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Yeah. Well we'll see no won't we?
That's why we need the financials, to understand stuff like this further. We should see decent cash flow from the 7 operating stores right now, without a doubt. It won't be enough obviously to float the company, but I have to have this indication.
I want to know what the stores are doing versus competitive chains in weekly sales, profit margins, etc. This should all be disclosed to us.
The corporate stores should definitely show us more margin. I'm just very interested to see what they put out. I'm very high on the company, but my trust level is very low at this point. I honestly think JV is in over his head, but nonetheless I've invested in him, so I have high expectations.
Happy Easter and good luck.
IMO
JV has been a self-proclaimed expert in the food business forever. He put the press releases out with regards to store growth, none of us did. If all of these issues are so obvious, why weren't ideas tempered?? This cannot be answered concisely by anyone on this board.
I understand fully the g'ments are a headache, but the performance by those who supposedly know what's up is not great.
As for the franchisee in Austin, it's laughable if we're speaking about GH in my opinion. If it is him, don't expect him to follow through with much force. If it's someone else, I sympathize with them and wish them the best...
I am looking forward to much progress by this team in Q2, starting with Milwaukee in 2 weeks. After that we should consistently get a store or two every couple weeks. That's the hope at least... Best of luck to all who invested here, and have a nice weekend. I wouldn't spend a second of it thinking about your investment in UPZS ;)
All IMO
2 THINGS IN AUDITED FINANCIALS TO LOOK FOR
I'll repeat:
1) Cash in the bank. After selling hundreds of millions of shares, what have they to show for it? They should have many millions stashed away waiting to be deployed for growth.
2) What cash has the company BEEN PAID as royalties from their 7 operating stores. Even if it's just a couple of months of data, it's great data as you can plug it into a model and forecast what it may look like when new stores are open, and existing stores ramp up. This is so vitally important.
Good luck. All IMO
If you're insinuating I'm in breakdown mode over this stock, think again. I'm very critical of the way JV has delivered UP TIL NOW, and not happy with the dilution he's applied to the shares I bought in full faith in 05. Simple.
I assure you I understand risk v reward quite well, but I also understand capitalization structures, and this one is plain bad. If you're accusing the board of 'breaking' down just because they question things, than you are unreasonable. And... You look at the stock every day and post bloody charts regarding where it has been, so please don't tell me that!!
I'm certain we'll know more by the end of Q2. I don't need to remind you I've been invested here much longer than you and that i've heard these promises much longer. The jubilation gets old at some point, especially when you are responsible for bringing other trusted investors in. Whenever your 18 month anniversary comes, if it is the same as when you bought i'd imagine you won't even linger around the board anymore, but will probably have sold and moved on.
I wish you the best.
All IMO...
It's nice JV is worth $33M on paper with his stock, isn't it? All for opening up 7 whole locations (performance unknown) and missing dates. Talk about the American dream, LOL.
I don't care much about the details in the data, nor do I feel the need to ask. All I know is that around 150-200M shares were sold and that generates millions of dollars of working capital, let's see what the audited financials bring.
As I said before, I can't WAIT to see the amount of $$$ they are averaging per store in their 8% royalties. This is very important as it will help we analysts forecast out potential cash-flows based upon # of locations, etc. This is the best way to figure out a fair valuation as they grow, and value/location, etc...
They have a lot to prove here. They need to schedule this famous CC and let us know when it'll be. Were drowning in paper with this company... Wonder what price they'll reverse split it at? I thought originally it'd be $.75 (which I think is an absolute minimum), but he&& it could take years to get there at this pace of dilution. If they R/S it without a very sound and growing business, it's really all over IMO... If they do it correctly, it should be OK... Folks are beginning to get ancy though, no way around that.
If you wanna buy Skunk, all the more power to you... They need to give me and about 300 others a good reason why we bought stock in 2005 at $.05 and 18 months later it is still being sold at basically the same price, but they're blowing thru $32K / week on the corporate card... Nice...
All IMO...
And... All coming from a very long-term shareholder who supports the company.
Yes I know that. Why do you think I used the 200M assumption regarding cash raised. Re-read my post. This still equals many millions.
