@dguru88 - 100% agree there. If you look at other companies where the CEO really cares about the share price, you'll see behaviours such as:
- Constant announcements, some or many of which are questionable
- CEO always seems to put a positive spin within announcements or in the media
- Trying to specifically comment on share price movements or direction indirectly
Then, you have many companies where the CEO is not the founder, and many (but not all) of such companies have lost their purpose and thus the CEOs in there really are there to earn a pay check for a number of years and say they've done some great things.
Then there's Atomo, and while I have no medical background and thus don't know the actual quality of the devices, there are things that they do (are) differently (quite differently) to many other companies:
- The CEO is actually the founder, and started the company long before it was listed. The CEO also has a significant holding of the shares. If you take a look at companies where the founders leave shortly after listing (e.g. SplitIt), their share price often just takes a hit.
- The CEO looks like he doesn't even care about the share price (maybe he doesn't even look at it that often), because it's the secondary market anyways and he's not looking to raise any money anytime soon. In fact, they firstly prioritised the repayment of their debt so they can be truely free
- In the company announcements, the tone is pretty much always neutral, even when they have FDA approvals incoming
- In press conferences, John Kelly continues to hold a level head and not give off an overly optimistic vibe. His vibe has always been something along the lines of "we think our products are of high quality, so give it a try, and then we can talk", rather than trying to overly "sell"
- The CEO actually had personal reasons for how he started Atomo's devices - it's because of his daughter having some health conditions and what the doctors were doing at the time to draw blood just didn't make any sense to John, and so he created Atomo to make things that actually make sense for their intended purpose (this speaks volumes about purpose)
- Whilst many other companies that manufacture COVID-19 rapid antigen kits are focused on just that, John really is focused on the longer run, the larger picture - and you can see their vision in their annual report (also speaks volumes)
- The CEO is not only a great speaker, but he is very technical as well (best of both worlds, which is also rare)
Sure there is the question about why they aren't winning contracts left right and center during a period when this should be easy. However, contracts require relationships, and I think John is winning relationships left right and center through doing trials and through literally being in so many media channels recently. Good relationships are way harder to establish compared to sizeable contracts, however good relationships will give back an abundance of opportunities in the longer run (you just don't know when or in what form those opportunities will appear). There's a good saying: "dig your well before you're thirsty". Atomo is currently digging its well, while many other companies are already thirsty, but with a shallow well.
