The negative sentiment is certainly understandable. A review of my own postings repeatedly calls Mr. Randall's qualifications into question, but I will continue to point out that it is merely a question at this point. Mr. McNally's confidence in his "rock" gives me pause to want more information before I would be calling for his immediate ouster.
Hypocrates, your traditionally logical thought processes had me assuming STEM major, but your thousand cuts/Jesus/Gibraltar references have me questioning that assessment... not in a negative way; we need balance in our inputs on this board! All are appreciated, and such diversity can equal strength if applied logically. (Not always the case in media, government, education, etc. where diversity is enforced for its own sake, not for ultimate benefit of country or society... but I digress!)
With regard to our current funding situation, I would submit the idea that we are in a precarious position at the moment. There are a lot of people and institutions out there who firmly believe in the future of robotic surgery and have put up a lot of money in that belief. Unfortunately, those investments have all gone to the lone player in that field. To invest in the young upstart, the potentially disruptive technology, is to bet against themselves and their large investments. Do you think Apple had an easy road getting started in an IBM/Microsoft world? Hell No! From an investor standpoint, we are Apple in 1980 or so. Who wanted to bet against IBM in 1980? Okay, a few outcasts jumped into DEC (Digital) and a few outliers had the balls to put some coin on Apple. Happy people these days. How can we convince others that we are the next 1980 Apple?
With regard to another letter, I am confident that we have their attention and the leadership team are among our regulars readers at this point. If another letter has strategic rationale, we need the appropriate audience. There were a number of industry analysts who picked up on our previous writings and wrote about about our input (in what I considered to be flattering terms as an anonymous author, I must say!). I believe that another such writing campaign to management at this point would do more to disrupt our communications than it would to enhance our positions in any way.
If we were to undertake another writing campaign, let me pose the following considerations:
We consider who we should be writing to. Would writing directly to the leadership team give them any greater insight than they can glean from reading these posts? Or to make an impact, should we be identifying potential investors (everything from friends and relative to institutional investors and wealthy unknown benefactors who begin as unknown folks but end up joining us in a
Vegas celebration) and trying to convince them of the huge potential rewards they are likely to reap?
Do we collectively distrust Mr. McNally to a point where we would recommend major changes to the team, or in our hearts, do we think they have our best interests in mind? To put this more bluntly, how much can this management team benefit by screwing us over compared to the financial rewards they would gain personally if we ALL benefit from our investments? If you suspect they aren't working on your behalf, you shouldn't be here. But before you go, please tell us how it would be possible for them to screw us out of as much money as they would gain from leading a successful program into the robotic surgery market.
Can we put forth a rational letter which accurately describes the investment opportunity we foresee? And can we build a list of recipients who might be able to contribute in such as fashion as to make an impact on our PPS and the future of this company? I personally know a couple people who might be convinced to part with 6 figures each if we compose a compelling dossier and back it with intelligent and heart-felt rationale. A fair piece of this challenge would rest on my shoulders, and I accept the challenge IF we act as a team, define our target audience (personal and institutional investors - identify the big ones by name!) and act responsibly as stewards of our personal investments and as responsible stewards of the company.
The company cannot necessarily communicate with us directly to say "Please do this" or "Please don't do that" so sometimes we may need to take it upon ourselves to act on our own behalves, in which case we must take it upon ourselves to do so responsibly. Particularly, the sentiment is that the company finances are in jeopardy in the near future, and if we can help them, we are helping ourselves.
If we want to write a letter, let's be sure it makes a positive impact. Audience, message, and timing are all critical. We need to understand these before we react.
