more sustainable and operate in a more streamline way. Fewer Cards mission is to help people & organizations streamline relationships in a contactless, seamless and effective way to bridge the analog & digital worlds together.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I have only been to ATL once for a short business trip. I never got to see much of ATL but I would love to come back to visit some the attractions like the Martin Luther King Jr Center and check out many of the Black-Owned Businesses in ATL.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have to give a shoutout to my Dad. My Dad use to be an engineer for a company called C&P Telephone Company which later turned into Verizon. In the mid 1980’s my Dad setup our first family home computer called the Commodore 64 which was really amazing at the time. With the family computer I was able to play games and print things but most of all it allowed me to tinker around with computers. I was only about 5 years old at the time so writing code was a bit complicated but I was able to write basic instructions. From that point on my obsession with technology and problem solving grew.

Both my Mom and Dad encouraged me to try new things and experiment, which helped me become the person that I am today. I continue to innovate and create new solutions regularly.

Website: https://fewer.cards

Instagram: https://instagram.com/fewercards

Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/fewercards

Other: https://sms.cards/fewercards

Image Credits
Fewer Cards (Develop For LLC)