Today I met Brad Ketch for lunch as he was at the Westin in Seattle for the BBX conference.
Not all of these were my questions.
I'd like to thank those of you that helped me with some great questions.
Before we get started with Q & A let me say this about Brad.
Many years ago I use to play cards sometimes for 10 hours straight for over two years. During that time I learned a lot about body language, voice hesitation, along with other basic human nature tell signs.
My conclusion on Brad is he is a straight shooter with no hype!
He answered all questions and when he couldn't answer he gave valid reasons why imo.
Before Q&A let me get this part out of the way first.
On the board lately there has been quite a lot of talk about Ray.
I think it's fair to say there is high emotions on both side of the coin regarding Ray with good reasons on both sides.
Most of you know my feelings as I've posted them before.
That being said, Brad and I went into that topic a little bit today.
Brad feels Ray is an asset to NV, and at this point and time he's not going anywhere.
Brad says Ray raised around 5 million dollars last year which has kept this company going.
During the course of this conversation we were discussing the perspective current shareholders have of Ray and how the past comes into play.
Brad asked me a question that made me think.
I'm throwing this question out there.
At the same time don't misunderstand the reason why I am.
I'm not throwing it out there to say look shareholders we need to turn everything about NV into positive feelings because as you all know that is not my intent or the intent of why this board was created.
Brad asked me concerning the past with Ray how long must he stay in the penalty box?
I'll leave the answer to that in your hands.
I myself personally it gave me some things to think about.
One other thing regarding Ray. He is currently deferring all commisions due to him under his employment contract.
Q&A..............
If you believe beyond in this technology why haven't we seen you buy shares? And realize I'm asking this with the knowledge you have quite a few options that it might not make sense for you to buy anyway.
Right now at this time I'm not investing in any new investments at all.
If the current financing package doesn't work out do you have others you are looking at? If so, will you be announcing them after they are completed?
Yes! Most definetly we have others.
I am currently working on several big ones.
Do you have a current estimated amount of money needed to get to manufacturing process? If you won't disclose that amount at this time why is that?
If I was to disclose the amount of money we need our competitors would have a pretty good idea where we are at right now in the process.
It is a small world in this industry.
Our competitors know the equipment manufactures we are dealing with.
They will use any means possible to go to our clients and say NV is having problems.
You should go with us instead. Etc.
Once Embarq is in the chips it's a done deal for a set period of time.
It takes quite a step up in technology and cost savings for them to go to the expense of changing that chip.
Considering that, competitors will go to great lengths to do whatever possible to change the equipment manufactures mind about using us.
That puts us between a rock and a hard place as we would like to tell you investors exactly where we are at.
But it is to our advantage in the long run to not do so at this time.
We will all be well rewarded for doing it this way.
Yes, I realize it's painful but as the leader of the company I need to do what is best for the long term value we will create here.
Once you receive funding do you have the recources available to ramp up R&D?
Absolutely. We will be hiring more engineers, sales, marketing people that will help us as we go to market.
They are waiting for the call to go into action.
First business area being overseas do you have the proper patent protection in place?
We are confident we are covered well. Absolutely!
That being said, no matter who you are out there some countries don't follow the rules.
How is Greives being compensated?
If I remember correctly he received options when he first came on with NV.
Why can't we negotiate with Adaptive to help more right now with their engineers? Tack on a percentage to royalties?
Adaptives books are private. But it is my understanding they aren't in a position to cover payroll in order to do that.
A side note on Adaptive - Next month we will make our last payment to them for old debt. All caught up.
Speaking of debts and I know one of your main concerns and it was one of Coopers also was clearing up the balance sheet. Making us stronger.
One line of thought would be the heck with that.
Spend every penny you have on the tech. We can pay these people back later after we have the big bucks.
What are your thoughts on this?
We have debated that issue many of times. I have come to the conclusion it is best to have a balance between the two.
Yes, I want to put as much as we can towards tech.
Yet what happens when all these old debts turn into lawsuits?
We are currently paying off old debts so we avoid that and at the same time funding tech progress.
Making great progress on both.
To bring out the tech only to have lawsuits popping up what would that do to us as a new company in the semi conductor business?
As far as the tech goes there is progress being made every week.
Money is going to that and I'm happy to say there is NO stumbling blocks that has got in our way.
Has other companies asked to look at our tech? If so what is your answer and their reaction to your answer. I ask this knowing you had stated we will only be working at the start with two equipment manufactures
Yes! Absolutely, we have received multible requests. We have told them at this time they need to wait. Their reaction is fine let us know. Funding will start that process of them no longer waiting as we hire tech people to deal with each request.
Why doesn't Greives, Propps, people like that been able to find funding?
You are assuming they haven't. They have led us to several leads.
Movie offers better lately? If so some think maybe you are trying to get best movie offer in order to use that for funding?Also is there coming a time where you cut your losses and just sign a current offer?
Movie offers have definetly been better. We feel it is to our advantage to wait a bit longer as we feel even better offers will come.
No. The movie money is seperate from our tech.
The reason why is how movie deals are structured.
The income you receive comes in over such a long time we want to focus on straight funding for the tech and our movie revenues icing on the cake.
A lot of investors have given up hope.
Putting yourself in their shoes, considering also the past of NV. Considering also the current non-event status.
What would you say to them to stay invested?
We are going to create a great semi conductor company!
Embarg is just the beginning of what we have planned.
I'm confident with a you will be well rewarded for staying the course.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
