Hi all,
I'm writing to introduce myself here - this is my first post on Hotcopper
My name is Simon Hackett and I'm (amongst other things) the largest shareholder in RFX. I've got a history of involvement with companies that use advanced technology to achieve their outcomes - and RFX is a strong case in point. A bit of background about me in general, if you are interested, can be seen here:
http://www.simonhackett.com/about
I've joined Hotcopper with a view to trying to be a helpful part of the conversation about RFX, to the extent that the listing rules allow someone in my position to do that.
I want to write a few words down about my motivations for doing that, and also about the things I
can usefully talk about here and the things I
can't talk about here.
It should (I hope) be obvious why there are things I can't address in this forum - because my status (as a large shareholder and also as a board director) mean that I am an insider. This means that I cannot address topics that constitute 'price sensitive information', including corporate internal information or projections about operations and finances, or other 'forward looking statements' (in the sense that this term is used in the ASX).
Things I
can talk about here include technical topics and information, such as (for instance) about how the technology works, why it works, where it works well, where it doesn't, that sort of thing.
My personal interest, passion, and (I would argue) my core skillset... is in helping to make our unique energy storage technology
work in real world systems and environments where (sometimes) the other technical elements of those systems aren't necessarily 'expecting' a flow battery to be installed (versus a lead-acid or a Lithium based battery, for instance).
That's the reason I have been so motivated to drive the creation and development of the Redflow Battery Management System (BMS). I believe that this is a key and critical part of our success, and its been extremely gratifying to see just how much it has been able to act as the means by which installations of our battery into energy systems that used to be hard are now... easy.
I was involved in an installation with one of our installation partners the other day in Tasmania (our first install in that state), and we configured and commissioned the system there in a few hours. That sort of integration (in that case into a reasonably large and recently renovated private home, along with a solar array) used to be complicated - and now its pretty easy.
I want to point out that we are now starting to progressively release some case studies about deployments of our technology on the Redflow web site - you can find them here:
http://redflow.com/resource-category/case-studies/
I'm especially looking forward to seeing HiTech Solutions deploy their systems in the Pacific Islands based around our ZBM2 product - something they're working away on at the moment.
Following some recently announced management changes, I am personally enjoying a return to deeper involvement with our technology, with its operation, with the architecture and continued development of our BMS and with further and deeper integrations with energy systems around the world.
Please appreciate that I'm
trying out the process of being involved here, in order to try to be helpful, but not in order to be attacked or abused - nobody likes that to happen. Should I feel that I'm somehow being turned into a punching bag, I'd (naturally) reconsider my continued involvement here. Like you, I do actually have a day job - mine happens to be focussed around involvement in seeing our excellent technology succeed in real-world deployments.
I would suggest that if you do have a technical question or concern about our technology that you feel I can answer and that you'd like me to try to answer... that you start a new thread about it rather than posting into this one. Hotcopper operates a threaded discussion system, and I think such things work the best when distinct topics are placed into distinct threads, instead of having a single thread turn into a big ball of different overlapping conversations.
Again, there are things I can't answer, but I'll do my best to answer what I
am able to. Please also appreciate that if I don't instantly respond to something addressed to me, that's because I'm a real person with a real life (and I'm very busy doing my best to be a part of the solution) ... not because I'm consciously avoiding a response.
I will note, just once more, that ( due to my position ) there are some conversation topics I'm simply not allowed to be a part of here - and that I will just have to sit on my hands and not contribute to.
The summary here is that I'm a person, like you all - not a 'posting robot' - so please bear that in mind and be conscious that 'its just me' - and my motivation is just to be helpful. I hope that I can be.
Regards,
Simon Hackett
Technology Evangelist (and shareholder)
Redflow Limited
(20min delay)