Adios VIaSat! Wishing you nothing but the best!
I was one of the people who was let go. But I have no hard feelings! Mark D. is the best human being and leader I have ever known. I must be really very fortunate having had an opportunity to work for his beautifully built company (it's more of a community really IMHO). I would miss his all hands. It's a blessing to hear his talks. I am sure it must have been a very hard decision for Mark D. and all the founders, who genuinely care for their people. I have no doubt that with these almost godly founders and many other great leaders, ViaSat will eventually succeed.
May ViaSat flourish and shine like a star!
Hope our paths cross again.
Regards.
6 replies (most recent on top)
Some managers definitely put self interest first. Certain employee choices were the worst I’ve ever seen.
And Mark D. and company’s ignorance to the lack of changes made by some middle management after repeated program difficulties has not helped financials.
Plus Starlink dish install is DIY. vs requiring professional's visit for others.
Threat from Starlink is very real! They already have 1M active subscribers. Looks like they made LEO work :) Elon can achieve anything. (when focused). They already have close to 3K satellites in place and total 7.5K approved. Recent Ookla Speedtest report shows Starlink way ahead of ViaSat and Hugesnet. (obviously as for LEO Sat distance- both ways is ~690 miles vs. 44K miles for GEO. )
Not much room for erroneous business decisions here. (they should also have internal enquiry if managers laid off right people or put their self interest ahead of company's).
Right size alone is not enough. Right size with right people is what is needed.
Two layoffs in the last three years sure is something. Seems Viasat is stuck in the cycle of overhiring and then laying people off. I wonder if this time Dankberg will smile during the all hands and say they really didn't need to lay off that many people like he did in 2020.
I share many of your sentiments, but Mark and other leadership are just people. And people make mistakes. In this case, agreed with the other poster they grossly underestimated StarLink and the disruption they posed. This weakness forced another cycle of weakness in pursuing an questionable acquistion at high valuation in attempt to catch up to global capabilities. Until there is recognition our GEO-exclusive strategy is no longer superior to alternatives, then we'll continue playing "Kodak" to Elon's "digital camera".
Everything you said about the wonderfulness of the company is true but I think ViaSat severely underestimated Starlink. Sure V3 will bring money but not at the levels they were expecting.