I would defend Blackwell as the software from revention is well-liked in the field from those I have spoken too, and the call center software is working without a hitch.
Websites are a dime-a-dozen. Yeah it is slow as well, but I know 50 people who can write code for a website, big deal...
I'm in agreement with you, some people here constantly try to paint a brighter picture to 'protect' their investment. LOL is what I say. You can't liquidate your shares here, so mgmt might as well know what you're thinking so they can solve the problems and get the stock up.
Be it as it may, the company we've invested in should have known this and better prepared for it. If it's true they are selling restricted shares again, means they didn't raise enough cash to operate this 'difficult' plan. Nothing further needs to be said about the issue IMO.
What's the point anyway's if you're correct? We have a billion authorized shares and gall darn it we'll issue them to whomever will buy them, no need to get stores up-and-running and cash-flow positive, who cares.
I can't wait to see the financials, I will be looking specifically for two things:
1) How much cash do they really have on hand after putting out 600M shares outstanding? Even 200M shares sold at $.05 per share would yield $10M to build the business.
2) How much royalty have they collected from the stores that are currently in operation. I will be able to break the #'s down and figure out a good valuation per store, and how they are performing. This # is ABSOLUTELY KEY!
I'm itching to comb through these financials, and for such a tiny company there is no good reason auditing is taking so long. I imagine it is typical delays the company sees everywhere.
How much is UPZS being paid for these locations, and how are the locations performing relative to their peers - this will all be analyzed.
On another note, I just got to thinking about the call I was on a month and a half back, where someone pleaded to BV and said "don't dilute the shareholders who have supported you all along." BV's muted response was "point taken." Well, point was taken all right. Every time they issue shares it's like a big F-U to the people that have been here the longest. Heck, you can still buy shares today at the same price as 2005. What a deal
IMO
PA-
Please private ping me your email if you would. I don't have private messaging on this board but would like to continue your thoughts on the share subject offline. I definitely think you're onto something.
Thanks.
They've lost their minds in my opinion as to how they are capitalizing this. Do they think they can keep mindlessly issuing shares and raising cash without actually making the business distribute cash flow? i'm sure they'll say they know this, but they aren't acting on it much.
I stand by the fact that they are playing "shocked" by how hard this really is, and this is leading them into a cash situation. Why increase the A/S if you never planned to issue them?! Doesn't add up in Mikeer69's book.
They are flippant and they worry me greatly. We can't get out at this juncture, so let's hope they start actually making good on their promises so the stock rises, and then go from there.
Anyone who has vast investment experience or has worked in the investment world sees a lot of red flags with the way JV has decided to issue shares. A reverse split is 100% in my book now, IMO. How else can they correct this. It better be done only when the PPS is a lot higher, or it will really not be pretty IMO.
Good luck... I hope they have a handle on this.
IMO
Thanks Skunk. I'll still try and get there as soon as possible after it opens. If I've heard right it should be the 15th of April, or so. Let's hope they stick to that.
Authorized Shares:
Authorized Shares
Authorized shares refer to the largest number of shares that a single corporation can issue. The number of authorized shares per company is assessed at the company's creation and can only be increased and decreased through a vote by the shareholders. If at the time of incorporation the documents state that 100 shares are authorized, then only 100 shares can be issued. -from investopedia
So basically I didn't have a chance to vote on them increasing the authorized shares, did anyone else? And I don't care if JV owns a majority, we still should get a proxy regarding this. Anyone have any thoughts?
I don't know... This week is the first week this year where I've been in the office long enough to evaluate it. The merger is complete now, but I believe most took restricted stock. For those that didn't, they had their money tied up for 2 years at $.04-$.05/share, saw it run to $.83, and right back down, and got fed up and sold... JV's a good salesman, but not that good. Not when you're messing with millions of dollars and hundreds of friends/family's money...
I'm hoping it's capitulation, but it's hard to predict as they've commoditized the shares so much... Who knows...
All I know is they'd better start opening stores and quickly...
