Mike Pronovost (born November 11, 1989) is an American Internet entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Powerband and Pronovost Technologies. He was invited to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

where he spoke about

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

Early life

Pronovost was born in

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...

, in 1989. He attended St. Anthony's

Elementary School A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

in Fresno, California, until May 2004. He then attended high school at the private

San Joaquin Memorial High School San Joaquin Memorial High School is a private Roman Catholic high school in Fresno, California, United States. Founded in 1945, it is the only Catholic high school in the greater Fresno area. It is in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno and has a ...

, from which he graduated in 2008. After graduating, he attended

Fresno City College Fresno City College (FCC or "Fresno City") is a public community college in Fresno, California. It is part of the State Center Community College District within the California Community Colleges system. Fresno City College operates on a semester ...

in the Leon S. Peters Honors Program. He then transferred to

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...

, Fresno.

Career

Pronovost launched Powerband from his home while he was in high school. Powerband is a

high speed internet Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...

technology that promised "ultra-fast Internet speeds". Pronovost had some backing for the company from

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

.Teen techie vows to boost dial-up speeds - Times Of India
/ref> In 2009, Pronovost launched Pronovost Technologies, an umbrella company.

Honors

In November 2011, he was invited to the White House where he gave a speech encouraging youth entrepreneurship around the country. In 2012 the Fresno Chamber of Commerce named him the 2012 College Entrepreneur of the Year.

References

External links

* http://powerbandinternet.com/aboutus.php
HighBeam
* http://www.pantagraph.com/business/article_6e5ca52c-9e4b-51cc-984d-8e2a5bf6673f.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20111110141743/http://fresnobeehive.com/testblog/2009/01/internet-start-up-stirs-some-o.html * https://archive.today/20130119192025/http://www.communitycollegetimes.com/Pages/Workforce-Development/Entrepreneurship-programs-support-economic-growth.aspx {{DEFAULTSORT:Pronovost, Mike American technology chief executives 1989 births Living people California State University, Fresno alumni Fresno City College alumni People from Fresno, California