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.
