Interview With Ben Hansel, KBLB Investor Relations
I called and introduced myself with my name and as the moderator at IHUB, and he said he was glad to talk to me. We spoke today on 2 occasions. Some things I was not able to capture completely as I was typing, so at the bottom of this posting is going to be a commentary by me.
Ben told me that he was working on summarizing the corporate state of affairs letter, as a result of a conversation with a previous caller. Ben believes the letter stresses that 2010 was very exciting and 2011 should be even more exciting, but Kim also focused on the importance of being patient.
Kim is trying to convey as much information as possible, but his style is to not be speculative to just drive the share price. As far as the shareholders, and other KBLB followers, who believe that a commercialization agreement cannot move forward prior to the genetically engineered spider silk and silkworm silk composites being tested and results published; something they seemingly don’t grasp, and should understand, Kim’s been in this for over 5 years and if he thinks a deal isn’t getting done because of test results being released, you think he’s going to let that speed-bump stop it from progressing?
This isn’t just a ten piece puzzle. This has dozens, if not hundreds, or even thousands of moving parts. There are other things that I think he cryptically tried to mention in the state of affairs letter, which people will in the near horizon understand. There’s a lot of potential milestones that may confirm how impressive the technology is and what happened at the press conference at Notre Dame.
A lot of people didn’t pick up the innuendo, like when Notre Dame called Kraig Labs its partner. Universities don’t make those statements lightly.
Some people may consider me to be a cheerleader for the company, but I’m very excited about Kraig. However, I try to remain factual.
After a slow Company news month, I think it’s time to put KBLB back on your radar this week, you may expect to see a regular update or regular company releases and updates.
I asked what Kim’s day to day job is like.
As I stated earlier, he’s dealing with tons of different moving parts. He’s like Payton Manning, Kim is playing chess and others can only play checkers.
How does that relate to Kim? Kim’s looking at bringing the discovery to market, but he’s trying to do it correct. You’re too young to remember the movie Colors, but there’s a line where Robert Duval talks to Sean Penn about the father bull and baby bull. The baby bull says “let’s run and get one of them cows”, but the father bull responds “let’s walk down and get them all.” I think that describes Kim’s mentality, where he is not just looking at commercialization deals but also ways to accelerate product development, and next generation of product and locking down the technology.
Key to ask questions, lots are healthy, some are ridiculous, it’s good to be skeptical in certain things, like how will they protect his technology, I think he’s working on that. He’s not just focused on 1st generation partnership and production; he’s working on a lot of different pieces, there are lots of issues that must be considered. I don’t think Kim’s just looking to accept the first deal, but he’s going to try to put together the best deal.
I asked if Kim would announce a commercial deal once finalized, like making sure that he wouldn’t necessarily wait for the peer review.
Peer review is not the hang-up; other moving parts are being tightened down to move forward. I think some of these items should have more clarity pretty soon. I don’t believe, from my understanding and knowledge, that’s really an issue. However if that’s an issue that concerns some investors, Kraig may not be the investment for them.
Not only that, they’ve got to take into consideration that we’re on the pinks also. Even though we’re fully a fully reporting company, we were moved to the pinksheets, and investors who are concerned about that should invest accordingly. For some investors, this is probably an investment that they should wait until they’re satisfied with the genetically engineered spider silk and silkworm silk composites testing report and/or peer review. Does pps stay the same by peer review? It could be higher, lower, or even the same. I don’t know. Again, I don’t see as a major concern, or I believe Kim would’ve already addressed it. Kim understands if he gave everyone the recipe then he can’t protect the great work that has been done.
He says news flow should begin to increase in the near future. There are some exciting things that things have not even considered yet, and confirmation. He tells folks to keep KBLB on their screen.
I asked how/if the business advisory board members are being compensated in any way and how do the advisors work with Kim
.
The Business Advisory Board is an important tool, as the Commercialization process moves forward, his consulting with them will increase.
You can see the three members have distinct strengths and I think it paints a clear picture of what he’s got in mind. He just added, arguably, one of the top textiles guys in the world, specifically technical fibers market and development. Plus, one of the biggest icons in mergers and acquisition, as well as someone with impeccable record on Asian development and corporate development.