IMO
Yup. That is the problem. If you were going to look to put serious $$$ into it, you're probably better off buying restricted stock so the $$ goes to the company for operating.
I'm not buying here, I'm full of stock as it is... They have some major capital structure issues to deal with here. They're passed my point of comfort, and their lax attitude of selling restricted shares is of concern to me and the investors I work with.
We'll see what he does though, he's the 'boss' and will make whatever darned decisions he sees fit, for better or worse.
He's diluting himself at the same time, so apparently he isn't worried about it. We differ in our opinions. i'm sure no one on this board likes the trend in the amount of shares though.
He'll soon run out of buyers (with any sophistication level) if he doesn't slow the increase of shares or correct them somehow. Problem is, we can reverse split logically until were at $.75-$1.00/share... Let's break down approximate valuations, shall we:
Assuming 600,000,000 UPZS Outstanding Shares
At $.25/share: $150M Market Cap
At $.50/share: $300M Market Cap
At $.75/share: $450M Market Cap
At $1.00/share: $600M Market Cap
Other company market caps:
California Pizza Kitchen: $640M Market Cap
Papa Johns: $887M Market Cap
Domino's Pizza: $2.1B Market Cap
I'm not so sure many people understand the difference btwn Market Cap and Stock price. All that matters is market cap. Adding shares drives the price down. Maybe JV or FC will read this message board.
Maybe they just don't care and will continue down this path. I dunno.
All IMO
Yup. Tis what happens when you add so many shares. One thing I'm pretty certain JV doesn't understand well is the capital markets. I warned him personally, face-to-face of this, in December of 2005. Needless to say he wasn't worried about it then, and isn't now. He should be. It's now up to him to clean up this mess.
We can't expect buyers of the stock until the company gives them some reasons to buy it. Hopefully they give those reasons soon. We should see a PR very shortly on the merger, who knows exactly when they'll get to it though.
I must concur. I'm not a big msg board guy, but with UPZS I have such a large investment, but not only that, INTEREST in the company. Being an active entreprenuer and investor I revel in the opportunity to be involved with company's such as UPZS. It's a lot of fun to me, and of course I have the utmost interest in making money on my investments.
This board is filled with some characters, but smart characters. It's nice when you can state honest opinions and not be run off the board (actually y'all kind of tried to run me off initially with my reverse split comment :) ). The company has a long way to go, but if they got 5 stores running quickly we'd all have more sense of optimism. The youthfulness in JV has hit him with over-optimism as he began this venture, but the man knows pizza better than anyone. He needs his A team in mgmt to take care of the rest though, as that's what they are good at. Accomplishments to point at:
1) Call Center - a true wonderful idea and great execution. It took a LOT of ingenius technology to get this moving, and it is innovative for the whole industry. UPZS leads the industry there hands down. PAPA has the online thing mastered, but functionally UPZS's call center idea will pay more dividends in the form of cross-selling, less busy work to do in stores, etc.
2) Software interface - This is downplayed here I think. From the CC's I've listened too, it sounds like this SW is pretty slick and user friendly. Anyone involved can verify this. No small undertaking and it was implemented quite quickly I would point out.
3) Decent marketing campaign. The nascar idea is sound, but they need a lot of stores to get maximum impace. Considering they are outlaying minimal cash, it looks like a good deal to me and creates buzz and credibility.
4) Food. JV has this mastered, as few would argue this is some darned good eats!
5) Investors who care intimately about the success of this company. Think about this. 300 of their closest friends and family put up MILLIONS to help these guys get this going! This is a huge testament. Even though they've F'd up the capital structure for now, I believe JV wants to reward those who have believed in him and his team for so long. He made GH rich, now I hope he has enough juice to make us some $.
These are a few things I like about what they've done. We have a long way to go, and quickly, but it's worth pointing out the good as well as bad.
All IMO
I concur OG. JV has done one thing really well, and that is bring on-board some very talented people. Take a look at the call center. What was accomplished there the majors haven't been able to do even though they have all the money in the world and supposed "brainpower." Kudos to the team for pulling that off, that will be a boon for business when they ramp.
