News 
Market Data 
Discover
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
And, of course, Renee, I meant that in the nicest way possible. You simply bring the information...but your presence isn't unlike Death knocking on a dying person's door. 
Go hug a puppy.
|
Followers
|
321
|
Posters
|
|
|
Posts (Today)
|
0
|
Posts (Total)
|
44027
|
|
Created
|
05/17/06
|
Type
|
Free
|
| Moderators | |||
Business Description: Lecere Corporation, which provides restaurants with pay-as-you-go integrated resource management software, helps restaurants manage and optimize the delicate balance between their resources and their customers' experiences. Lecere's FIRMS (Fully-Integrated Restaurant Management Software) package helps restaurants reduce their operating costs while enhancing customer satisfaction. FIRMS is an integrated set of Software as a Service (SaaS) modules used for optimizing the operation of restaurants on any level, ranging from an individual restaurnat to multinational chain restaurants. The FIRMS Software offers five individual, on-demand modules including Point of sales (POS), Reservations, Accounting, Mapping and Geocoding, as well as Data Mining. Reverse Merger: Lecere Corporation is a Restaurant POS (Point of Sale) Start-Up company that became a public company through a reverse merger with FullcircleImage.com (FCLE.PK) following a 1: 20 reverse split on March, 11, 2009. LCRE assumed the Debts of FCLE |
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lecere Unveils The New Face of Restaurant Management Software | The Interactive GUI of Lecere FIRMS for Wireless Handheld Devices | |
 |  | |
|
Lecere FIRMS showing the order status of three tables in the bar. Colors represent the delivery status of items ordered; letters indicate which course is active for each guest. |
Lecere FIRMS showing the orders for a party of five at Table 4 in the Bar. Items in white have been sent to the kitchen. Items in red are "live" and may be altered before being sent to the kitchen. |
|
|
| Lecere Corporation provides restaurants with software to manage and optimize the delicate balance between their resources and their customers' experiences.
|
-
JM's response to pdx's questions There are two things I would like to say in general. First of all, we decided last October not to go to market with our initial, proof-of-concept, Java-based software. The proof-of-concept software had convinced us that SaaS would be suitable for the hospitality industry, but we felt the proof-of-concept software would not provide a stable enterprise platform for a company that wanted to be a large enterprise player. So we decided to completely rewrite the software using Ruby on Rails and Javascript/Dojo. It is not unheard of in software companies to write software twice in the early stages of a company. Consider also that when the proof-of-concept software was started over three years ago, Ruby on Rails was an unproven entity, while Java had been solid for years. The good news is that the new software will be easier to deploy, easier to maintain, easier to adapt, and more stable in the long run. This new software provides us with a killer infrastructure that existing and future competitors will find very hard to duplicate. This was a tough decision to make, but it was the right decision. It delayed us getting customers, and I have had to take a lot of flak for that, but I am pretty much immune to flak. We will survive and go on to become the leader in Restaurant Management Software. Secondly, note that I said we would become the leader in Restaurant Management Software (RMS). This is much, much more than merely a Point of Sale (POS) system. A POS system is our first offering, but it will be only a small subset of what we will eventually offer. And our system is tightly integrated. That is very important to what we are developing, and I have articulated that in several past articles, but I am not sure it has sunk in with everybody. Lecere is not a POS company. We are an RMS company. Focus on the brand name of our software: FIRMS, Fully-Integrated Restaurant Management Software. We did not choose that name at random. Thirdly, because our software is not yet complete, we have not been able to approach customers with a ready-for-prime-time, deployable product. We will be able to do so by April 30, but it will probably take a month after that before our product goes live in a real restaurant setting. New software needs some hand-holding when it stands up for the first time and takes its first few steps. 