re: "..not be going to the OTCBB anytime soon."
Probably because the SEC filing would need to contain something a bit more detailed than "um, let's see, I think the company is about a million dollars in the hole.." <g>
I had hoped to hear a list of concerns (problems) abd actual solutions. I think Bill's problem is that he only planned for success. He needs to learn how to plan for failure.
What I get mainly: We are getting eaten alive by carrying costs. Toxic financing is not the way to get "leverage". He needs to scale back. If he can't convince us (retail shareholders) to give him any more money, how does he expect major investors to provide any kind of decent terms?
1. Problem: Lubrilon is a bust. There is no future in it. My suggested solution: Sell off the $5 million Lubrilon investment to recover some cash.
The only liquid with a sure market would be something to add to the fuel to counteract the Formic and Acetic Acid from the ethanol. Actually I found his remarks about that informative. It explains a lot for me . at least: why the fuel pump in my Grand Prix failed unexpectedly. Examining the failed unit revealed that the commutater looked like it had been eaten away, the erosion was much more severe than one would expect from simple wear. Just prior to that I had switched to cheaper E10 from all pretroleum fuel.
Most people don't care about the oil in their car. Heck, they're exceptional if they even bother to change it outside of warrany requirements. I do, but I always used Mobil One synthetic oil because it contains no residual sulphur (acid).
You can go longer between oil changes and that mitigates some of the extra expense.
In order for a product to sell, it needs to solve some problem for the customer better than what exists now. Lubrilon doesn't seem to offer any kind of unique solution over existing high class synthetic oils. A gas additive that prevents fuel pump failure which saves a motorist from being stranded out on the road is a real solution to a real problem and would provide real value. The company should dirch everything alse and use whatever funds can be recovered to concentrate on that.
2. Not enough money to test 300 car models. Solution Test one model (at a time). Make friends with a local car dealer to send an occasional customer with a target vehicle model your way.
3.Not enough money to buy a national lube center franchise.
Solution: Rent one old garage with service bays near a gas station with an ethanol pump. Install and sell units for covered models
4. 200 million vehicle market. Only about 10% of people will bother. Of them, 10 million new vehicles are sold ebery year and an increasing percentage of them will be fles fuel ready. So, the actual aftermarket will start to diminish every year.
There is a need to start installing now. This will also provide valuable cuatomer feedback and givetime to solve any additional implementation problems. Limited customers, early detection means limited liability even in the case of a disasterous road failure.
Heck, GM spent millions and millions on engineering the 4-6-8 Cadillac engine prior to their big rollout. Guess what, it still failed in the field and they had large liabilities to pay. Better and best to work out the bugs small scale as you go
while there is still time, beofre the market fully developes (and peaks).
3. His big Plasma Fuel GTL vision. Making units for small scale and consumer use is actually an idea I had myself a while back. I have it tabled indefinitely even building a prototype for my own use, and I have access to a machine shop. There are no off the shelf components available at Walmart ( though try I assume he was being illustrative).
We're talking high pressure chambers and plasma. Plasma state of matter occurs basically in flame, electric arcs and the surface of the sun. You need precision machined injection nozzles, high strength vessals and manifolds, high reliability materials and precise process control. The high-speed centrifuges required for material separation would also be dangerous and probably similar to what would be required for uranium enrichment. And he's worried about product liabilities with a flex tech unit failure. How about the danger of a pressure chamber exploding like a bomb? Gads.
SYNI and I think, NSOL are already well down this old small scale road and have yet to achieve profitablity. NSOL is getting a grant from local gov and SYNI I think resorted to making plastic containers to try to reduce their losses.
Established players like SYNM, RTK, IVAN have yet to stop losing millions, they actually have assets and some millions to burn unlike XLp.. SSL in S. AFrica is profitable but they have been doing it for 40 years, have their own coal mine nearby and still have most of the good patents (that work) tied up.
Forget trying to break into a market with such a high barrior to entry at least until there is revenue or assets to support it. I see no reason to buy into this swell idea by somebody with otherwise nothing instead of, say, SYNI, who at least has a chance. Egads.
AI
