NC Communications began in the 1990s in North Carolina with two men in one truck winning an $88,000 contract to wire one building.
Today, co-owners Kristopher and Nicole Kornegay have spearheaded over 25 years of growth resulting in longstanding municipal business relationships, a growing outdoor telecom division with a fleet of directional drills, and a crew of over 70 employees.
These and other accomplishments made them finalists for Equipment World’s 2025 Contractor of the Year award.
Dad Lays the Groundwork
The company’s roots run back to the 1970s, when Kristopher’s father, James Kornegay, founded Electronic Equipment Analyzers and began installing coaxial cables for Cablevision (the company that would ultimately become Spectrum). James ran that company for 25 years.
Kristopher later entered the business and learned the ropes.
“When I was younger, my dad would take me to the jobsites, because there was no babysitter,” he says. “So, I got to watch him and kind of help pull cable. … I’ve done this my whole life.”
Al Sartin (left) and James Kornegay NC Communications
Kristopher credits much of his work ethic and the company’s principles to his father and lifelong family friend Al Sartin, who Kristopher saw as his grandfather. Sartin was first hired by James Kornegay as a salesman at EEA.
“My dad had a big influence on us,” he says. “He had such a great work ethic. But my grandfather was a preacher, so I got it from my grandfather more than anybody.
“My grandparents never had anything. They didn't have money, but they had their religion. They had food on the table, and they had a roof over their head. Anything past that, they didn't care.”
"Just When I Thought I Was Out …"
In the '90s, James retired and sold the company. Kristopher stayed on briefly after the ownership transition but ultimately decided it wasn’t for him and resigned in 1998. But the customers still called him for wiring work. Within a month of quitting, he found himself with an $88,000 contract from the University of North Carolina.
A Ditch Witch trencher from the early days of NC Communications.NC Communications
To complete that large contract, Kristopher hired his first employee, Mike Brown, who is still with the company. And so NC Communications was born, with Kristopher and Brown working out of a Nissan Frontier pickup.
NC Communications would ultimately establish a running yearly contract with N.C. State and has several people working at the university year-round. This steady work was a lifeline during tougher financial times down the road.
Kristopher Kornegay outlines the day's projects as crews behind him prepare to head out.Equipment World
Kristopher admits that, at the time, he knew how to install cable and dig ditches but had no experience running a business. He used the cash from selling his 3% share in his father’s company to buy the equipment and tools he needed to go off on his own.
New Opportunities with Immigrant Workers
Up until this point, all Kornegay’s work had been interior jobs wiring structures. But as he brought on more employees, including his uncle, Johnny Kornegay, he hired the man who would end up launching NC Communication’s underground business: Ephrain Rangel.
Ephrain Rangel on a Ditch Witch trencherNC Communications
Rangel and his brother, Vera Rangel, had emigrated from Mexico and quickly developed a reputation as hard workers for Kristopher’s father. But more than that, Rangel had the skills required to dig for cable drop jobs.
“He would work like a Clydesdale,” Kristopher says. “He and my dad were side by side working all the time. He knew digging. He would dig like a mole.”
With Rangel on board, Kornegay began approaching Cablevision for work, using a small tractor for plowing, trenching and boring underneath roads. Before long, NC Communications bought its first Ditch Witch 1220 directional drill.
Kornegay soon had two full crews working on Cablevision jobs, and after the company that acquired his father’s business went under, he moved NC Communications back into his father’s old headquarters and hired back many of the original EEA employees.
Nicole’s Arrival
It was during this period of growth and hiring that Nicole Kornegay joined the company part-time, helping Kristopher’s sister file documents and take phone calls. She credits Kristopher’s father as a key mentor during her first years at the company.
Nicole Kornegay looks on as crews begin to leave for the day. Equipment World
Within a few years, Nicole was handling all NC Communication’s bookkeeping and administrative work. Then the housing market crashed. Nicole says the company hit its lowest point in 25 years.