JV does know pizza, the question is how free are his managers to take the bull by the horn and help him achieve his dreams? The stock will languish price-wise until a lot of growth occurs and JV takes steps to fix the amount of stock floating around, there's simply way too much. There was too much at the end of 05.
Yeah, FC most definetely advised this firm, most assuredly got stock for his services (hell they paid the nascar driver in stock), probably ran it up through pumping (IMO), and then dumped this free stock all along. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know "who" is dumping all the stock. Seems simple, JV owns the most and he isn't selling. Who else could possibly have enough to dump this much so consistently, the answer seems blatantly obvious to me. If he did something wrong, it'll catch up with him in life - I'm a big believer in that... I believe it'll catch up with him even if he somehow covered his rear. I don't trust him and never will. Hope I never hear his name again honestly.
As for the food, it is terrific, and if the stores we have up are doing well (I'm sure they are), this is a good indication of how much success we can have if duplicated, often!
Good luck, I'm hoping we're back over $.10 soon...
IMO
PS: I'm eagerly awaiting Fidlers next move as well, very eagerly, he is a big blessing for UPZS in my opinion, as are the rest of JV's exec's.
OK.
My only point is that decisions made in the past are still relevant today... Just because one ate cookies and cake for 30 years and is now 400lbs, doesn't mean just because they are on a diet and excercise now they aren't fat. it isn't that simple...
FC's advice from the beginning is a root cause of a lot of the shareholders anguish IMO.
Everyone has the right to their own opinion though, eh?!
I really don't need to. I have my own ideas on this, and know for a fact FC advised early on, and we are still muddling through those decisions. Fact is, most of us shareholders didn't make any money, and he likely made a bundle.
It depends too how much cash we have on hand. If we have $5M that isn't as bad as having $2M but having 600M shares out there already! I'm not sure how much experience you have with capitalizing a small firm, but I assure you I'm well-versed in the topic. We don't know the nitty gritty details on the arrangement they had with them, and they aren't up-front with the info. It should be in the SEC filings, but who knows.
I couldn't give one half a hoot less if he is opening franchises in Austin. I go there all the time, love the city, but will pass on eating at any of his locations, ever.
I fully understand Tom D is advising on things today, and am not contending that. He seems to understand the markets quite well in my opinion, hopefully he can help us to a speedy up-listing...
My opinion is that you give Garland WAY too much credit.
I have no info to back it up, but if he had an inordinate amount of shares, and caused this huge downdraft, I could have lived with a different franchisee in TX and he could have not flooded the mkt.
You are owed your own speculation though. Remember that JV and BV will tell you they aren't experts on the market or stock. So, what does this tell us? This leaves us with FC doing this magical advising on the share structure. I'm sure they worked in millions of shares for themselves to this whole thing, probably for free, and in turn sold them to investors or dumped on the open market.
As for me, I cringe when I see that name and hope he never calls me to pump another stock ever. He'll wish he didn't.
IMO
I think if Mgmt does read this board that they will tend to look in the mirror and remember that it is because of us that they are where they are. Without private investors funding this little exercise, there would be no UPZS. We are SOOOOO close! Man, I hope mgmt can jump back on track here and show some significant progress.
We are all definitely on the same team though, I second that. If investors here haven't called the company today to discuss the business, they should. It's up to each of us to get the answers pertinent to our own questions, and not rely on strangers... If you have a big $$$ of money invested here, monitor it closely and make sure you're comfortable.
I wish you all good luck, as usual. It's been bumpy so far this year, but IF the stores they have open are performing well (I'd love to know if they are or not, but I assume they are), we know the model works and really it shouldn't be all that challenging to get to break-even. When we get to that point, man is it going to start getting fun again, and hopefully we all can begin speaking again in terms of how much $$$ we're making... For now it's a $.07 stock with a dream and a lot of paper... Cheers to tomorrow though...
IMO
I'll be leaving a voicemail tomorrow for Jim. I spoke to someone in the HQ today and got the same word about the shares, seems it was due to the merger.
I do need to speak to Jim though just to see where his head is and why this is so difficult, and find out if we need to dilute further. This is serious $$$ were all talking about, not to be taken flippantly.
