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I have a hard time understanding the negative lens that some choose to view VATE with. Glass half empty I guess. Let me offer a different take.
From my perspective, 2019 has really been a transformative year for VATE - from product expansion, revenue growth, business maturity, and share structure. We've seen VATE go from just a hemp bagged coffee / boxed tea bag company selling mostly on Amazon and a few local shops, to a full blown hemp / CBD beverage company across multiple states. Let me do my best to try to recap where VATE was at just this time last year and how they have come forward.
Product Expansion
January 2019: VATE acquire's Blessed Bean Coffee, to own the full manufacturing process from bean to bag (or can).
March 2019: VATE officially launches their bottled CBD Iced Tea and canned CBD coffee.
September 2019: VATE enters the single serve coffee (Keurig) market via Blessed Bean. Increased their presence in the private label market. Developing CBD whole bean coffee.
October 2019: VATE announces additional Peach, Hibiscus Green Tea, and Raspberry CBD Iced Tea flavors (which as of this post are now available for pre-oder).
Revenue Growth
Annual 2018 Revenue: $372,305
Annual 2018 Net Loss: ($367,815)
Through Q3 2019 Revenue: $521, 092.82
Through Q3 2019 Net Loss: ($147,256.74)
What's lost in here is that VATE also posted a positive Net Income in Q2 2019. What does this demonstrate you ask? To me it's showing that VATE is growing organically and as more product goes out the door, their economies of scale are improving and their overall COGS is remaining flat / favorable. VATE lost almost as much as they made in 2018. Now look at that improvement, only through 3 quarters, in 2019 - it's a strong indicator of how they are executing on their business model, which goes to my next point.
Business Maturity
In 2019, VATE has basically gone from selling as a preferred vendor on Amazon and a handful of Lucky's Markets, to operating across multiple states leveraging multiple distributors. This includes partnering with Chex Finer Foods as well as the 13+ distributors that VATE has partnered with throughout 2019. Additionally, VATE took a hard look internally and divested the 02 Breathe LLC business (which previously strongly contributed to top line revenue @ $220K annually), to concentrate on their core competency as a beverage company. When recognizing this, it makes the product portfolio revenue growth even more incredible. Lastly, VATE did their market research and took the time (and expense) to upgrade their SEO, website, product logos, and overall marketing to better target and penetrate their consumer base. The growth here in 2019 is nothing to sneeze at.
Share Structure
Shares at the end of 2018: 445,524,276
Shares as of November 5 2019: 567,672,378
Preferred Series D Share Retirement in Q4 2019: 2,746,732
^These preferred shares converted at 60:1. This effectively retires 164,803,920 of potential dilutive common shares.
So let's look at this objectively. Yes, over the course of 11 months in 2019, VATE added 122M shares to their common shares outstanding. But, how was that money used? Did they pay executives crazy bonuses? No. Was it because of toxic convertible debt? No. Those shares were issued, to raise money, to execute on their business plan. The revenue numbers and all the items in the section above, are wholly reflective of that.
Conclusion
When I add this all up, I only come to one conclusion. VATE isn't a scam. VATE isn't a pump and dump. VATE isn't your overnight pipe dream / run of the mill OTC company.
At the end of the day, VATE is still in the Start Up phase of it's business life cycle. They've taken the steps and laid the foundational groundwork in 2019 to set the company up for future success. In the eyes of an average OTC investor, this has taken to long. For those of us that can read through the lines, VATE is doing exactly what it needs to do and eventually, share price will be reflective of that. I'm sure many of you could even add to what I've laid out here, in terms of positive developments. Overall, I'm happy about their 2019 and I am excited to see how 2020 plays out.
That's the truth! I can see it happening here as well.
Without a doubt. I've been in VATE for about a year and a half, haven't sold or added a single share and I'm sitting on about 360K shares.
There's way too much potential and upside with this company. The CEO is doing a great job steering the ship with all of the legal uncertainty. The rebranding, the website, the distribution partners, the product availability / inventory -- I could go on and on about how VATE is set up for success.
