The influence of a founder - a Brainchip Story, page-41

It’s honestly impressive — in a perverse kind of way — just how thoroughly Brainchip has managed to alienate almost every corner of its shareholder base. It takes a remarkable level of effort and consistency to create this level of negativity amongst almost the entire shareholder base. You would almost have to admire the sheer commitment to failure if it weren’t so costly and demoralising for those of us who remain invested.

You’d almost think it was a coordinated campaign to destroy investor confidence.

Let’s break it down, because it’s taken years of calculated incompetence to get here: They’ve butchered Investor Relations beyond recognition. Emails go unanswered, concerns are dismissed, and official ASX communication — the one platform built to ensure fair disclosure — is treated like some kind of unnecessary formality. Instead, we get scraps posted on LinkedIn or whispered on podcasts while investors are left to piece together information like desperate scavengers. Brainchip has failed at IR on a wholesale level. Completely. Utterly. Systemically. It’s taken years, but they’ve achieved it. Well done, Team Brainchip. You’ve managed to suck the life out of almost all of your shareholders. That’s quite an accomplishment.

We’ve had an endless parade of CEOs, each trotted out as the latest saviour while the company quietly admits behind the scenes that nothing is ready for prime time. Every change comes with grand speeches, and yet we end up circling back to the same tired excuses: longer adoption cycles, tough markets, “building the foundation.”

The redomicile debacle perfectly exposes the dysfunction. First, an ASX release in February declaring the US move is under serious evaluation and fully endorsed by the Board. I might add they also used the ill thought excuse of fearing a leak. Then, the Chairman sits at the AGM and outright denies that a US move was ever officially on the table. Are we seriously expected to believe both versions of the truth simultaneously?

This isn’t strategy; this is amateur hour.

Director selling? Reassure the market with one hand, dump shares with the other. A masterclass in mixed messaging that screams “we know something you don’t.” And maybe they do — they certainly control the information flow tightly enough. It's the ultimate mixed message: "Trust us, but we don’t trust enough to hold." The excuse, Tax obligation selling. What next?

The Board — completely dominated by the founder’s block of votes — has insulated itself from any real consequence or accountability. Shareholders can rage, protest, write letters — but in the end, the votes are counted before we even show up. It’s a privately controlled public company. A fiefdom if you will.

They’ve created an environment where even promising technical presentations leave investors frustrated because they’re only shared selectively. The technology roadmap, for example, remains behind closed doors for most shareholders, when it should have been a proud public ASX release to reset confidence.

And now, here we sit — years into this mess — with a management team that seems either oblivious or willfully dismissive of the very people who’ve funded this circus. Retail investors who once passionately defended this company are burned out, bitter, and exhausted. The remaining defenders offer empty platitudes like "be patient" or "Sell and move on" while the stock stagnates at levels that would have been laughable even two years ago.

It begs the question: when exactly does this Board plan to acknowledge the mess they’ve made? When does the endless string of missteps get addressed with something other than hollow PR and meaningless promises of “we’ve heard you”?

At what point does someone inside the company finally wake up and say: enough? At what point does leadership finally put the interests of shareholders — actual owners of the company — at the centre of decision-making? Because if they don’t see the train wreck they’re steering straight into, then maybe they’re every bit as incompetent as many now fear.

It’s quite astonishing. Most companies couldn’t create this level of disillusionment even if they tried. But Brainchip has mastered it — slow, steady, and grinding away year after year. The damage is real. Trust has been gutted. Credibility hangs by a thread. And still, our American overlords seem to carry on as if nothing is wrong.

If they continue down this road, the only thing left will be an empty shell surrounded by what used to be a highly engaged shareholder base that once believed in the potential of this business.

Or are we staring it in the face now?