StarCom Broadband, Inc.: Successful Business Built With the Entrepreneurial Spirit

By focusing on the needs of multi-dwelling developments, Christopher Day and Todd Ryden found a niche in the broadband industry.

Day and Ryden launched StarCom Broadband, Inc. in May 1998 as a niche communications company specializing in providing video and high-speed Internet services to apartment communities, hotels, hospitals and new housing developments.

Prior to opening StarCom, Day and Ryden, who have real estate and legal backgrounds, respectively, spent a full year researching the industry, meeting with real estate developers and equipment vendors and developing a detailed business plan and financial model. During this time, the two entrepreneurs discovered the market need for higher service levels and a desire for more control in the multi-dwelling industry. Day and Ryden eventually led a lobbying effort which defeated state legislation that would have prohibited apartment owners from choosing their own broadband communications systems for their residents.

Through their efforts, Day and Ryden implemented a communications solution that was more advanced than "traditional" cable. StarCom installed broadband systems on the premises of each multi-dwelling property or delivered signal to the property via fiber optic lines, this providing stronger and higher quality signals while eliminating signal degradation experienced by the franchise providers. The Company also launched the first commercial installation of iCentral interdiction technology, allowing for the ability to remotely connect or disconnect a subscriber, upgrade a subscriber's services and perform diagnostic checks within seconds. In addition StarCom partnered with Cisco Systems, WorldCom and SBC to provide high-speed Internet access and video conferencing services to its subscribers.

Withing just two years of its launching, StarCom was successful in contracting over 14,000 homes - one year ahead of Day and Ryden's original business plan projections. By early 2001, the founders recognized that the time was right for realizing the value they had created and sold the majority of StarCom's assets to Comcast. Currently, both Day and Ryden are exploring new business opportunities including investing in existing companies, real estate and/or building a business with a new idea from the "ground up."