IMO
Thanks Skunk for your detailed info on your phone call. I'm interested to hear when this next CC will be. I'm glad the free trading hasn't increased, that is good news. JV needs to know that we won't stand for mis-or-under communication by the company. He has a lot of folks financially interested in this company working out. They MUST open stores, nothing else matters more. At least he called you back...
I got the same answer today that the increase in the O/S were due to the merger. Glad free-trading isn't affected, but one of these days it will be. Remember if they are uplisted to the BB, the restricted shares will become free trading if I understand them correctly.
Skunk/Crown/All - Please call the company. It's the only way we will have a unified approach to get the company to change the way they are communicating. It's so important that not only one of us calls them! This is serious business for goodness sakes!
They have really increased the shares and that is really scary. They've done this with no material improvement in operations and execution. Unreal.
Please CALL!!!
CALL THE COMPANY!
I'm not sure how many folks here have called the HQ, but we need to try and get some answers as to the amount of shares out there, cash on hand, and some clarity as to which stores are actually opening!
If you haven't called the company it probably isn't fair to belly-ache on this board. I am going to call the company now and I seriously advise others do the same and quickly. If you're serious about your investment you'll seek answers.
Good luck.
IMO
I'd imagine they'd release something regarding all of this...
At the end of the day, it's a good group of guys in my opinion. They've fumbled often, but my gut does not feel they are intentionally ripping anyone off. I'm not happy with the FC deal the most.
It seems like the first shares just hit yesterday anyway, so let the week play out and see what happens...
While I agree if frees some time up, it's not OK that they are changing what they told us on the last call just 2 weeks ago. Now they need to get on the phone and tell us why they did this, what the true O/S # is, etc... Just imagine if cash is low!
If it takes 300,000,000 shares to get open another store or two, run as fast as possible. Increasing the A/S really has little to do with that in my opinion. He's promised somebody something and doesn't have the cash to pay, so he used shares (Currency) to do so. Even if that includes using shares to buy out his owned stores. It must be great to negotiate with yourself how many shares each store you're selling back to the company are worth, eh? I'd love that position. Sounds borderline on the legal and ethical side to me, but with all due respect, we all have no clue if this happened so it's speculation.
Good luck,
ALL IMO
ZN-
Though I am quite frustrated, please don't take my posts as if I feel it's the end-of-the-world. I don't feel that, though I'm dissapointed by a lot of things... I'm not sure yet what the Outstanding Share # is yet, and that is what matters for valuation. We all fear for the worst but I don't know yet...
I have tons of my cash and my family's cash here, so I'm with you as well. It's more a fact of principle than anything. I feel we were basically lied to on the CC when we were told the share count did not need to go up becuase of all of these activites. No matter the excuse, that is what we were told.
The product is solid, and the franchisees are behind it for better or worse, so that shouldn't sway you too much. Please phone the company tomorrow morning and let the board know what you hear, and I'm sure many of us will be doing the same...
Hopefully we can help ensure mgmt that we aren't a bunch of loser investors that they can use and abuse. I really don't think they feel that way at all, but sometimes actions speak very loudly.
imo
Yup. I feel that way. I feel worse for the MANY folks I brought into this under different pre-tenses. It's unreal to me that they're operating this way. It's going to be a long time, not a short time, for them to fix perceptions...
Hopefully they took care of Garland well. Seems to me that the real believers are holding the bag but Garland has cashed out and is doing god knows what.
I'm sure their phone will be ringing off the hook tomorrow morning. I'll be on the line with them first thing, and if anyone on this board is not, then you haven't invested enough or just don't care. Make them have a CC to explain this. Operating under the dark of night is scary to me.
All IMO
I really don't care what the excuse is, he said he isn't going to do it and you heard it as well as I did. But he did it anyway. Bottom line.
The damn race car has done us no good - we don't have stores to drive all these bloody fans too!
If he issued shares to himself, what value did he value the stores at? I don't like a man running a business negotiating with himself over a deal. Wow, sounds like a great deal for ole JV!
The shares needed for merger were accounted for, they said it in CC's. NONE of this adds up.
