Ft Fbt Discussion Threads

[chriscallen] 07/11/2018 13:50

Nick,
I believe IM is doing a great job but belief depends on faith, which by definition is not objectively subject of scientific proof. We have evidence that FBT is putting a lot of effort now into selling its technology and some evidence of wins that might be significant e.g. TownNews. What we don't have is anything to demonstrate that things are now different other than IMs statements about the reception the product has gained this year especially in the USA. But even IMs optimism isn't proof.
The market needs firm contracts before FBT will be re-rated because they are a serial provider of disappointment... nobody invests on AIM for a 10 year ride let alone that provided by FBT since its float. Were it a main market listing the BoD would have been ex years ago.
What I don't understand is that they can be coy about new customers identity on selected contracts but still do PR without a name e.g a North American contract not publish anything at all about smaller wins. It's clear that some users don't object to the publicity. So it looks like they don't ask or don't care about making public wins other than those they think are RNS required.
Incidentally they still have an allegedly Blackbird senior employee based in Manchester shown on their LinkedIn site. They post regularly there themselves so I'm coming to the conclusion they either don't read what they post or they don't care... so why should anybody else believe what they say about themselves or don't they even know who they employ?

[bonio10000] 07/11/2018 13:35

Hypergrowth and inflection points.

[nickb] 06/11/2018 18:13

Geh
Ian is doing a great job!

No deals with those large players, then to my mind our tech has been rejected.
That’s not Ian’s failure.

The ball is in those large players court now.

We await their decision.

Interesting times.

[geheimnis2] 06/11/2018 16:47

yawn - show us the money, Ian or you are just another Aziz, I'm afraid...

[nickb] 06/11/2018 15:23

Chris


Ian said

‘The conversations we’re having are with completely different scale than what they were six months ago, and six months ago they were at a different scale to the six before that, so it’s a very exciting time. I think our market is only limited by our imagination, so we have to make sure that we keep focused and we deliver our certain verticals.’


In another article Ian said

‘The U.S. market is a very attractive one to us because of its size and willingness to embrace cutting-edge technologies and new ways of working. The U.S. is not just larger, its considerably richer and more nuanced. Over the past 12 months we’ve strongly focused on growing awareness of Blackbird in North America and have spent a considerable amount of time demonstrating our technology’s unique strengths to many leading media companies. Suffice to say that the response to Blackbird has been fantastic. Jaws drop when people see how Blackbird can dramatically increase their video workflow productivity and speed to market of video content. We had meetings all the way down the West Coast last week and the reactions were no different. This is quite simply a new invention and even the West Coast tech giants have not seen this technology before.‘

[bonio10000] 06/11/2018 14:42

You mean the summer Fete stall they had in NY isn't bring home the bacon?

Who would have thought.

Nickb knows nothing about business imho.

[chriscallen] 06/11/2018 13:59

Nick, I know that sales people will always tell you that the CEOs attend but even if they do for how long and who are they seeing? Having a stand doesn't signify anything. It's why we need a CFO who will put scores on doors and makes sure what they are doing produces worthwhile results for the money spent.
Have we got hard evidence that anybody who can say yes to a say £100K contract visited FBTs stand? If so, I haven't seen even a photo with an unnamed visitor to the stand that can be identified as a CEO of a major corporation. Being visible will certainly spread the knowledge of the product but selling it when the competitors are out there already as suppliers is an uphill task and requires hard work and concentration on detail. Perhaps the new people haven't had time to find their feet yet? My worry is that FBT think the clients will come flooding to their door once the product achieves adequate visibility - if they think that they are wrong and there is plenty of evidence to show that being best does not necessarily mean you win the game.

[nickb] 06/11/2018 12:34

Hyper
The story of SS meeting with Oracles great Larry Ellison is a great one😀

[nickb] 06/11/2018 12:06

Chris

I can assure you all the big decision makers attend NAB from all over the world it’s the who’s who of the pro video world.

Absolutely crucial we attend and have a presence.

FBT Are doing everything right in understanding workflow problems and have spent years refining our platform in real world high profile work.
Emmy nomination for our MSG client workflow!

Sorry no short cut in trying to sell our technology to large customers.

Frustrated investors should look elsewhere imho.

However breakthrough deals could be an rns away.

NAB

[mcsean2164] 06/11/2018 12:03

Cc,

Can you please send your CV into fbt. You have my vote for CEO.

