I will try to be neutral and fair without being a serial ramper. Some of these are my opinion so feel free to take a pinch of salt along with.
TL: DWR (Too long don't wanna read)
- Considerable progress and are looking to hit milestone 3 soon.
- Looking for CEO + BDM but have the upperhand and won't compromise or hurry into.
- Great tech and top neuroscientist are amazed to see a hardware implementation
- Working with approx 15-20 companies in all continents
- Looking to deliver revenue upfront fees + Agreement by 1H 2016 ( I think Neil said 1Q 2016 but at the fear of misquoting I am saying 1H 2016)
- Will not be exclusive with one giant and will work with multiple companies.
- Very sound tech in my humble opinion
AGM notes
Around 16 members present at the AGM. Some superannuation funds , a few people who looked like financial advisor/brokers and a few retail holders like myself.
PVDM was not present but Adam + Neil + Mr Bolto were present.
The AGM started of with going through the resolutions and all were passed almost without any "against" motions.
The board then invited all of us to discuss and meet with them one on one.
Myself and a couple of retail shareholders engaged with Adam.
@not_jeremy I asked Prof. Adam about the difference in the graphs from the website and the prospectus. He pointed out that Brainchip learning with network grows exponentially (not logarithmic or flat) as indicated in the prospectus. So the one on the website is flawed which I would be happy to point out via email to the company.
I agreed with his assessment because he further clarified that apart from parallel processing the autonomous learning will increase the speed of the network.
Prof Adam was very humble & down to earth. He mentioned that Anil and PVDM are overseas (I think / I heard) in constant liaison with these potential partner companies and also trying to work out who could be a good CEO and BDM.
He said that chemistry between Anil and PVDM is really good and that having a great CEO is detrimental to success. He was suggestive that they have had multiple approaches from some big names but they did not proceed with said names/people. He said they were holding the upper hand atm and would like to get someone who will share a good rapport with the team and deliver the required.
One of the investors asked why/if there were many insto's on board ? What were we doing to bring them on board ?
Adam said that they have recently engaged MZ group who will handle their IR to bring insto's/Europe-US investments on board. I personally felt that he was implying that there is good interest in US/EU and it was very necessary they have coverage in those areas for large investors.
He mentioned that Europe for an example has invested billions in brain mapping projects recently and US government is taking keen interest in brain mapping by doing thier own Brain mapping project. Obama's brain mapping project had Dr Krichmar on board which gives us the advantage of being not only first movers in Asian region but also US/EU and that why the need for MZ group.
He was confident that the money will follow ( In the next 3/6 months ) the technology because both PVDM & himself have been in this field for 30 odd years + individually. For once I felt his confident exuberance did not come from his position but a sense of
sheer belief in the product and the technology they have at hand.
It is ironic that Aussie investors have not yet understood and are more likley to get on board when the $500 K will be forked up by a tech company as upfront which they expect to deliver in 3-6 months.
Training
There is no software so no bottlenecks associated with the current generation of the computers. The patent "Dynamic neural libraries" comes into play and most of the learning happens via temporal-spatial patters , STDP and spikes.
One of my fellow investor asked about aggressive timelines and why/who were setting these timelines ?
Neil responded that the timelines were set in liaison with fortune 500 and the board of BRN. He said that PVDM and others on board have a very large experience and are managing expectations by only promising what they genuinely think they can deliver.
In my understanding the timelines seem fair because I am confident that they will achieve the M3 and possibly an agreement and $500K before 1H 2016.
Neil was happy to take more tech question that required explanation via email and was very helpful. Some of the tech questions I had needed a bit more clarification and Neil was happy to imply that this was best answered via PVDM which I found to be a very good thing. Instead of giving me the ride around he was happy to take these to PVDM. Although he himself was fairly knowledgeable around the tech talk.
I asked Adam (and later Neil) about what are the potential partners and indirectly tried to find out who they are ?
He mentioned
- A Japanese car company ( Neil then on a different conversation said Japanese car company based in US)
- Top chip
manufacturers / Fortune 500 ( he specifically mentioned Qualcomm + IBM + one more large company)
- A large company (possibly Qualcomm) who has large customers (possibly Samsung) who are/will push them to adopt the tech.
- A company who has a large building with supercomputers/AI installed which is going through some problems in this area and are in primary liaison with brainchip to "solve the problem".
- A Switzerland company around "retina project"
- Asian tech companies
- Various small/medium tech companies in US.
- An oil and gas company in OZ.
- Cochlear implants for ears/eyes
He also mentioned SVP / VP of Qualcomm ( From memory) is his dear friend. They have had these discussion multiple times around recent progress in AI. Qualcomm's recent hardware based project
hasn't borne them the fruits that they wanted. I asked him about the Qualcomm funding braincorp and he almost laughed and said that they were still "stuck" even after funding similar startups. They have essentially been in a plateau for about 10 years now and are keep to get on board if we can show them meaningful progress. For once I think he admitted they are
working with Qualcomm. I confirmed this with another shareholder standing next to me to ensure I did not mishear. Whether this was a slip of tongue or upfront admission I don't know. However, I am certain they are working with Qualcomm.
Prof Adam is a
very very very humble man and I felt that his answers were very natural and not made up/influenced and he spoke from his experience.
On a separate conversation with one of the other shareholder and Neil - Neil said they are in discussion with about 15-20 companies. However he din't say it like he was boasting but he took a long hard pause as if calculating in his mind what the companies were.
Neil was very confident that we will deliver M3 and possibly partnership early next year. In my contemplation and writing this paragraph I am probably being more conservative then Neil who sort of showed confidence that can only
stem from knowing the progress first hand.
Either way a great AGM and I will look forward conversing with PVDM in the future and can't wait to lay my hands on the BDK.
(20min delay)