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Voyant
Adds Heavy Hitter to Lineup |
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There's
an old saying "You can judge a person's character by the company they
keep." However, I wonder if you can judge a company's character by
the people they keep. I think you really can, which is why I think even
more highly of Voyant today.
Maybe
you saw this morning's news release regarding Voyant
International's (OTCBB: VOYT) newest staff addition. What you probably
didn't
see was the letter from CEO Dana Waldman, which came out just a few minutes
ago. I reprinted the letter below (which was largely about the press release),
but I'll hit the highlights within my discussion.
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Small
Company Taps Big-Name Experience |
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Like
I mentioned above, I think a small company's credibility can be gauged
by the quality of people they recruit, or the caliber of people who choose
to work there. That's why I was impressed by Voyant naming Jay Elliot
as
the General Manager of Software Products and Services. The position also
makes him the President of the company's RocketStream data transfer acceleration
subsidiary.
 Normally
those 'new hire' stories don't faze me ...somebody has to work there
after all. I thoroughly read the news all the same though, and I'm glad
I did. Why? Elliot is about as qualified as anybody could be. Check
out some of his past positions:
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Senior
Vice President of Operations at Apple Computer (oversaw the development
of the original Macintosh software, which raised Apple's revenue from $150M
to over $2B)
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Director
of IBM's 16,000-employee Santa Teresa software laboratory
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Director
of Intel's California operations.
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Founder
of
Migo Software (the software is now distributed by several industry-leading
companies, including Kingston, HP, and Memorex)
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CEO of
San Francisco Studios
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President
of Acclaim Entertainment
 Intel,
IBM, and Apple? The guy could probably get a great job anywhere
we wanted to, and I suspect money is not one of his concerns. So where
does he choose to use his talent? Voyant International.
So,
here's my not-entirely-rhetorical question....why would a highly-employable
guy like Jay Elliot choose to take over the helm of a young upstart?
Here's
my answer - he sees something good down the road, and wants to get involved
in it now.
My
point is, if it's compelling enough for a guy like Elliot to embrace, maybe
there's even more to Voyant's opportunity than we first realized.
On
that note...
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RocketStream
Back in Focus |
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The
fun part about a multi-pronged company like Voyant is keeping tabs on their
current focus. Our
coverage began largely founded on RocketStream - their proprietary
software that makes the Internet faster. Then, as the aviation broadband
thing materialized, we turned our attention there.
 With
the addition of Elloitt as RocketStream's chief though, I think we need
to keep up with both going forward.
For
any newcomers, RocketStream maximizes the way data is transmitted over
the web. I'm sure all of you have seen the 'http://'
in front of every website's address. Some of you may have even seen an
'ftp://' prefix. Both are frameworks for sending digital data over the
web, and then reconverting it back into a useful format.
The
problem is, they're painfully slow. They were never designed to
transport the massive amounts of data we're sending via the Internet now
(like songs, book-sized files, and even movies). We can increase the
Internet's capacity - or fatten the pipeline - all you want...http
and ftp still will only be able to use a small fraction of that capacity.
RocketStream,
on the other hand, can almost fully utilize the web's transmission capacity.
As a result, it's able to send information up to 200 times faster
than current technologies allow.
The
potential is clear. And, the technology works. A division of the Nielsen
Ratings organization has already purchased the technology. They also have
several partners (like
Proginet) they're working with on getting RocketStream into the mainstream.
In other words, the product is deliverable - now it just has to be marketed
and managed. This is where Jay Elliot comes in.
 I
think the addition of Elliot will accomplish two things for Voyant at this
critical juncture. One, given Elliot's experience, I have to think
he has a lot of personal contacts that could turn into business relationships.
And two, again given Elliot's experience, I'm quite certain
he'll know how to further penetrate this market.
On
that note, Waldman briefly added one thing I want to make sure you don't
miss.
He
said in his letter that Q2's sales of RocketStream were higher than in
previous quarters. He was referring to the quarter that ended on the last
day of June, which hasn't been reported yet. Anyway, I think he may have
understated the significance of those impending results.
For
all intents and purposes, Voyant is a start-up. Meaningful revenue
didn't start coming in until Q1 (calendar first quarter) of this fiscal
year. For the company to tell us Q2 was better than Q1 - given the situation
- is an outstanding sign of viability. I'm looking forward to any top line
increase, as a little more revenue could generate a lot of excitement for
this small cap company.
Anyway,
here's the CEO's letter.
| July 22, 2008
Dear shareholders,
It seems like
only yesterday that we held our second annual shareholders’ meeting, but
so much has happened that time seems to fly by. I’d like to update you
on some of the more recent events here at Voyant.
First, I’d like
to tell you about another new executive who has joined Voyant. I’m very
pleased to welcome Jay Elliot to our team. Jay will serve in a dual capacity
as both General Manager of Software Products and Services and as President
of RocketStream.
Jay is a true
Silicon Valley legend, with a career history steeped in the growth of the
Valley’s software industry. In his early days, he was a programmer at IBM,
quickly rising to become director of IBM’s entire Santa Teresa software
laboratory. He then went to work for Andy Grove, directing Intel’s California
operations. Jay also worked directly with Steve Jobs as Senior VP of Operations
at Apple Computer, where he oversaw the development of Apple’s flagship
Macintosh software and was instrumental in growing a $2 billion business.