I've stated here a bunch of times, I'm happy sitting back and going on the ride. VATE has .20+ written all over it.
Missed it? You still have an opportunity to buy under .02, that's fantastic.
My personal breakeven is about .035 and I'm more than happy about that. I would have added multiple times over the last month and half if I could have sold some other positions!
Can't argue with 60% in a day on 6.1M share volume, when the average 30 day volume is 240K shares.
SRNA is a home run company. Making all the right moves. Increased Revenue, Increased Net Income, Increased Cash on Hand, Decreased Liabilities, Sizeable Contract Backlog .... you name it, they are doing it.
Hard to find a gem like this in OTC land. Saddle up.
Interestingly enough, they posted their Fall newsletter and highlight a recent hire who is set to support the East Coast. His background seems to be mostly in MA.
https://surna.com/news-events/
https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/VATE/disclosure
Published on the 21st. Addresses share structure concerns and future growth.
Love the PR today and the shareholder letter yesterday. Time and time again, VATE continues to show they are true to their word. Everything takes time in building a business. Those who are patient are ultimately rewarded. Exciting times and I continue to look forward to their progress.
Couldn't agree more.
It really all comes down to marketing and sales. The product is in a niche market that has already attracted a small, but growing, fan base. Given their increase in spending on SEO and social media advertising, the organic growth will continue as the new products fall into the market.
As that growth happens on their top and bottom lines, we'll see the stock move out of this sideways trading pattern.
As I've stated here once before, with a forecast of $400K for Q4 - their Q3 top line just needs to come in at a value of $225K or more, to hit that $1M revenue rate for fiscal 2019. Let's also think about that further for a moment.
A $225K top line in Q3, would represent over a 10% increase from Q2- not too shabby, especially if they maintain profitability on the bottom line. Thereafter, if we assume they hit their $400K target in Q4, that'll be over a 75% growth rate from Q3. And by my estimates, if they bring in that $1M for fiscal 2019 - that'll be a 168% growth rate over fiscal 2018.
Keep in mind what's happened to date in 2019 - they've simplified / streamlined the business model by divesting 02 Breathe and becoming a pure CBD / Hemp beverage play. They launched their CBD RTD beverages. They've done their work in SEO and marketing. They've quadrupled their number of distributors and states carrying products. They are actively going through a label redesign and launching new flavors of all their existing products.
All in all, to date, 2019 has been a pretty transformative year for VATE and I think that all of their work to date is going to pay off by EOY and into 2020. Happy to sit back and let my investment ride.
Wrong.
News is out and its great.
The single serve (Keurig) market is the name of the game these days. Personally, I'm 28, and I've never physically brewed a pot of coffee in my life (as sad as that may be :) ). Since I've started drinking coffee at home, it's always been a K-cup.
On top of that, we've got new coffee flavors coming, new whole CBD infused beans ready for purchase (for those that grind and do make full pots), new CBD iced tea / iced coffee logos coming, and new CBD iced tea flavors coming.
To date - VATE has done $374,982.82 in revenue, which eclipses their 2018 totals and had their first profitable quarter in Q2 2019. Per this new PR, the forecast is now $400K for only Q4. If Q3 can come in at anything above $225K, they'll have reached $1,000,000 in total revenue for 2019.
Additionally, there's always talk about 'dilution' here on the board. Reality is, the shares that have hit the market are likely funding all of this additional expansion I've mentioned above. VATE will organically grow out of it from here.
Looking forward to a successful 2019.
You should dump this cabbage.
Has anyone noticed that BANGI's corporate office is located at:
18530 Mack Ave
Grosse Pointe Farms, MI
48236
Which if you do a quick google maps search shows that this address belongs to a Filippo Hair Salon? Phone number there is 1-313-882-1540? Also, per Google Maps street view, it was still a hair salon by at least September 2018.
Or maybe that address is just for the strip mall itself and BANGI has one of the storefronts? Idk.
That's a bit odd.
