星空的前进之路:一个问题&与星空公司首席执行官和首席运营官就What 's Next进行访谈

Starry is restructuring for its future, to spread #HappyInterneting for many years to come.

在过去一年中, 在困难的经济环境下, Starry actively pursued sources of additional capital to ensure the company’s financial stability. 另外, 星空公司采取措施降低成本, 节约可用现金，精简业务. 今天, Starry announced its intention to restructure and strengthen the business by voluntarily filing a pre-arranged Chapter 11 restructuring, 在贷方的支持下.

Starry’s blog team sat down again with CEO Chet Kanojia and COO Alex Moulle-Berteaux to discuss the company’s future and how this series of decisions is helping position the company for long-term growth and success.

为清晰起见，以下采访内容经过编辑和浓缩.

你能简单解释一下，星空今天到底宣布了什么吗?

CK当然，不过先介绍一下背景知识. 大家都知道, 星空公司于2022年3月通过企业合并(SPAC)交易上市. 从那时起, we’ve been very open about the fact that we needed to raise more capital in order to fund our expansion. The capital markets over the last year have had other ideas and it’s been very difficult for high growth, 像我们这样的负现金流公司, 坦白地说, 各行各业的许多人, 筹集资金. 不幸的是, we were not able to get the crank turned over one last time before reaching profitability.

去年, we retained investment bankers to advise the Company and our Board of Directors on mergers and acquisitions, 融资, 以及潜在的资产负债表解决方案. 同时, we made a series of decisions to reduce spending and conserve capital to get us through this process. 包括我们的 艰难的决定 离开极速赛车正规官网开奖网址.

现在, 由于持续的宏观经济逆风, we’re taking the next step to stabilize and strengthen the company’s balance sheet by voluntarily filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection and initiating a restructuring of our business. We’ve entered into what’s known as a “Restructuring 支持 Agreement” with our lenders that will provide us with the funding needed to continue our operations as normal, 通过这一重组过程以及其他, 还有一条清晰的途径让企业走出这个过程的另一边.

You might see our restructuring referred to as "pre-arranged" and wonder what this means. 一般来说，当一家公司申请第11章保护时, it does so with a goal of working through financial challenges with lenders and other stakeholders and outlining them in a "Plan of Reorganization," which serves as a roadmap for how the company will emerge healthier on the other side. Our case being "pre-arranged" means that we already have the plan and have vetted it with our lenders who have agreed to support it. 这使得这个过程更快更有效.

走这条路可以让我们不受干扰地继续运营, as we work to reduce the company’s debt and optimize its capital structure – all of which better positions us for long-term success. 当我们从这个过程中走出来, 这需要几个月的时间, 我们将再次成为一家面向成功和增长的私人控股公司.

好吧，星空不会破产，对吧? 如果我是顾客，我应该担心吗?

CK不，绝对不是. 我们不会倒闭的. 我必须强调:对星空和我们的客户来说，一切如常.

AMB: From a customer perspective, there should be no difference in your service experience. Starry’s teams are out in the community signing up and installing new customers and deploying our network. 我们在五个核心市场的运营正常.

对于员工来说，如果有的话，这会如何改变他们的角色?

CK: We made some difficult business decisions over the last several months to reduce spending and conserve capital that included a significant reduction in our workforce. 任何规模的裁员对团队来说都是困难的, 尤其是当你不得不与非常有才华和敬业的同事分道扬镳的时候. 我们在前进的过程中认识到这一点, 重要的是，我们的领导团队对我们的业务目标非常清楚, 前进的道路, 6个月的成功是什么样子的, 18个月, 五年之后. 我们员工的角色没有改变, 本身, but our responsibility as leaders to continue to communicate frequently and openly becomes even more important.

AMB我完全同意. 前进, our job is to ensure that every employee believes in the goals and the path we’ve set for the company. 这需要我们重新调整沟通的方式和频率. While getting to this next chapter for the company was immensely challenging for so many reasons, it’s also given us an opportunity to put into practice lessons we’ve learned over the course of growing this business. 这将使我们更有效率, 并最终, 一个更好的公司——当我们工作得更好, 这对我们所有的员工都有利.

从运营的角度来看，今天的业务重点是什么?

AMB我们很专注, 一如既往地, on providing our customers and building partners with the best internet service experience possible. 这一点没有改变. 我们的重点, 然而, 是不是暂时更窄了, as we direct our operational energies towards our existing five core markets and growing our footprint and customer base there.

The only big change - and it’s temporary - is that we’re not actively expanding to new cities. We’re still focused on innovating products and services that will enhance the customer experience and we’ll roll out new initiatives in the coming months. 我们的重点 is on growing the business as efficiently as possible and continuing to deliver a customer experience that delights. If we get those two things right, we’re putting ourselves on a path to success and future growth.

CK我认为同样重要的是要指出，我们对使命的关注仍然没有改变. 我们仍然坚信，在这个行业，竞争是绝对必要的. 这对消费者体验很重要，但对创新也很重要. We’re also not backing away from our commitments to serve historically underserved communities, 即住在公共和经济适用房的家庭. 人们对高质量的需求仍然非常强烈, truly affordable access in these communities and Starry is fulfilling that niche and continuing to make meaningful impacts in the neighborhoods we serve.

I know it’s hard to predict the future, but what do you see for the company further down the road? 在接下来的五年里?

CK: I don’t have a crystal ball - obviously - but I feel very confident that the future for Starry remains bright. We’ve taken all of the necessary steps to guide the company through this difficult period and made the 艰难的决定s, 这样公司才能变得更强大. 我认为这将会发生.

AMB:完全正确. 毫无疑问，这对公司来说是一个充满挑战的时期.  但, on the other side of this is growth and expansion of our footprint to  more cities and more households. 当我们开始建立这项业务时，我们知道这并不容易. 但, we’re in it for the long haul because we believe in the fundamentals of our technology, 我们团队的执行能力和市场机会提供了竞争力, 为消费者提供高质量宽带选择. The need for better bandwidth is only increasing and Starry is going to play a key role in delivering it to consumers for many years to come.