You can paint a pretty picture because you've invested a ton and don't wanna scare others (so have I, and many of us - I sympathize) here, but in the end it is what it is. I ask you to also call the company tomorrow and see what you find out - we all should. They owe us investors answers and we aren't getting them the conventional way.
IMO
Doesn't matter honestly. What's the difference if they are restricted? I have a slew of restricted shares!
They have issued so much dang paper that they are close to making it worthless. They were ill-advised by FC. No wonder FC doesn't even have an office anymore...
Everyone can make their own decisions. Unfortunately many of us who own enough shares don't have enough trading liquidity to get out anyways. They need to show progress in their business plan to increase their market valuation - and they haven't done that.
Were now in this for the really long run, for better or worse.
I'm not being negative either, just peeved off that I got diluted again (seemingly) this evening. Makes me feel good after investing good cash in them for the last 16 months.
I hope they read this board too... This isn't just their little family gig that is a passive operation. They have soooo many acquaintances invested here, and I'd love to hear the mood of most of these folks. I hope every concern on this board someday just turns out to be amatuer freaking out, but man they aren't doing a good job in investor relations.
IMO
Well. I looked at some shares dated 1/29 that I have, and the A/S count was 600,000,000. Needless to say I am not happy at all about the 50% increase in 3 months. When I bought my initial shares in 05, the A/S was around 500,000,000. Slippery slope indeed in my opinion.
We need to demand another conference call, and this week. If the large shareholders are this restless it isn't good at all. I'll be calling tomorrow morning, and I recommend the rest of you do too.
This company seems to be acting very strange as of late. I hate the fact that they have no new PR's, and if they have completed the merger I assume they'll tell us in due time, with specifics that matter like cash on hand, shares freely available, etc.
Unreal... Seems like this is just an amatuer operation to me. They'd better communicate soon to prove to us all they care bout our hard-earned money that we invested in them.
IMO
Un-frigging real. Boy, I got blasted when I mentioned this possibility way back when in my first post, didn't I?
I'm very PO'd that they increased the shares by that many. The company needs to explain. Anyone with any vested interest here had better call the company tomorrow, email them, or whatever it takes to get them to publicly explain their rationale around this. They'd better have so much frigging cash to operate after issuing this many shares as well. How nice... They go to all of their 'buddies' to raise money and then they dilute them all to he&&.
And yes PA, I'm sure Garland is still selling his shares all the while. Seems this is how it works. The "big boys" parade the "little boys" into investing their hard-earned cash, only to dilute them and provide excuses.
Thanks a ton!
All IMO.
OK... Sounds good. I didn't receive mine yet, but I'm assuming since you're in PA you may have gotten yours a bit quicker... I'll let you know when I get mine.
Was everything accurate??
Did they come via certified mail, fedex, etc?
Is there a letter or anything with them...??
Thx for the update, I'll be watching for mine
Wyatt-
I agree they will fall ridiculously short, but most company's unfortunately (at least ones I've been involved with like this) over-promise early on. It's steady progress and resources needed to move on that matter in the very long-term. Their promises have killed the stocks momentum and peeved off alot of investors. Positive momentum can return quite quickly with a few good positives stories and actions.
As for San Antonio, I think that's where FC is planning to open stores, I wouldn't hold my breath on that one bit.
A miracle won't help their projections from one year ago this month, no doubt. They've learned their lesson there and I think they know they are left picking up the pieces now.
They need SOME news and that is needed in short order. The fact that we've heard nothing formal in another 6 weeks is very discouraging in my opinion.
Stuck in between a rock and hard place, they promised and missed, so now they're gunshy to promise anymore... Stay focused and get some stores opened quickly so you can receive some cash flow!
As long as they open stores and get the business profitable, the better we like it!
Any predictions on how many stores they open in Q2?