You should stop referencing and using bogus research company reports as your bull case marketing material for POTN. It's BS.
Where did the $8,800,000 million go? Go ahead and email their investor relations group - guaranteed you get some fluff BS response.
Reality is NOBODY even knew about the $5,500,000 until it was posted in this quarterly and their *3RD TIMES A CHARM* filing of their Form 10.
Since nobody around here does a lick of due diligence - let me go ahead and take you through a journey of POTN's lack of disclosures when it comes to the amount of money they've committed to borrowing.
April 30th 2019- Annual Disclosure - CLAIMS ILLIAD LOANED THEM $2,625,000. NO MENTION OF DISCOUNT TO MARKET CONVERT PRICE, ONLY 0.45.
May 9th 2019 - FORM 10 - Note 11 - NOT A WORD ABOUT ILLIAD AND A MISREPRESENTATION OF THE VACARRO SCAM.
May 20th 2019 - QUARTERLY DISCLOSURE - ALL OF A SUDDEN THE ILLIAD NOTE IS NOW AT $3,625,000.
July 5th 2019 - FORM 10 (THE SECOND TIME) - Note 11 - NOT A WORD ABOUT ILLIAD AND A MISREPRESENTATION OF THE VACARRO SCAM.
August 16th 2019 - FORM 10 (THE THIRD TIME) - Note 10 - ALL OF A SUDDEN AT AN $8,800,000 LOAN FROM ILLIAD (WHERE DID THE EXTRA $5,525,000 COME OUT OF NOWHERE AND HOW DID THE ORIGINAL LOANS DROP $300K) AND VACARRO SCAM NOW MENTIONS DOLLAR AMOUNTS CONVERTED AND NOT SHARES.
CAVEAT EMPTOR. DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
HA - if you want to go ahead and compare POTN to that of a Canopy, Tilray, or others - then please, by all means go ahead. Just know that in by doing so, you are absolutely not comparing apples to apples.
They aren't even in the same stratosphere, let alone playing field.
That's an outright foolish comparison.
I don't disagree about the market potential in Europe, nor Europeans not being able shell out the money for good CBD. That's all well documented and a fact.
My opinion is strictly around that of POTN. They'll never break the barriers to entry within the European market, when they clearly haven't learned how to even walk here in the U.S.
Just think about it this logically for a second. They are hardly making money here in the U.S. and clearly when comparing the last 3 quarterly statements are on a downward trend - both on the top/bottoms lines, while being straddled out the wazoo with toxic debt and convertible loans.
Now try to think about expanding those horrible margins/cost controls - and apply that to the logistics of international shipping and operations. They also then become subject to to the taxation/legality/standards that Europe holds for CBD, which opens up a totally new can of worms and hurdles that they will never be able to overcome.
Bottom line is - they will never sell in Europe when they can't even get their U.S. business correctly run.
Better yet - go take a look at 2nd piece in the quarterly under Note 10 about Illiad. They've officially loaned POTN another $8,800,000!!!! Unbelievable toxic debt.
Pay specific attention to what I've bolded below. You have absolutely no guarantee that $8.8M converts at $0.45 a share, because you have no idea what the discount to market price was defined in the note. Good luck finding the note too.
POS company.
Payee: Illiad Research & Trading LP
On October 25, 2018, the Company issued a Note in the face amount of $5,525,000 which accrues interest at the rate of 10% per annum. The note has an Original Issue Discount (OID) of $500,000. The Note and any interest thereon is convertible at a fixed rate of $0.45 per share of common stock or after 12 months, at a variable conversion rate, the “redemption conversion price” at the lower of the fixed rate of $.45 per share, or a discount to the market price as defined in the Note. The Note is comprised of five (5) tranches (each, a “Tranche”), consisting of (i) an Initial Tranche in an amount equal to $1,400,000.00 and any interest, costs, fees or charges accrued thereon or added thereto under the terms of this Note and the other Transaction Documents (as defined in the Purchase Agreement) (the ''Initial Tranche"), and (ii) four (4) additional Tranches, one (l) in the amount of $1,375,000.00, one (l) in the amount of $550,000.00, and two (2) in the amount of $1,100,000.00, plus any interest, costs, fees or charges accrued thereon or added thereto under the terms of this Note and the other Transaction Documents. $1,400,000 was received on 10/31/2018 and $825,000 was received on 12/18/2018. $18,410 is the accrued interest for this Note in 2018.