He basically summarized that each business advisory board member has a role for their specific strengths. He said at this time he is unaware of any form of compensation to the advisory board members. I asked if they are possible regular shareholders then.
Logically speaking, I’m following the same logic train, they should be in it for something and, typically, everyone wants to get paid. For example, one of the benefits you should get from this call is you should have a better understanding of the Company and that knowledge should improve your ability to maximize your trade.
Everyone has an agenda or motivation, but in this case it’s not a direct financial benefit from the Company because the Business Advisory Board members are not on Kraig’s payroll. Plus, there are no stock or warrant agreements in place for the Business Advisory Board members. So your guess is as good as mine, as far as what their motivation is, but I think that their participation in the Business Advisory Board speaks volumes for both Kim’s commitment to excellence and Kraig’s general potential.
I asked Ben if he is the target of the 20,000,000 warrant for IR work, and I also asked what his actual work is.
Correct (meaning he is the one compensated for the above #)
I’ve been handling IR calls, but Kim still fields some IR calls, and public relations, as well as other publicity work. For example, for the big press conference Notre Dame sent out some media invitations, while I contacted, literally, hundreds of journalists. I was pleased with the coverage we received and my efforts are focused on continuing further exposure there, especially with additional leading scientific journals and financial media coverage.
Is Kim currently planning to hire other employees?
There are many directions Kraig can go, so the direction the potential manufacturing deals or partnership, whatever animal it is, will determine what happens there. Kim likes to run a lean machine, so don’t expect it to happen soon, but there’s probably a point in the future that it will be required and I’d be surprised if it doesn’t happen.
How long you going to work there as this(IR)?
I hope to do this longer and longer. The longer I’m here, the more I know and the more excited I get. I know exactly which, going back to a question posed earlier, I know which news outlets are waiting for certain milestones to be reached before they might cover, but now it’s easy for me to pick up the phone and/or send an email to journalists. I think I’ll be able to get additional outlets to coverage the breakthroughs. The longer I am here the more excited I am.
I asked if he is going to get a new contract and If we should continue calling him.
Nothing’s been discussed. That’s accurate (Continue to call Ben).
We started talking about some of the better questions he’s been asked.
Somebody asked something along the lines of what quality controls are in place, referring to the silkworms, and basically this is my understanding of it. I think it’ll help some investors understand the ramp-up process as well.
The silkworm’s lifespan is about 30-60 days, and the silkworm lays 100-200 eggs. Initially, not every one of its offspring (next generation of a specific transgenic) will have the desired transgenic traits, so Kraig and the scientists continue to do quality control inspections, to weed out the silkworms that don’t have the desired traits. The weeding out process will continue for every following generation, to ensure that the correct DNA traits or characteristics are contained, until the group reaches homozygocity, which is a point where all offspring all have identical desired genes.
Kim’s an attorney but his passion is science, he has scientific patents in his name. He’s someone that gets in there, and he likes doing. I believe his patents are dealing with genetics.
I asked what kind of public relations expenses (new) the company alluded to on the 10Q.
As company presence grows, expect additional conference calls, present at different conferences, just these items alone, there will be some significant expenses racked up.
Commentary: Ben stressed a few times that this investment being a pinksheet has risks inherent in that, and it isn't an investment for everyone. Patience was also mentioned a few times, as Kim is being quiet for a good reason. He also said that KBLB is Kim's baby and that Kim is working very hard to commercialize and protect this technology.
Ben says that, with the Joe Cunning announcement, he expects the news flow should begin to increase in the near future. We should come to understand the work with the business advisory board and the obvious things that Kim can’t let out of the bag yet.
Ben said that Kim is focused on the long term growth and results, not necessarily the short term price. Kim could bombard us with press releases, but that will hurt the long term strategy here.
Only Kim Thompson, CEO, has the full answers to all of these and other questions, so this interview should be read knowing that, and obviously most questions we have we will not get the answers to yet.
