Ann: Business Update, page-68

I have just watched Cat, Mark and Tony speak and I have to say they don't convey a confident message. All three have sentences punctuated with er, um or ah. It makes them sound poor communicators. Their message needs to be up market, like they live and breath the subject matter 24/7. In the early days of Bill Gates he just spoke like it was like a second language.

Remember these guys are pitching to top tier US companies that expect a level of dynamic room holding capability. This is suppose to be cutting edge technology that will transform these US businesses and push them ahead of the pack. I am sure that the technically people in the US organisation love to talk to these guys. The US companies have internal and external "sandboxes" where they test the new technology. flamingo are just one of these guys.

I worked in the On-Line travel space for 7 plus years. Every week we would discuss what new product or offer was moving the conversion percentage from 2% to 3%. These guys aren't talking about how they are moving the conversion rate or A/B testing where there is a significant change in buyer behavior or how far down the buying pipeline the clients are travelling with and within flamingo in a proper controlled environment. They talk about insurance but they don't talk about what are some of the actual problems that are being solved. Complexity of product offer, complexity of T&C's, level of engagement, price or brand reputation. These are all hurdles that insurance companies have to over come to sell insurance to clients.

Remember this is a "Sales Pitch" because anything that the company puts out publicly indicates to potential clients how easy or difficult the company will be to deal with. Potential clients also want to make sure these guys are going to be around for the long term. IMO no large US company is going to put up an Opex worth say $500k to integrate this company if they go broke in 12 months because they ran out of money. The old adage is "No body gets fired for buying "IBM"" These guys are the opposite to IBM. Again in IMO they should focus on one or two smaller Australian companies they can win and ensure their future.

This brings me to my last point. Again having worked for a listed company where the share price is in decline makes people nervous. Will I have a job, should I start looking now. It's only natural but it means people are not focused. Again large US corporate know this and they use the weakness of the vendor to extract as much value without paying or paying little. This IMO is why the "sales cycle" is so long at the moment. They would be better off de-listing, and focus on a smaller but potentially better short/medium term client base. This monthly updates is "killing" them because they have nothing to report and nothing means "Bad". Quarterly updates takes the pressure off, but decreases their exposure. Two edge sword.

They have good ideas, but haven't done the "hard yards" of building that client base and then going public to expand. Instead they have taken "the free lunch" but it's biting them in the backside now.

Bottom line, I don't think Cat is the right person for the job and it will take a change at the top to give the company a new "honey moon" period for the next 12 months will they burn through their cash or build a small client base. Otherwise people will be sharpening their resumes and thanking everyone for the "Wonderful ride at Flamingo AI"

If their is evidence that disproves my theories please reply. I think the company is running on just goodwill and not a sustainable business model.