Chief Executive Officer, President & Director, Clearfield
Search every verified Cheryl Beranek interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Cheryl Beranek, CEO of Clearfield, spoke at the Fiber Connect 2024 conference about the company's efforts to accelerate fiber broadband deployment. She announced the introduction of "built," a mobile app that uses 3D images to provide field education for technicians. Beranek also discussed new products aimed at reducing operational expenses by lowering the amount of labor and skill required for network construction, citing the "deploy re tap box" as an example of a "craft friendly" and "craft smart" solution. She described the industry's momentum, noting that the conference expected a record 5,000 attendees. In a 2023 interview, Beranek discussed Clearfield's growth from a startup with a stock price of $0.86 to a company with a market cap of $1.4 billion. She stated that the company's product line allows service providers to align capital expenditures with subscriber take rates, emphasizing modularity and scalability. Beranek noted that Clearfield experienced a 70% compounded annual growth rate during the COVID-19 pandemic, finishing fiscal year 2022 with a 91% growth rate and an 18.5% net income. She described Starlink as a "really good product" for niche solutions but said it is not suitable for dense or high-user environments. Beranek also stated that Clearfield is well-positioned to benefit from government funding programs like BEAD, which she said allocates about half of its $100 billion toward capital expenditures.
“You know at Clearfield we're here at the beginning of the fiber connect show we at 30 minutes until things start and it is a construction Buzz there we are waiting for 5,000 people to join us this year which is an amazing record and just as testimony to what we all believe the future is and we want to be part of it.”
“We're introducing something called built and built is an app on your phone that can help you with 3D images to be able to provide education in the field where you need it on your phone.”
“Another thing we think is absolutely crucial is being able to provide equipment that isn't necessarily a capex issue but it's how do we reduce the Opex of building these networks and our new product introductions are about reducing the amount of labor as well as the amount of skill in that labor to be able to move forw...”
“You can see that as part of something we call our deploy re tap box part of being craft friendly and craft smart overall I invite you to be part of this industry and to join me and to join Clearfield into making our world a better place.”
“Clearfield was founded in 2008 with the mission and values to be able to enable the lifestyle the better Broadband provides because we felt that everyone in the country deserved that opportunity to live, work and play from their home and business with the connectivity requirements that were put in place.”
“We went from a startup and bootstrapped ourselves from originally a stock price of 86 cents in a market cap of 10 million dollars to today a stock price hovering around 104 and market cap of 1.4 billion, deploying millions of ports of connectivity across the country.”
“Our product line allows service provider customers to align their Capital Equipment expenditures alongside their subscriber take rates, and that modularity and scalability really makes a difference when cash flow is king.”
“During COVID, fiber broadband was not a choice or a need, it was absolutely a complete requirement for our customers and for ourselves as a community.”
“We grew as a company about 15% compounded annual growth rate for about 12 years and in the last two years throughout COVID about a 70% compounded annual growth rate, finishing fiscal year 22 at a 91% growth rate over last year.”
“We finished the year out at about 18 and a half percent net income and we're extremely proud of that type of solution and opportunity to make a return on our investment.”
“Starlink is a really good product; I have one on my RV. It's meant for niche solutions in different places, but because Starlink is a shared service, the more users on it, the lower the performance goes. It is not a solution for a dense environment or for an environment with a high level of users on an ongoing basis.”
“We have grown rapidly and consumed a lot of our cash; we made 50 million dollars last year and converted a lot of it into inventory to ensure we can continue to grow and provide resources our customers require.”
“We raised about 120 million dollars in a secondary offering to improve the type of investors we have, provide liquidity, and protect the company and our investors, even if the offering price was below recent trading highs.”
“Government funding programs like BEAD are a hundred billion dollars with about half going into capex and half into subsidies to improve consumer take rates. Clearfield is well positioned to take advantage of these programs in unserved and underserved communities.”
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