Originally Posted by
Baa_Baa
@axe, appreciate your post, though if what is being said, was being said in the "nicest way", without trolling, as a non-holder, with judgemental accusations of posters and unsubstantiated claims of board impropriety, I'd leave it alone. But it's not. So I don't leave it alone and won't. Here's why.
VMob isn't a two-bit wannabe-startup-likely-loser-maybe-winner-(if they-get-it-perfectly-right). Unlike Snakk and various others. No, it's not. VML is way.. way.. beyond that.
So if people get bored easily, now's the time to click the 'back button', because I'm going to lay it out in the open, and it's going to take a few words to do that.
It's not like we, the punters, don't 'get it' either, many probably do, at least I hope they do. There're risks here for sure, no one buys a penny stock without accepting risks. But there are things that make VML worthy of consideration, particularly in a recent flurry of Tech IPO's in NZ, where clearly many have over estimated those company's product alignment to their market opportunity, and their management and boards' capability to navigate to success.
So I'm going to put it out there, as an IT industry 'veteran'. Personally I hope people will be charitable, but even if they're not, I have confidence that I've been around this industry way long enough to spot a winner. My challenge is only to convert that into a personal investment opportunity. This is why I'm buying and have faith in VML. I hope it helps others to connect the dots.
Firstly, VMob been in business for around 15 years, this isn't a startup floundering around with a product looking for a problem to solve, like so many are or have been. It's a finely tuned solution for a contemporary opportunity and fits excellently with retailers wanting to engage their customers in the mobile age, to fulfill their consumer needs, 'in the moment' .. thats personalisation, presence and presentation, of product. It expertly lures, VMob's customers customers into the retailers premise. That expert luring is designed to convert customer attention into sales, that's why retailers are liking VML's products.
Look it up if you will, everyone has a mobile device and VML is at the leading edge of directing customers towards tailored retail offerings, in real-time.
So VML aren't chipping away at developing a product that may have real credibility, they're already there! It's really is an excellent solution in the right place at the right time. That in itself is a testament to their vision, diligence and timing. For that reason, and vindicated by some fantastic, almost incredible, acceptance by the worlds largest retail franchises can only be taken as foresight, of success. I say well done VMob, well done indeed!
Sure, I don't think for a moment that everyone will understand what they have, what they've achieved and what they have ahead of them as opportunity, but I hope people will in time recognised that VML is a NZ success story in the making. Their market is gigantic, almost inconceivably huge, and they're proving they can engage with huge retail players, with equally humungous partners (Microsoft). This is already, and will continue to translate, into almost inconceivable opportunity, especially for some whose scope of vision is not global. VMob are poised on the global stage, it is undeniable that they have achieved already what is the envy of others who aspire to achieve in the same market. Please don't 'small poppy' VML, or belittle their success or opportunity, or sucumb to the typical NZ syndrome of failure to see that NZ IT can foot it on a global stage.
Secondly, VML is directed and managed by people who have a great deal at stake. So many here place great stock on directors who have 'skin in the game'. Well, they sure do have that! They've put everything on the line as far as I can tell. I view their recent share placements, and the methods they've gone about it, as the best way that they can capitalise the company .. right now. They need that capital and I'll elaborate on why in a moment. The reasons that I don't share others concerns for how they've gone about raising the recent $4m is simple. It's not about greed, it's about ambition and confidence. Here's why.
A greedy company with a ****e product in a dubious market would have sniped a tasty 100%+ off the recent share price advance. Maybe some of the 'institutional investors' and 'private investors' were tempted. Who wouldn't be with a 100% gain under their nose? But ambition will overcome greed anytime, they will see all of the above observations and realise there's a genuine mega-bagger here, so why sell for a measly 100%, and shaft the company's credibility and success, when they can participate at near to cornerstone investors levels, and reap many multiples of their investment. They won't sell, I have confidence that that was a principle, if not a condition, of partaking in the recent capitalisations.
The other reason I've already elaborated on, is that they have the right product at the right time in the right place. And they know it. They can feel it. Success is just a few short steps in the current trajectory. And they'll be rich, fabulously rich beyond their dreams. So will we, relatively speaking, the minions who have backed them. They won't shaft us, because their success so far is tempered by that ambition and the potential for many-multiples of success and riches henceforth.
They will also want to put right, once and for all, the negative connotations that are so frequently espoused here. They can do that by doing the right thing, by staying the course and making themselves and everyone who backed them rich, and they'll do that because this time they really do have the 'bird in the hand' (unlike past times), and there is and will be no need to save themselves by exiting prematurely.
So I'm saying that if VMoB was a ****e company, with a wannabe product, in a dubious market, and little or nothing to show for 15 years of investment, then sure ... us little guys should be worried that the cornerstones might want their grub stakes back at 100%, but they won't. Their ambition is nicely aligned with ours. We all want a multi-bagger here. We are very closely aligned, at the current share price, to the cornerstone investors.
And one last thought on investors. Many of those current investors are way under water, except the recent $200-400m placement group. So far under, that they'll be thinking that unless they desperately need to take a humiliating loss, and it will be humiliation for them if they do, they are probably better quitting something less 'on the cusp' than VML.
So finally, and I hope this illustrates that I'm not just a cheerleader, VML have some hard roads ahead of them. It's probably obvious. There's a 'cross-over', or 'tipping point' with all IT companies, being the point at which promise must be realised by implementation, and thereafter by realising their customers business outcomes, which in turn must be reflected in profitability.
What this means for VML, and I think they totally get it, is that they need capital to 'roll out' production solutions for the new customers that they have signed. I might have been a bit happier if they had given me the opportunity to invest in their implementation phase at $0.0106, but I'm OK that they've found some larger investors who have confidence that VML will achieve their next phase of growth, which is the most important phase .. making it real, and profitable.
Rollout, or implementation, of McDonalds USA, let alone McDonalds Global, and the already signed customers is no mean feat. It will test VMobs ability to scale-up to meet demand, and the demand this will create for them I think has probably exceeded even their own ambitious expectations, in the meantime. There's the test, but I think they know that, and are up for it. They know the axiom of 'oversell and under deliver' will kill them, so they're gearing up now to make it real. They know it because they are also IT industry veterans.
So when VML put their hand out for capital. I'll be one of the first in line to support this up and coming NZ success story. They have achieved outstanding, almost incredible, successes securing some huge global retailers and the future looks terrific.
I want to close by re-iterating why I have no concerns whatsoever in the propriety of the directors, cornerstone investors, or management .. and for that matter the staff with options. I have enormous faith, through insights of 35 years in the IT industry, that the people, the product and the market, are extremely talented, vastly experienced and above all will continue to be driven by ambition and confidence that they have got it right this time, which overrides any other motivations, and in time VML will emerge as a great success story of NZ's burgeoning IT industry and be a testament to the expertise, skills and capability of those who have brought it here, allowed us to participate, and will take it to heights beyond most people's wildest imaginations.
All the best
BAA.