Petition
There appeared to be some support for the idea of creating a petition to the BOD and management to attempt to initiate some changes we deem to be positive. In order to do so, we need to put forth a list of specific grievances and proposed solutions. We also need to have a majority in agreement with these ideas in order to put forth a viable, cogent petition for these changes. For purposes of this effort, I ask that anyone contributing to this effort place the word "Petition" at the top of your posting so I will know you want your content to be considered for inclusion. The preface will describe ourselves as a group of private (non-institutional) investors who routinely utilize the InvestorsHub Titan Medical message board to share information, concerns, and ideas regarding the status of our investments and how we feel they are being handled. It will likely take a few days to get everyone in agreement with the messages we would present, so we should use this time to refine the message as a team and attempt to be as influential as we can.
Please avoid rants, name-calling, and insulting or detrimental language. Also, please put forth your reasons we believe a specific action is required, a recommendation for how they should achieve it, and what the desired end result should be. I will start with an example and suggest that we build these into a reasonable, respectable document which captures our intent. For example…
Investor Concern 1:
Fundraising to date has been much less effective than the program requires, placing not only the schedule, but the entire program and company in jeopardy along with all the funds invested by numerous private investors such as ourselves. As investors, dilution of the stock is becoming a major concern, exacerbated by the continued drop in Price Per Share. Issuing shares and warrants continues dilution of our investments, and due to the low share price, is much less effective. In addition, the issuing of warrants has historically provided no additional value to warrant holders, thus furthering the need for better strategies for fundraising.
As a collective group of investors, we have been exceedingly disappointed with the level of communication by Titan management with us and with the general public. We agree from the limited public exposure the SPORT system has had to date that Titan has a viable product, capable of entering the marketplace with a substantial impact to patient outcomes as well as investor outcomes. We seek out information constantly to validate this theory, but the general public does not. They remain completely uninformed about SPORT and its potential, and therefore they do not seek to contribute supportive investment dollars which could raise the Price Per Share and enhance fundraising capabilities.
We feel that Titan Medical has an obligation to greatly enhance the public exposure of the SPORT system. The SAGES conference initiated some good exposure and conversations on the internet about SPORT’s capabilities, but that has diminished over time. The AORN presence did much less; it would have benefited greatly from an instrument on site actively showing its capabilities, and given the audience at AORN consisted largely of OR and support personnel, more focus on ease of setup and use, simpler case turnover processes, and reduction of expense versus the competition. Further enhancing the exposure of SPORT to the general public should include a more professional presence on the corporate web site, the posting of more videos displaying the capability of the instrument, a more active marketing presence in applicable trade journals (paper and digital) and conferences, and press releases to spread good news about the system and the company. Lately we have needed to scan SEDAR filings for status updates, and most of these have not portrayed the organization in a positive light. We believe that substantially increasing and enhancing the company’s image and highlighting SPORT’s capabilities will vastly improve the ability to entice larger investments. An improvement in Price Per Share is a cornerstone of this strategy, both to minimize further dilution and to give adequate confidence to potential investors that their investments will become profitable. Potential investors and potential customers must be able to learn about SPORT and the benefits it could provide to patients and hospitals, and without the necessary exposure, we believe this will not happen.
The sales and marketing team appears to be relying on the fact that some of them once participated in the Intuitive Surgical success story. This bit of resume trivia will not sell systems if SPORT reaches the marketplace, nor is it going to improve our Price Per Share or attract new investment dollars. We feel that in order to improve the situation, the Board of Directors should mandate that the current marketing team be given 30 days to put forth a viable marketing plan to achieve the objectives stated above, and an additional 60 days thereafter to begin executing the plan and show the effectiveness thereof. Evidence of effectiveness should include an increase in Price Per Share and a marked increase in inquiries from surgeons and hospitals (e.g. through the company web site) about the SPORT system. Failure to achieve success on both of these goals should be considered grounds for termination of key marketing personnel, as we believe these goals are inherently the purpose of their positions in the company. We also believe that reaching these goals will enable successful fundraising in the future to keep the program moving without interruption while minimizing future dilution. <END>
Can we put together a couple more such concerns? I would be happy to write them up if given the appropriate ideas. I think our major concerns are funding (addressed in Concern 1), possible removal of the top two, and improved overall communication (touched upon above but easily broken out into a separate concern if it requires further attention). I have a Word document with Concern 1 written up, and can add to it as you see fit to contribute. Maybe we can actually make a difference.
AI