1. Sales & Marketing- Current Deals Q. It appears the BOD failed to bring any real deals to the table (please correct me if I am wrong on this one- I have been asking about it for a while). Just odd there are not clients lined up to install this with the connections from the group. Look at other PDX SAAS firms (corillian, sabrix, etc.) all had deals signed before they even became a company. Just surprised LCRE wasn’t able to do this. A. I could have convinced twenty companies to sign deals and then announce them later. But until there is a working, deployable product, signed deals aren't worth the paper they are written on. And, by the way, Roger Williams was able to get us in the door at an enormous opportunity. Had it not been for Roger, we would never have gotten into this opportunity. Furthermore, this deal will not be signed until we have successfully demonstrated a working product in several real restaurant situations, as well as our ability to support and maintain that product. I obviously can't say anything more about this opportunity. I hope people can understand that. Q. What really has me concerned though is that it appears the only sales mechanism LCRE has at the moment is the hope of a third party distributor. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the idea of additional sales channels (direct or indirect) but distributor sales are not as easy as they sound. Almost all startups have to commit to assisting in sales, paying for marketing, etc. before the distributor will take it seriously. The distributor will also mandate the software provider also be financially sound enough to ensure they will be around in 3-5 years. This is especially true with SAAS firms. What distributor will want to sell a product (service) from a SAAS firm if the SAAS firm may not be around in 12 months? This leaves the distributor open to significant client managementhassles for a LONG time. Seems to me that LCRE has to 1) get the distributor to actually add the LCRE product / service to their catalog (not easy) and… 2) will have to continually push the distributor to actually sell the product. Once the distributor has a few clients using the product and it proves to be a material profit tool for the distributor (and LCRE can prove it’s staying power), the distributor will open up the sales volume. A. First of all, this is not a software distributor. I can't say anything more about this opportunity, but Lecere and all its advisors are certain that this is an enormous opportunity for Lecere. First we have to deliver, but we can do it, because we have done it before, several times. We need investors to trust us, be patient for another 3-4 months, and give us enough financial backing that will enable us to be financially viable. Some of the concerns in the paragraph are real, and, believe me, I deal with them every day. All we can do is forge ahead to the best of our ability and try to avoid the potholes as they come at us. Q. What I want to know from LCRE is the following: Q a. What is being done by the LCRE management team (Jim) and BOD to beat the trees in their own back yard? What are they doing to line up the 2-3 deals out of their own rolodex necessary to take LCRE to some degree of profitability? A a. On Friday, we got a verbal agreement to begin talks with a first restaurant in the Portland area. Again, that is all I can say at this time. We have been beating the trees in our back yard for several months. We have uncovered numerous possibilities, but nobody will seriously engage with us until we have a deployable product. Finally, last Friday, we found out that even though we are seven weeks away from a beta product, we are ready to begin initial talks with a first customer. Even now, there is some concern we are a tad too early. Q b. What is LCRE doing to mature the indirect sales channel and ensure the sales channel will actually sell their product? (This is not simply “sign them up”) A b. The large opportunity I discussed above is our only planned indirect channel at this time. When we turn that channel on for real in a few months, and we will, it could almost (but not quite) overwhelm us for a couple of years. It is that big. Q c. What is LCRE doing to establish their own direct sales channel? (including the full lead generation mechanism, method for walking prospects through the sales cycle, closing, etc.) A c. We have no money to establish direct sales channels and our product is not ready, so a direct sales force is premature at this time. When we are ready to turn on a direct sales channel, we not only have a lot of experience with sales among ourselves, but we also have an advisor to help us in that area who was CEO of a company that went from nothing to $1 billion in sales. Do you think this guy knows anything about sales? Again, I can't say anything about who he is right now, because we have decided to keep him below the radar for a while, but he has been quietly helping us. Pdxinvestor will most assuredly know who he is. Q d. Related to the above- what is LCRE doing to generate leads / market interest? A single presentation at an industry show is not enough. What is the marketing plan? A d. We don't have enough money to do this right now. We are focused primarily on development. When we need to do this, we know exactly how to do it. Q. All of you out there that are doing the “rah-rah” cheerleading, you need to know that if LCRE can’t clearly state their sales strategy and outline exactly