“We were bidding jobs to keep people busy so that we could keep them on the books,” she says. “At that point, we did downsize a little, but it wasn’t much.”
Kristopher adds that the company was taking a lot of jobs wiring schools at night during that period. “It’s a low-bid job, and that’s all we could get.”
Both Kornegays are proud of having no layoffs during the market crash. They’d periodically hold off on cashing their checks, and other long-term employees would do the same to keep the company going. They did file Chapter 11 bankruptcy but paid off all their debts, something Nicole admits “wasn’t the smartest thing.” But, she says, it was a matter of principle.
Digging Out of a Financial Hole
As the company ran low on cash and wasn’t getting paid for its work, NC Communications began using factoring companies to fund their unpaid invoices and finance future jobs. However, Nicole saw this cycle wasn’t sustainable.
“You’re selling those invoices to this factoring company, and they'll give you the money, less their percentage and an escrow upfront so that you have the funds to be able to do your business,” she says. “You start off with just one or two invoices. … Then you add a couple more invoices in there, and then the fees just started to stack up on top of each other.”
Nicole would bring her daughters into the offce, where they would spend time with Kristopher and his father (seen here).NC Communications
So, in 2012, Nicole spearheaded an ultra-conservative approach to NC Communications’ finances and got the company out of that factoring cycle within one year. That meant scouring the warehouse for every bit of material they had before buying more, and it also meant cutting overtime. Nicole even began bringing her daughters into the office versus paying for daycare.
“That was huge for me to be able to bring my kids to work and be able to be a working mom and not miss out on all those moments,” she says. “That had more of a price tag on it than being able to work somewhere else for 'X' amount of dollars more.”
Slow Build to a Budding Romance
Kristopher and Nicole have been married six years now and have four children. But it was a long road to get there.
Kristopher and Nicole’s families had grown close after more than a decade of working together, and they knew each other’s children well. But they never ended up single at the same time. Ultimately, it was the sly encouragement from those around them that led to the final connection.
“Everybody kept bringing it up,” says Nicole. “We had multiple people that would ask him or ask myself [if we were together]. It was actually at a work event for one of our suppliers where we were like, ‘Let's give it a shot.’ And then two months later, we were getting married.”
She emphasizes that there was nothing to learn about one another after 15 years of working together and being friends, no awkward introductions to make with their children. Kristopher says the most important aspect was the mutual respect they’d already built for one another.
Long-Term Business Relationships Pay Off
The company’s 25-year work history with N.C. State has brought plenty of work and revenue. But it’s not the only working relationship that’s helped the company through tough times.
NC Communications wired this 10-story building in downtown Raleigh for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human ServicesEquipment World
The Kornegays performed work for the North Carolina Department of Information Technology during the pandemic, when Nicole says they were extremely busy.
“Our customer base was designed well [for this scenario]” says Kristopher. “We had a good structure of working with DIT and N.C. State Colleges, because they’re closed down but they’re considered necessary. Running power cable and TV and stuff that was considered a necessary task.”
Kristopher and Nicole tour the DHHS building.Equipment World
Other large state contracts the company has recently landed include wiring a 10-story building in downtown Raleigh for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which Nicole says made up a large portion of the company’s 2024 revenue.
Plans for Growth
Looking to the future, the Kornegays want to expand and diversify NC Communications’s outside department, which brought in $3.5 million in 2024 with a lineup of Ditch Witch HDDs and vacuum excavators.
Kristopher Kornegay explains the details of an outdoor job drilling and pulling cable at an apartment complex.Equipment World
The company has secured new work with the city of Durham and is looking to further expand that customer base.
Growth doesn’t have to be limited to existing services either, as the Kornegays have considered dipping their toes into electrical work in the future.
“We learned a long time ago, if you're not moving ahead, then you're moving backwards,” says Kristopher. “You have to continuously keep striking.”