[chriscallen] 06/11/2018 11:28

PS Better still find a gatekeeper before you spend money on all that preparation!!!

[chriscallen] 06/11/2018 11:26

Nick, I'm sure the US focus is right. I'm not convinced that attending big shows gives real results as the bosses of the big companies are much less likely to attend than their subordinates. They don't have the time to spare from their other commitments.

So if you want to target them you need to work out what problems they are currently dealing with and which are the most important. Then look at what you are offering and what specifically on the CEO's problem list it can solve. Work on a 20 minute presentation plus 10 mins to answer questions... practice it repeatedly so that you know it inside out and that it will run for exactly 20 mins (it's difficult to stick to that and you don't want to waste 3 mins by doing it in 17 mins or overrun. I used to give people 20 mins and put an audible timer on my desk - so I knew when to stop them and was not surprised when 80% plus hadn't finished. At least I learned that they didn't know how to manage time effectively) Then find a gatekeeper who can get you a meeting. It's a lot of hard work but you can get a strike rate of better than 50:50 if you apply it.

Finally have a formal debrief to analyse exactly why you won the work (or lost it). Don't waste time crying over lost causes but figure out what if anything you failed to do that could have turned the decision so you don't make the same mistake twice.

[nickb] 06/11/2018 08:53

Strategy is to sell into the US which is the correct one in my opinion.

Lead times can be long and working in the Cloud is a new concept.

The industry move to the Cloud is such a major transition point in time we just have grab the opportunity.

FBT would be a strong sell if they just tried to increase sales with existing customers.

In acting terms
1. You have auditions with top film & TV producers in Hollywood

2. Focus on doing the local panto at home.

This is the time we have to go for it!

We need to attract investors who can accept risk.

[chriscallen] 06/11/2018 08:16

I'm not exactly sure how demonstrating Blackbird to a Shareholders Group very few of whom will actually buy the product actually benefits existing shareholders. They have attended many more trade shows this year and according to their own postings were very busy. But I have seen nothing so far that justifies the expense. So either despite what we all hope the waters are not ready for the FBT bread or it's much more difficult to convert potential customers than has yet been recognised. They need to apply "feed your successes, starve your failures" by selling more to existing customers and to contacts of those customers as a priority and recognising that cold contacts may take more than a year to get on board if they ever do.

[nickb] 05/11/2018 21:15

From twitter


Blackbird
Blackbird
@forbiddentech
We're looking forward to next week's ShareSoc event in London when our CEO, Ian McDonough, and Founder, Stephen Streater, will be discussing and demonstrating Blackbird, the media industry's most agile cloud video platform.

[geheimnis2] 05/11/2018 16:57

WHHOOOOSSSHHHH!!!

[bonio10000] 05/11/2018 12:43

Maybe if they posted the stuff online existing shareholders might also buy more?Plonkers.

[bonio10000] 05/11/2018 12:43

Fbt love a fundraising or an investors roadshow to tell all and sundry stuff about the company, other than shareholders.Great stuff. I'm sure the last placing was done off the back off reading off the RNS list.

[chriscallen] 05/11/2018 06:58

Rick Rogers
Vice President at TownNews.com

Another day, another major group of launches for our BLOX Now mobile app product line. TownNews launched 15 more apps into the Apple and Google stores yesterday. We have now launched 48 apps in a few short months, and have 40+ more in production. You can learn more about the BLOX Now App at this link: hxxps://lnkd.in/egqDmpg

[sideshowbull] 04/11/2018 20:35

News and even the most insipid information constantly is the only way AIM shares will survive.

I have had this conversation before.

This is tech for the future so involve the "target market"

BWTFDIK


PS

FBT is now the only AIM share I hold from my own choice.

sideshow

[nickb] 04/11/2018 16:55

I think I am right in saying that will be the first private investor presentation in a very long while and Ian’s first.
Maybe it will accompany News

[sharesoc] 04/11/2018 15:27

Forbidden Technologies present at our growth company seminar in London on the 14th November, may be of interest to current shareholders or potential investors:

[nickb] 04/11/2018 14:22

Just issuing rns’s to pump the stock price isn’t the decent thing to do and it will only fall back.

Company needs to win deals that earn real revenue to justify higher and higher share price.

Blackbird awareness in the video industry appears incredibly low still.

A breakthrough deal is needed
Imho