It looks like the grand total for Q1 of 2007 is around 2 or 3. Nothing to write home about. That's an annualized rate of a dozen, or so. Can anyone list which stores they've listed on the CC's so we can keep tabs on them? I've honestly not written it down but now am curious as to what our Q2 pipeline may look like. I know there are 2 in Milwaukee and 1 in VA, and possibly another 1 or 2 in Charlotte. 1 in Dorchester, but after that I don't know... So it looks like a total of 6 right now that we can spell out... If they can get to 20 total stores in Q2 it will be mildly successful - but I'm not banking on it.
I'm just ready to read the financials and see what the PR states about the merger, and move onto OTC BB filings. Those will be important to bring on new investors. Fast food is a hot area to be invested in, so don't think that there aren't smart names out there that have UPZS on their radar, even though they know it has been somewhat slow. There are many waiting for the "Pizza Hut Killer" and we may or may not be that, but there will be money to support those prospects. Remember that Little Caesars used to be a big king but took a back seat. It's funny though, even those that have lost the limelight are very very successful still (Little Caesar's, Domino's, etc). Papa Johns and CPK are some of the newcomers. Things come and go.
Let's hope UPZS is a decent brand in the future. If anyone can do it JV can. I hope he's learned a lot in the last 15 months and corrects the ships direction from here on out. Q2 begins tomorrow folks!
Good luck!!!!!
All IMO...
I know a lot of small investors should sometimes ask themselves, how often do they get to invest in a company that they believe so strongly in at such a starting point? A company that has such strong potential??? UPZS represents that for some on this board I think, and it's a risk/reward scenario, and one way to think of it is you're supporting the American dream! Your dream of making a bundle and others as well... Be realistic and tell your friends about the restaurant when they open in your area, good food is contagious
Good posting. I cover all of my investments strictly and have no problem calling the company with questions. These forums are to exchange ideas which I do. You have basically reiterated my last 5 months of posts with regards to a good idea and the fact that cash is needed. These are all things I knew when I invested.
As for the email posted below, seems very genuine and sounds good to me. What the heck does everyone expect from a message board on a website though? It will be answered blandly as any public company must. It won't be as straight-forward as a CC as the folks aren't on the spot. It will be very vague in my opinion. These guys just need to build the business at this point, we know the risks of being invested here.
The IT side is one that has been very well-managed and on-time. We haven't heard of any SW related problems and it seems that this portion of the business was executed perfectly. Wish the others would execute their parts now!
Good luck. All IMO
I'm with you PA, been with these folks for longer than I care to admit. I still like them and think they can do a lot of good, but am frustrated.
It just seems that after 'years' in this, we are still only 7 stores deep in this huge expansion, very slow. The problem is not intentions, or honestly running into speedbumps. The problem is time and cash. They built the model and cash needed around executing quicker, and we cannot take their excuses, because the market doesn't give to craps about it!
They better have a really really busy Q2 in actually opening stores up. I wish also they would have set a date for the next CC, something tells me they are in no rush to speak with us pesky investors anytime soon.
As for papers from TA, yeah I'll post when I get it, as will several others here that have had their illiquid shares sitting privately for some time! Hopefully they didn't screw everything up and get all the correct materials out to the shareholders so that it's easy.
I will be at the MKE store opening if it is 4/15 on the spot. If it is in the middle of that week I'll be traveling. Will do anything possible to be there and will be asking some questions of mgmt. I'd suggest that folks within reasonable vicinity of all the store openings show up and get the scoop face-to-face. We'll know so much more at the end of Q2, so I'm going to try and ease my frustrations and let the boys work honestly until then. After that I have some very fundamental worries.
JV is really a good guy, and has a really good mgmt team. Most of them aren't used to the entreprenuerial gig though I'm sure, and some of these delays have to be frustrating. We have got to have more than 50 stores at the end of the year, in my mind it's a minimum. Heck, they need 150+ to break-even... Clock is ticking
IMO
I believe that it does. I don't expect that to happen quickly either. My perspective is if all of this took too long, who had time to put together a proper filing for the OTCBB? If I were guessing: Application sometime in June with a decision in Q4 or so. Who knows though, it could be quicker.
I'm tired of debating this mgmt, they need to put up or shut up. They've done a good job of shutting up but not a good job of putting up. I'm entitled to say this as I've invested a ton as have my acquaintances.
IMO