[19] At age 18, his interest in tinkering led him to improvise a way to make telephone calls from his car by connecting a two-way radio to his home phone.
[24] Throughout his high school and college years, he earned extra money as a freelance computer programmer and running his own small consulting company,[19] which provided an entry to his eventual career path.
[25] Pulver began his career in accounting and was hired out of college by a client of his consulting firm, New York-based Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP, in 1984.
[29] Members of the amateur radio community adopted the use of the IPhone program, and Pulver became one of the application's most prominent proponents, speaking on behalf of VocalTec's interests and establishing a mailing list of early users.
In September 1995, Pulver teamed first with Izak Jenie, and later Brandon Lucas, to establish an experimental platform for VoIP communications called Free World Dialup.
[19] Seeking a term to encapsulate these emerging technological applications, he coined the acronym 'VON' (which stood for Voice/Video On the Net), which would later provide both nomenclature for the industry and the origin for many of Pulver's later companies and organizations.
[32] By March 1996, interest in VoIP and Free World Dialup had increased, and 300 companies involved in the telephone and telecommunications industry filed a joint petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting that the sale and operation of internet telephony software be banned in the United States, and that the makers of the software be regulated in the same manner as traditional phone companies.
Ten days after the petition was filed, Pulver launched his first lobbying organization, the VON Coalition; 110 companies from around the world quickly joined.
[19][35][36] The success of the conference attracted the interest of Key3Media, organizer of the influential COMDEX trade show, and Pulver agreed to sell the business for $40 million.
[45][50] Vonage subsequently grew into a leading business communications services and cloud computing company; in November 2021, it was acquired by Ericsson for $6.2 billion.
Action by traditional telecommunications companies, which had initially begun with the challenge against Free World Dialup in 1996, remained ongoing throughout this time, while the VON Coalition continued to push back.
[56] In response, Pulver organized a second Internet Freedom Rally at the Capitol on June 24, 2001, which featured a concert by alternative rock band Stroke 9.
As attempts at passing legislation continued in Washington, Pulver decided to use his early company, Free World Dialup, to force an FCC decision on whether VoIP applications were subject to regulation.
[58] A year later, in February 2004, the FCC released an opinion and order which ruled in Pulver's favor and classified Free World Dialup, and by extension other VoIP applications, as information services.
By 2003, he estimated he had founded at least 40 individual companies; these included an independent music label, Rev Up Records, which represented singer Eric Stuart.
[24] For another venture, WHP Wireless, Pulver collaborated with his uncle Fred, who had first introduced him to amateur radio, to invent and patent the CellSocket, a device which allowed users to make calls from a cellphone number using a landline.
[72] In 2013, Pulver launched the Israel-based startup Zula in conjunction with fellow technologist Jacob Ner-David; the company focused on providing business team communication software and raised over $3 million in investment from M12, Morton Meyerson, and other backers.
[75] As with the earlier VON Conference, live music played a significant role in the events, with performers including Diane Birch,[76] Maura Kennedy,[77] and Andy Grammer.
In contrast to earlier systematic principles of the internet, Web3 is based upon the technology of public blockchains, in which information is decentralized across networks of individual users, rather than centralized within the auspices of services managed by large companies.
[85] In addition to advisory and business ventures, Pulver has embraced Web3 principles, including the establishment of online communities and information exchanges, with his personal projects.
[87] In 2021, he launched the internet television series The Creator Economy, which focused on interviews with innovators, entrepreneurs, and artists involved in technology and crowdsourced-related fields.
[88] That same year, he had a cryptocurrency issued in his honor by the Rally.io platform,[7] and he introduced several lines of NFTs featuring original artwork, photography, and narrative stories.
[9][22] Starting in 2016, he has served as the host for chartered retreats in the Caribbean for participants interested in exploring personal enrichment activities, including stargazing and photography.