On February 8, 2019, the Company issued a Note in the face amount of $3,325,000 which accrues interest at the rate of 10% per annum. The note has an Original Issue Discount (OID) of $300,000. The Note and any interest thereon is convertible at a fixed rate of $0.45 per share of common stock or after 12 months, at a variable conversion rate, the “redemption conversion price” at the lower of the fixed rate of $.45 per share, or a discount to the market price as defined in the Note. The Note is comprised of three (3) tranches (each, a “Tranche”), consisting of (i) an Initial Tranche in an amount equal to $1,125,000.00 and any interest, costs, fees or charges accrued thereon or added thereto under the terms of this Note and the other Transaction Documents (as defined in the Purchase Agreement) (the ''Initial Tranche"), and (ii) two (2) additional Tranches, one (l) in the amount of $500,000.00, and one (l) in the amount of $1,650,000.00, plus any interest, costs, fees or charges accrued thereon or added thereto under the terms of this Note and the other Transaction Documents. $1,125,000 was received on 2/17/2019
You nailed it.
Ha - except POTN doesn't sell in Europe and they never will.
otcmarkets.com and go to disclosures. Their 10Q posted.
Similar story here, except made my re-buy at .25
POS company
Couldn't agree more. Wasted my time on POTN
POTN down 22% post earnings release.
Lol - pure panic? Revenues down dramatically, shares increased, caveat emptor, re-filing of Form 10 (second time), additional $5M convertible loan from Illiad (previously undisclosed until new Form 10 filed 8/16).
Garbage company. POTN had so much going for it and failed to capitalize.
Made thousands on the first run. Just sold and lost thousands (75%) on this run. Peace out POTN.
why is this not on otc markets?
You should go read their filings. That SEC Form 10 that was entered in on July 5th 2019 was re-filed (for the 2nd time) on August 16th.
Typically no less than 30 days. However, given the insider enrichment scam that the FBI / SEC has charged those 3 individuals with, not sure how long it may stay up.
Well to start- I was commenting on the article written by Boherald.com. Wherein, it specifically states that POTN would be over $63M in net profit for year end 2019. That's pure fiction.
If we want to discuss gross profit, in 2018 POTN did about $9M. As of the Q1 2019, they were on a run rate to get to about $10M.
The $16.7M target being referenced in the harbinger report would necessitate an additional growth of 60% throughout these next 3 quarters (Q2, Q3, and Q4).
It's not impossible, but I don't think it'll happen. More likely, we'll see gross profit end up in the $10-$12M range.
I understand that, but do yourself a solid and read through it, fact check it, and do a little bit of DD before posting fluff like that.
Misinformation spreads like wildfire.
That's an absolutely absurd article. It states $63.68M in projected net profit for 2019? Seriously?
In all of 2018, the firm netted $242,634 in net profit. In Q1 2019, they only pulled in $51,000 in net profit.
Even if this poorly written article were referencing gross sales, that would mean POTN would have to nearly do 3X their current trajectory from here on out. Fat chance.
Yes, you can see my post #41824 where I still think this quarter told a good story - it's just not where I thought it was going to be.
The June 24th PR was misleading to say the least. As you've seen what I've written here previously, I was expecting top line revenue for the quarter to be somewhere between 310-350K.
Thanks for the details. Given the court systems in this country though, I wouldn't be shocked to see this get fully resolved until some time in 2021. The number of delays and continuance motions that can be filed are often ridiculous.
Good point. Hopefully we see that reflected as a note in the disclosures.
Okay? This person was also arrested as a part of the FBI probe.