I know many of you are hungry for updates. Frequent updates. I think it would be helpful to shine a little light – a little reality – on where VNUE is at in its development. I know you would like a lot more information and communication, but it can be challenging at times. And, I can’t just go answer a bunch of questions in a Q and A or anything like that because we do have competitors emerging and validating the market, and I do not want to be put on the spot.
There are a lot of opinions in here, which I will clearly note, combined with factual information.
First – I am six years into this venture, and have been a straight shooter since day one. I am not doing this for my health – I could have a rosy corporate gig somewhere else and go home at five and kick my feet up. But that ain’t me. I will take the roller coaster, thank you very much!
Those of you who have been with me for a long time know this. I am as dedicated as they come if not more than 99% of the population. I work night and day in my passion (music and tech) and I was motivated to do this with VNUE because I truly do want to change the world, and I think we have the ability to do it. For each of you that invested, you put your trust in me and into the company, and for that main reason it drives me even harder to make it successful. Moreover I understand fully what we are doing and why we do it, because I am a musician (my entire life) and understand that world better than most tech guys who try and jump into the music business.
So let’s start with StageIt. This was with a huge amount of effort, time and money – and a longer than we expected and more expensive – acquiring StageIt. This was an opportunity that fell right into our consumer products and in fact our B2B products (Soundstr) – which I will explain later. It took six months, and in what we thought would be pivotal – brought real revenue to the company, something that we had not seen since before COVID – the market barely blipped! And I will give you my opinion on that too, in a few. The acquisition of StageIt fits into our broader strategy in terms of revenue and rights management opportunities in the business.
What maybe you are not aware of is that we are not a huge faceless company with an army of people to work in big parallel paths spending huge piles of cash. This company has survived and even thrived to a degree on a small, focused staff of top-level industry professionals, and has been extremely thinly funded until thankfully we developed a relationship with our investment bank, Network1 Financial and GHS. This was a HUGE moment for the company, getting away from the dilutive and predatory convertible note lenders, and the recent commitment for $10mm is fuel in the tanks that will help us get to the next level (also will be discussed in a bit).
Importantly – you should not see this as a dilutive event. This is where we have the funding to build value by execution. With no funding, we cannot execute. For the last several months, we have been hampered because the StageIt deal took so long, our existing S1 effectively timed out (and which was barely utilized). So we had to put another one together.
Those of you have been with me for a while now know that I was able to turn around the company from a low share price of something like .0003 to a high last year of around .04. That’s an insane amount of value building and I will do it again. How did I do it? Execution, elimination of debt, reduction of convertible debt, etc. Razor sharp focus. This was a truly brutal process and the result showed in the share price.
And this was after my first rough couple of years catching a full two years worth of financials up from prior management; digging the company out of a lot of bad debt; acquiring set.fm; acquiring Soundstr; and personally making deals such as Rob Thomas with Matchbox Twenty, which is now set for 2023 (please no monkeypox pandemic!)
Now, what you will again see, is that with fuel in the tanks, we can build the value, execute and end up with hopefully a higher market valuation than before. We have always been disadvantaged because our level of funding has been so low. That is absolutely changing. I am sure you all know we are undervalued, too. If this was a private company, our valuation would easily be in the low to mid eight figure range. Easily. This is again an issue with the OTC markets platform, particularly on the pinks.
And, during this time – when I was working on reducing convertible debt, reducing debt overall, etc. – we had applied to be uplisted to the QB. Long story short, the OTC jerked us around for months, providing various reasons they would not uplist us (mainly they were worried about the convertible debt), even though – on paper – we met all the requirements and paid the fee. By the time we addressed the concerns and after having gone back to them several times just to be told they wanted even more (translation: me working day and night to get the convertible debt off the books and make them happy), the price point had once again slipped below a penny. Argh!! Can you feel the frustration? So it wasn’t because of lack of trying, believe me. It was incredibly frustrating and still is.
And this is exactly why my strategy is to uplist straight to Nasdaq.
I have made no secret about this. It is where our company needs to be – and partly (in my opinion) is why the shares don’t respond like you think they would. We need to be on one of the big trading platforms, which will in turn attract the right analysts and coverage, and in turn, more eager investors.
And by the way – no, we are not planning a reverse split. It ain’t in the works. Our plan, however, is to channel a large event/deal along with a $15/20mm raise, with an uplist. That’s the only time we would reasonable consider a reverse split. It is the only time it makes sense. We all know that if you do it on the pinks or QB, the price just slips further.
So, again for those who do know me, they know that I believe in organically getting the price where it needs to be through execution and focus, and then only taking a step like that when there is a real and bona fide reason to do so.
Further to that, my commitment as it has been is to limit dilution as much as possible – but at the same time execute so that the share value builds. Dilution is just fine if you grow the pie – and therefore the slices are worth more. I am and always have been very cautious. And hey, as I have said before – this is a long-term play. It is not an overnight thing. Lots of folks sold Apple before it went through the roof (hell I wish I had bought it – as a longtime Apple user and Steve Jobs fan).
