Kenny Troutt was the founder of Excel Communications, a Texas based telecommunications company that used MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) to offer its main product, a long distance phone service. Troutt became an instant billionaire in 1998 when he sold the Excel business to Teleglobe for $3.5 billion, his share netting him a cool $1.4 billion.^{[citation needed]} Excel Communications was founded in 1988 by Dallas entrepreneur Kenny Trout as a long distance reseller in the US telecom sector at the birth of telecom deregulation. ... Telecommunication involves the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ... Multi-level marketing (MLM) (also called network marketing or NM) is a business model that combines direct marketing with franchising. ... Teleglobe is an international telco carrier. ...

Troutt was the son of a bartender and was raised in Illinois projects. He paid his way through college (Southern Illinois University) where he studied for a Bachelor of Arts in Science by working construction jobs and selling life insurance. Southern Illinois University is a university in southern Illinois with two institutions and multiple campuses. ...

Troutt, who is 58 years old, has three children and has been married twice. He lives in Dallas, Texas. He co-owns the WinStar Farms operation in Kentucky, a 1400+ acre state-of-the-art thoroughbred breeding and training centre.