CAIVIS Acquisition Corporation
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
CLASS OF 1991
“When I started my first company at 23, I was too dumb to be scared,” says David Steinberg, “but I adapted quickly and eventually produced a multi-million dollar company.” Five companies later, it is apparent that this pioneering spirit has served Steinberg well. From his first wireless phone company, Sterling Cellular, to his current leadership of CAIVIS Acquisition Corporation, this serial entrepreneur has made a career of identifying industries that lack vital services and then working to fulfill those needs.
After graduating from Washington & Jefferson College, Steinberg interned for the Senate Judiciary Committee and then sold life insurance door to door. But when he learned that wireless phone marketers were making a large profit selling their wares, he knew that was the business he wanted to pursue. After Sterling Cellular, Steinberg founded InPhonic, which was named the number one company on the Inc. 500 list in the same year it went public, quickly becoming the biggest seller of wireless phones on the Internet. His current enterprises, CAIVIS and XL Education, are Internet marketing vehicles. John Sculley, the former CEO of Apple, has compared the W&J graduate to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as a leading technology entrepreneur.
It was at W&J where Steinberg began to cultivate the knowledge and ideals that would afford him the ability to succeed in so many different fields. “I wanted to go to a small institution because I’m dyslexic,” Steinberg said. “W&J was perfect because the small class sizes catered to my needs and forced me to take more initiative.”
Steinberg majored in economics, but the classes in which he truly thrived were those offered by the Entrepreneurial Studies department. “That program really impacted my life and career,” he says. A proud brother of Phi Delta Theta, Steinberg also played varsity tennis.
Steinberg was named the Greater Washington Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002. He continues to support W&J by serving on the Board of Trustees and funding a scholarship for students of entrepreneurship.
To Steinberg, the enjoyment from creating exceptional businesses is nearly incomparable. “Work hard and you will get lucky,” he said. “The harder I worked, the luckier I became.”
