Amos Winbush III, Founder of CyberSynchs

Amos Winbush III has partnered with Sun to build an app used on 500,000 phones. “We’re taking the company global,” he says. “I’m super stoked.”

It took losing 150 contacts on his cell phone for Amos Winbush III to stumble upon the idea for his company. In the summer of 2008, the aspiring musician and cousin of R&B singer Angela Winbush was preparing tracks for his debut album. After a late night in the recording studio, he noticed that his iPhone had gone black. That led him to investigate a way to synchronize data between his phone and his computer, and soon after, to launch CyberSynchs.

After convincing his talent manager to head business development and finding a software engineer through Craigslist, Winbush hit the Silicon Alley tech circuit to begin spreading the word. That fall, he met two executives from Sun Microsystems. The two companies eventually partnered to make CyberSynchs's software compatible with Sun's JavaFX platform, used by some 1 billion devices. CyberSynchs launched its service in November 2008, one week after the U.S. presidential election. Within two weeks, 13,000 subscribers had signed up.

Now, CyberSynchs has approximately 500,000 users, many of which have come through strategic partnerships with companies such as Sun and Samsung. Approaching larger companies has never fazed Winbush, who says he enjoys working with more tenured executives. In fact, most of CyberSynchs' own employees are at least a decade older than the 26-year-old CEO. 'I'm used to being around an older crowd and holding my ground,' Winbush says.

Later this year, CyberSynchs will expand its service to other electronic devices, including digital camcorders and cable boxes, and it is developing synchronization systems for cars and medical devices. Winbush also has his eyes on overseas expansion. CyberSynchs already partners with telecom company Vonify in the Philippines, and the company plans to enter the United Kingdom this fall. 'We're taking the company global,' he says. 'I'm super stoked.'

April Joyner is a reporter for Inc. magazine. She regularly covers sales and marketing topics and writes on start-ups for Inc.’s Elevator Pitch column. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. @aprjoy