what it will cost, how it will be paid for, how it will work, etc. LCRE is dead. Please do not take this as a bash. This is simple fact… and you need to know “a distributor with the ability to sell to hundreds of clients in 2010” is not enough. It sounds great but is very hollow. A. We are not at this stage yet. We don't have the money to do this. When we do have the money, and we will, we will have a lot of very smart people who have done marketing plans, sales plans, etc., for the last 20-30 years of their lives. Rome was not built in day. 2. Ongoing Capitalization of LCRE Q The other major concern that I have is the ongoing capitalization of LCRE. Getting enough money together to keep the lights on until product release may be a challenge but this is nothing compared to the challenge of funding LCRE until profitable. While SAAS is really cool (great business model) it has a significant challenge; You don’t get a large cash infusion with each sale. You earn your money one dollar at a time on a month to month basis. Let’s assume the product is done and is well received by the market at the upcoming trade show. Let’s further assume LCRE is able to sign up 50 clients right out of the gate. All great news… but LCRE will need funding for at least the entire calendar year 2010 to cover launch costs, integration costs, etc. How is LCRE going to cover this? A. Once we have a viable, deployable product, have a few satisfied customers under our belt, have some revenue, and have proved our worthiness to and inked a deal with the large opportunity I discussed earlier, we will have much less trouble raising large amounts of capital. We have already talked to people who could supply that money. Everybody is waiting to see if we can achieve the first part of this paragraph. Q. The often stated answer to this question for most companies is “well, if we have a lot of client contracts, investors are easy to find!” That used to be true. Capital markets are still funky and investors are much more finicky now days. This is not an easy proposition. What is LCRE’s plan here? Go back to the 504s and ask for a significant cash infusion? Go to the traditional VCs? A. No, that is not the right answer. The right answer is "Once we have a viable, deployable product, have a few satisfied customers under our belt, have some revenue, and have proved our worthiness to and inked a deal with the large opportunity I discussed earlier, investors are much easier to find". Investment is very difficult these days. I know that better than most everybody. But when we achieve "the right answer", we will be able to raise sufficient capital. Trust me, if LCRE has the product production ready for the trade show… there is still a relatively long and challenging road ahead. Not to say that it can’t be done but I just have not heard the solution yet. I know the road is long and challenging. I have been there before. We're not going to make the trade show. Too much money. If any investor wants to put up a significant private placement, we will (in confidence) explain our plans in more detail, and I will disclose the things I have not been able to disclose here, but I can't announce our confidential, detailed plans to the public. Q. Jim publicly stated that he was in process of winning a large lawsuit and would invest $$ into LCRE upon receiving his cash. I have still not heard if he won- and don’t know how much he won. Any updates here? If he puts in 1 mil to cover sales & marketing- and puts in money to bridge LCRE until it can stand on it’s own at some point in the future, LCRE has a real chance of making it. A. I still believe I will win the lawsuit and I believe that will still be a significant source of funding for Lecere, but the obtaining of that money will probably not occur before June. Q. I have a legitimate series of questions that I feel everyone on this board should be asking. If there are answers that I do not know, please post them publicly. If I sound negative at all in any of my posts, I apologize. I admit that I am frustrated with LCRE due to current progress and the feeling that I was misled by Jim. All of that said, I believe in the product and in the market. I am also fully willing to admit that I may have the wrong read on him and LCRE. If I can get my questions answered to an extent that makes sense, I will put $$ back in. A. So if pdxinvestor has any more questions, let him fire away to me. Thanks again for your conduit help. ...Via Jim email to BIO | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Message from the CEO Henry, You have my permission to post this email. Here is a some history on Lecere, and especially the claim that Lecere could raise $7 million in funding. I acquired Lecere when it went under the name Full Circle Image. In late 2008, I was approached by Jerry Hansen, who told me that he had knowledge of a public shell that I could use to raise investment capital. Jerry introduced me to Brady Benson, a Morgan Stanley stock broker in Minneapolis, and