I am not offering you stock advice, but you see my personality, my drive and may passion – and that of my team, and with the tech we are working on, you can make your own informed decisions. And again – my opinion should NOT be used to buy or sell VNUE shares, but rather so you understand a little of the philosophy that I operate under, as well as my peers in the company. Our personality if you will.
And, as you know, we have gone after certain bad actors that have caused unnecessary dilution by taking advantage us, and I will continue to do so. I’m a fighter, if you haven’t figured that one out yet. No one is going to take advantage of this company, my team, or me, and the only reason we didn’t go after them before is we didn’t have the financial resources to do so. But we are getting our legs now…
In short though, this is not your fly-by-night OTC public company that puts out bi-weekly press releases on some insanity, but rather a group of highly experienced, passionate folks that come from the tech and music sector that want to make the world a better place with extremely complex and sophisticated technology, and therefore, the business we are pursuing is something that takes time for adoption, particularly Soundstr.
What many of you also may not understand about Soundstr is that it is truly complex. It is not something that you can hire some guy like a used car salesman go out and try and sell. Traditional strategies like magazine ads are not useful. This is relationship driven, and the music and entertainment business is a relationship oriented business to its core. This platform requires C level conversations, which are happening frequently, but it does take time.
Not only is Soundstr complex in regard to the sophisticated functionality and the platform itself, which has been enhanced significantly in the last several months – but also in the path that we must take in order for it to be widely adopted, and the strategy to do so. And, those paths (multiple paths) are not those that can be done in a day, week or a month. It takes time – and it takes time on multiple fronts.
We are in fact pursuing several VERY large deals. But I can’t talk about that yet, because we are public. And these deals take TIME, planning, and importantly a decent amount of “dry powder” (funding), which we haven’t had until fairly recently.
I do always release news to you when we have incremental successes and something to actually discuss, but you are just going to have to wait and when we have something more substantial or big to talk about publicly, believe me, we will. Until then – hey, if you want to sell – that’s all you. But if it tells you ANYTHING at all about my commitment to this company, and to you, I have never sold a single share of VNUE stock. Not one. Ever.
There are always naysayers out there, and on these OTC platforms especially, those who deliberately try to foster doubt into the heads of investors, in an effort to manipulate the stock price (yet another reason I am pushing hard to uplist to Nasdaq). Nothing in fact fires me up more than someone who tells me “you can’t do that,” or “it can’t be done,” or worse yet, “you don’t know what you are doing,” so go right on ahead and criticize me for my lack of Twitter acumen (I hate Twitter and it is why I generally do not get on social media unless I absolutely have to), or if you believe you are the end all be all in the area of MRT and our Soundstr MDM Platform, by all means, please share your knowledge with me, and I will be happy to keep an open mind. I am actually always open to other ideas – but I do believe we have a very good handle on where we are at in VNUE, and are on the right path, even if we cannot share every single detail with you.
Case in point. I will never forget my very first investor meeting, for my first startup in 2000. I had invented what was called “Rapid Network Deployment,” which automated the configuration of network devices. I pitched it to a roomful of investors, packed in fact. One guy asked, with a smirk, “Why hasn’t anyone else done this?” And my answer was simply this: “Because they didn’t figure it out. I did.” The rest was history – we raised $12mm in under three months, and eventually the company sold to EMC Corp.
So, you can either believe we know what we are doing – or not. Personally, for those of you who have been on this journey with me, I hope you do. I hope that my efforts and that of my team will make your investment have a 10x or more return. Patience is a virtue.
And finally, quite frankly, anyone who wants to criticize me for continuing to practice my art – music – I will not use the phrase I usually use to tell you what you can do with that comment.
The music that I play keeps me sane, I’ve done it my entire life, and I am not going to stop. It’s that, or a shrink’s couch, and I would personally rather sling a guitar than pay a shrink. A happy, relaxed and focused CEO is a good CEO. And, at the end of the day, I hope my music touches people in a positive manner. Take it or leave it.
I hope this has given you a little more insight as to where we are with VNUE, and you see the future we are creating. In the last year, with StageIt, and the partnership with Network1 and GHS, this is a monumental game-changer that the company has needed.
Think of us like a little Skunk Works. McDonnell Douglas’ famous top secret development shop for the most sophisticated aircraft in the world. The tan-ish building in Palmdale, CA that looks boring as all hell, and for a long time sits completely silent, but BAM out pops the SR-71 Blackbird.
Thanks for your support and belief in VNUE. And remember – Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Safe Harbor Statement
This blog may contain forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those anticipated or expected, including statements related to the amount and timing of expected revenues and any payment of dividends on our common stock, statements related to our financial performance, expected income, distributions, and future growth for upcoming quarterly and annual periods and the other risks set forth in Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q as filed from time to time. Actual results and the timing of certain events could differ materially from those projected in or contemplated by the forward-looking statements due to a number of factors. We have incurred and will continue to incur significant expenses in the expansion of our existing and new service lines, noting there is no assurance that we will generate enough revenues to offset those costs in both the near and long term. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or other information contained herein. Stockholders and potential investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.