I think you can understand why we’re so excited to have Jay with us here
at Voyant.
As some of you
have heard me say before, we believe that the value of our RocketStream
technology is most compelling when it is harnessed to solve larger system-level
solutions and problems, not simply as a discrete product. Having said that,
I’m pleased to report that revenues for the discrete RocketStream product
continue to grow, and sales for the second quarter, while still modest,
were significantly ahead of prior quarters and moving in the right direction.
Another benefit
of our focus on embedding RocketStream software into other applications
is that our customers will constitute a virtual sales channel for us. As
those companies sell their products, they are actually selling RocketStream.
Our recent Proginet announcement is an example of this model.
With the addition
of Jay, we are accelerating the evolution of our software business. Jay
will be working on a whole array of software businesses focused on the
intersection of digital content and technology. Principal among these are
RocketStream-related business, where we can leverage the technology we
have already developed. However, Jay will also be evaluating and executing
on a variety of exciting new software product and service opportunities,
some of which we’ve been pursuing for a while and some of which are new
to Voyant. The coming months should see us moving in some terrific new
directions.
As part of this
organizational enhancement, Jay will also take over the day-to-day operations
of RocketStream as its president. Jay’s many years of industry experience
will be invaluable in fulfilling this charter.
RocketStream Founder
Scott Fairbairn will operate independently as a consultant and coordinate
with the Voyant management team to evaluate and launch new businesses that
leverage the RocketStream engine. Scott will continue to serve on Voyant’s
Board of Directors. As part of this transition, Herschel Stiles will become
Voyant’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
In parallel with
these structural changes to our software business, the rest of the Voyant
family of businesses continues to progress at a brisk pace. We recently
announced that our Aviation Broadband solution just completed the first
in a series of flight tests. As part of such a large-scale system development,
you can imagine that there are many technical challenges to be worked out.
These first tests exceeded our performance expectations, and we are quite
pleased with the results. We will continue with this development program
as expeditiously as possible. In parallel, we continue to meet with various
airlines, regulatory agencies, and other potential partners, and some of
you may have noticed our new website dedicated to this business at http://www.voyant.aero.
Finally, I wanted
to let you know that we are in the process of restructuring our Investor
Relations program to reach out to potential new investors and to provide
our current shareholders with the best transparency possible. We are implementing
a new messaging campaign, increasing our media and technology industry
presence, engaging some new external resources, and even starting an industry
blog (http://voyantblog.net). Please
continue to contact us at anytime through e-mail at investorrelations@voyant.net.
It remains a very
exciting time at Voyant, and the summer months have us as busy as ever.
Please join me in welcoming Jay Elliot to the team, and I hope your passion
for Voyant continues to be as strong as ours.
Sincerely,
Dana Waldman
CEO
P.S.: As always,
please remember that in this letter, we make forward-looking statements
about our future expectations, plans and prospects. There is a risk that
the actual results we achieve will differ from those forward-looking statements.
To better understand these risks and the reasons that our results may differ
from our statements, please read the “Forward Looking Statements Note”
on the Investor page of our website and our filings with the Securities
Exchange Commission, especially Forms 10KSB and 10QSB. |
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Got comments, questions or suggestions?
Send 'em on over: Email
the Editor
If you wish to send a written request
or inquiry, please send it to our physical address:
TGR Group, LLC
4653 Carmel Mtn Rd Suite 308 #402
San Diego, CA 92130 |
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| Out
With the Old & In With the New - StockGroup is Now Stockhouse |
| It
didn't really bother me, mostly because I was intimately familiar with
the company and its proprietary website from the onset. But, I can see
how it might be a welcome change to investors. What I'm talking about is
the logical - though unexpected by me - name change for the company formerly
known as Stockgroup Information Systems Inc. They've changed their name
to Stockhouse
Inc....which is the same name as their primary website.
No
biggie; the operation won't change from an investor's or a site user's
perspective. This just brings everything under one umbrella, so there won't
be any confusion about which site you need to go to to find information
- it'll all be at the same site.
Oh,
there's a ticker change too. Don't use 'SWEB' anymore following the switch.
The new ticker will be 'STKH'.
The
official word is that the name change (and I assume website changes) will
take place in third quarter.
On
a side note, you may have noticed their site called Small Cap Center (smallcapcenter.com)
has been diverting you to Stockhouse.com. That's by design. The new stockhouse.com
site can do everything smallcapcenter did, and more. Also, some of you
have inquired to use about how you can get the smallcapcenter.com back.
We don't know - it's not our site even though the names and focal points
sure are aligned. We recommend you embrace the stockhouse.com site. It's
really cool once you learn how it all works. |
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| Applied
DNA (Shareholder Meeting To Be Rescheduled |
| Just
an FYI - Applied
DNA (APDN) is going to reschedule their annual shareholder's meeting.
It was going to take place on September 16th in Stony Brook, New York.
The company has postponed the event though, and will release a new meeting
time and location in the near future.
The
September 16th meeting was for shareholders on record as of July 15th.
That record date, however, will not apply for the rescheduled meeting;
a new date of record will also be announced soon. |
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