to Brady Benson's brother, Charlie Benson, who was the CEO of Full Circle Image. I acquired Full Circle Image (and its approximately $1 million in debt) by putting my proof-of-concept software and my reputation into Full Circle Image for the stock I got in the company, 85% ownership. We changed the name to Lecere just over a year ago. From the time I met Jerry Hansen, Brady Benson, and Charlie Benson in late 2008 until the spring of 2009, I was told over and over again by Brady Benson and Jerry Hansen that they would be able to introduce me to many investors who would invest as much as a total of $5-7 million of investment capital for Lecere at $0.15 per share. They introduced me to three people in the Minneapolis area who were legitimate, professional money-raisers. One of the money raisers had been instrumental in raising $85 million for a professional Minneapolis sports team. Jerry and Brady had raised $5 million of investment capital at $0.25 per share a couple of years before for a company called Indigo Energy (IDGG). Indigo was a reverse merger and then capital was raised. Jerry and Brady convinced me that they had done it for Indigo Energy, and that they could do it again for Lecere. The money-raisers said things to me like, "We'll get the job done for you." Unfortunately, that was not to be. For what reason, I don't know to this day. The reason they gave for their inability to raise any money for Lecere was due to the poor state of the economy and the risk-averseness of investors. There is some truth to that. I will say this in defense of the people who let me down last year. I raised $2 million of venture capital for my first tech startup, Logic Automation, in 1984. It took me a year and a half to do that. I have been raising money and/or trying to raise money for my other tech startups (some never got any funding at all) for 26 years. NEVER in those 26 years have I seen investment money for tech startups (especially software startups) as hard to raise as it has been in the last 3-5 years. I don't see this changing anytime soon. The impact this lack of investment capital will have on the American economy and the standard of living we enjoyed in the 70s, 80s, and 90s will be devastating to future generations. And the federal government has been doing its best to ensure this devastation will be permanent. It is pretty much over for the American dream. In August, 2009 Brady Benson did invest a total of $136,000 into Lecere as a private placement. At about the same time, I was able to start raising 504 money. The only money we have been able to raise since last August has been 504 money. Whatever the iHub investors might think about the evils of 504 investors, just know that Lecere would not be around today if it were not for the 504 investors. Lecere is making good progress. We are getting close to announcing an evaluation project at our first customer. Our software is progressing very nicely and will be released on time on April 30. The critics will be soon be silenced. Jim Morris | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, March 27, 2010 10:40:34 PM From: Jim Morris <jim.morris@lecere.com> There is no doubt that SaaS is here to stay. There is no doubt that the world is moving rapidly to the use of handheld devices for just about everything we do: talking on the telephone, getting and sending email, browsing the Internet, getting directions, buying and reading books, etc. The list is almost endless. And very soon Lecere will add ordering food, scanning credit cards, and making dining reservations, just to name a few, to the list of hospitality industry applications. It was Lecere's original proof-of-concept software that proved the Internet was fast enough to handle POS applications. A couple of years ago, most people told me the Internet would not be able to provide the response time to allow SaaS to be used for POS. I proved those people wrong with my proof-of-concept software. Now we are almost finished with the most advanced and most modern enterprise software in the world for the hospitality industry. We may have fallen too far behind? In fact, the rest of the hospitality industry is on the verge of falling too far behind Lecere! Our software is unfinished, but when I look to my left and to my right these days, I don't see anybody running along beside me. I hear some big talk, but it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for large, entrenched companies to transition from an on-premises business model to an on-demand business model. Lecere doesn't have to deal with legacy software, legacy hardware, or a legacy business model. That is a huge advantage for us going forward. And finally, anybody who knows anything about software development will tell you that the only way to develop a really sound software infrastructure for a web application is to have exactly one very experienced, very productive, very capable software developer doing the initial development work using agile development