Tells.co Is the Quiet Engine Behind Your Competitor’s SMS Performance

By Spencer Hulse Spencer Hulse has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team
Published on July 24, 2025

How Two Industry Veterans Created the Next-Generation Platform That Marketers Trust

In the highly competitive SMS marketing industry, one company stands apart for its precision engineering, powerful infrastructure, and genuine understanding of what marketers truly need. That company is Tells.co, co-founded by seasoned entrepreneurs David Schlaegel and Justin Ramsey.

A Partnership Built on Engineering Excellence

David Schlaegel and Justin Ramsey, co-founders of Tells.co, each bring over 25 years of robust experience in telecom, martech, and performance marketing. Initially rivals in the telecom sector, their professional competition eventually blossomed into mutual respect, collaboration, and ultimately, deep friendship. This unique dynamic has empowered them to build a technically superior SMS marketing platform designed explicitly for modern business needs.

Their personal connection, highlighted by each serving as best man at the other’s wedding, has resulted in an unusually seamless partnership. This closeness translates directly into a highly efficient business operation, characterized by rapid innovation and extraordinary responsiveness.

Overcoming Industry Barriers with Innovation

From their extensive careers, David and Justin clearly recognized the limitations plaguing traditional SMS marketing platforms: sluggish provisioning, poor carrier routing, and inadequate marketing tools. Addressing these challenges head-on, they constructed Tells.co as a solution, bridging robust telecom infrastructure and agile marketing functionalities.

Central to their approach is direct management of infrastructure and strategic alliances with Tier 1 carriers. These relationships enable exclusive features like 15-minute toll-free number verifications, real-time call announcements, instant provisioning, and sophisticated multi-channel conversational AI agents.

Exceptional Capabilities for High-Volume Messaging

Tells.co is purpose-built to meet the demands of high-performance marketing at scale, already facilitating the delivery of billions of messages. That level of throughput is supported by a suite of features designed to remove friction and deliver measurable results.

One of the most notable is its 15-minute toll-free number verification process, which allows marketers to launch campaigns almost immediately, avoiding the traditional lag that slows down time-sensitive messaging.

On the delivery side, Tells.co leverages Tier 1-only carrier routing, ensuring that every message is sent through direct, top-tier telecom relationships for maximum reliability and speed.

Customer engagement is further strengthened by proprietary conversational AI, capable of managing both SMS and voice interactions. This intelligent system enables real-time dialogue with customers, improving response rates and conversions without adding manual workload.

Additional features like real-time call announcements keep teams in sync and responsive, while voice scheduling and intelligent drip campaigns allow for highly customizable and adaptive messaging strategies that adjust based on customer behavior.

Finally, Tells.co’s functional number lookups and engagement scoring give marketers the deep analytics they need to make smarter decisions and optimize campaigns for higher ROI.

A Track Record of Proven Innovation

The founders of Tells.co have long been at the forefront of technological advancements in telecom and SaaS, bringing innovation to market well ahead of industry trends. They were early pioneers of AI-driven SMS solutions, deploying intelligent automation before it became a mainstream marketing tool.

Their impact continued with the introduction of SMS-to-voice scheduling, a feature that transformed text-based interactions into high-value voice engagements. They also implemented real-time call alerts, dramatically improving client communication responsiveness, and developed adaptive drip campaigns, a model that has since become an industry standard for nuanced customer nurturing.

Founder-Operated, Performance-Oriented

Unlike many platforms burdened by corporate red tape, Tells.co remains founder-operated, offering unparalleled agility and responsiveness. David and Justin personally oversee infrastructure operations, ensuring continuous improvements and optimal performance tailored specifically to client needs.

This operational model has swiftly attracted leading marketers who value high-volume capacity, streamlined execution, and advanced compliance tools that automatically manage opt-outs and potential compliance risks.

A Platform Built for the Future

As companies increasingly depend on SMS and conversational AI for customer engagement, Tells.co positions itself clearly as the leader in this evolving marketplace. Engineered by industry veterans who intimately understand the intersection of telecom and marketing, Tells.co provides an unmatched competitive advantage.

Explore why forward-thinking marketers are switching to Tells.co. Visit Tells.co to experience firsthand the power of performance-driven, founder-built SMS marketing technology.

By Spencer Hulse Spencer Hulse has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team

Spencer Hulse is the Editorial Director at Grit Daily. He is responsible for overseeing other editors and writers, day-to-day operations, and covering breaking news.

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