methodology. If we had hired a team of 4 or 5 developers last October, we would not be as far along as we are today and we would not have a product as sound as the product we have today. About funding, we can't raise enough money today to get anywhere near 25 billion shares outstanding. When we start to get some real traction in the next 2-3 months, I predict our stock price will go up pretty significantly. So as we start to raise significantly more money, we will be doing it at a higher market cap, and thus dilution will be significantly less than it is at today's very low market cap. I have said there will be no reverse split, and I meant it. There will not be a reverse split until our stock has had a long upward trend, and I don't expect that to occur until after the first of the year at the earliest. Jim Morris | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Email to CEO Jim Morris & his response to me: On Tue, 2010-01-05 at 22:36 -0500, XXXXX wrote: > Jim, Don't know if you read IHUB, but a lot of posters there are > stating you are a "crook." Is there anything you can say or do that > would help stabilze the stock price? The way this is looking and > acting, it's a classic dump and dilute and reverse split. Just > remember what goes around, comes around. I hope to hell you know what > you're doing. Too late to sell now. > > > > Good luck…we'll need it. His response: On Tue, 2010-01-05 at 20:38 -0800, Jim Morris wrote: > Sigh. > > Have you ever heard of Google? A few years ago, Google was nothing > more than a crazy idea in the heads of two Stanford graduate students. > They developed a business plan, they got investment capital, they > developed their product, they created a brand, and they got busy > trying to figure out how to monetize an idea that started with a > better mousetrap for Internet search engines. For many months they had > no revenue and no customers. They didn't even know how to monetize > their idea for at least two years, maybe longer. In the meantime, they > burned cash and then they burned more cash. When they ran out of cash, > they went and got more cash. Then they burned that cash. And, again, > they went out and got more cash. > > Why do you think the investors who put millions and millions of > dollars into Google over a period of several years continued to dole > out money to Google? The answer is because they believed in the basic > concept and the people and because they were PATIENT. The Google > investors knew that the Google people were not going to get it right > the first time or even the second time. But the investors stuck with it and they were patient. > And look at where they are today. The returns that the early investors > in Google realized were beyond obscene. > > Google "John Doerr". John Doerr was one of the early supporters of > Google when he was at KPCB. Google was not the only company that John > Doerr supported, there were several others (Sun, Amazon, Netscape, > Compaq, Symantec, and Intuit, for example). > > Do you know how long Paul Allen and Bill Gates struggled in obscurity > in their quest to build Microsoft from a two-bit loser into one of the > most powerful companies in the world? About fifteen years. > > We at Lecere are trying as hard as we can to build the next Google or > the next Salesforce.com or the next eBay or what have you. We are > classic capitalistic entrepreneurs: we want to build a great company > and we want to become obscenely rich. > > So ask yourself this one simple question: Why would I or anybody else > on Lecere's team want to settle for the piss-ant little profits we > could make on a dump and dilute and reverse split (whatever the hell > that is) with a company that today has a market cap of about > $500,000!! The kind of money we could make from that kind of > ridiculous little children's game is mice nuts to us. We are after big game. > > The Lecere team knows precisely what we are doing. Between us, we have > been involved in about ten tech startups. Not all of them were > successful, because they never are, but we also made quite a few > investors rich along the way. > > So just be patient. Like John Doerr. We have at least two triggering > events that are 60-90 days out in front of us, either one of which > should give Lecere enormous traction. I can't say much about one of > the events, but suffice it to say that we are looking for a large > company to distribute our product for us. If we find such a company, > we will be kicking ass and taking names. The other potential event is > the lawsuit that I will almost surely win within 90 days. I will > invest a significant amount of that recovery in Lecere, and I will be > buying stock on the street. I am chomping at the bit to be able to get > some Lecere stock at the prices we see today. I am going to make huge > returns on that investment alone, and I will be laughing at the people > who called me a crook all the way to the bank. > > Jim Morris | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
