TORONTO, April 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Patriot One Technologies Inc. (TSX-V: PAT) (OTCQX: PTOTF) (FRANKFURT: 0PL) (“Patriot One” or the “Company”), is pleased to issue the following letter from Patriot One CEO, Peter Evans.
Dear Shareholders,
It has been 90 days since my last newsletter. As committed previously, our focus is to move to regular, monthly communications and I am pleased to share some exciting insights on developments since our last investor update.
As some have shared with me, we have been noticeably “quiet” in announcements and news. This is intentional. First, my primary focus for the business has been to establish repeatable, predictable, and sustainable revenues for the Company, and only then announce material customer wins and product launches that are the source of these revenues. Second, we have recently started releasing targeted communications into the market with blogs, articles, website content and other communications, increasing our visibility in the industry. Many of these updates can be found on our website, which is currently undergoing a redesign. Investors can expect to see more communications to the broader market as described above with product, customer, and partner announcements.
Quarterly Observations – A Deeper Dive
My last letter focused on my observations on the Company after a month in the CEO role, taking inventory of the market, the products and the people. This past quarter has been highly focused on a deeper dive into customer engagement. Dietmar and I have been crisscrossing the United States, with the support of our new sales team and the growing pipeline generated by our recent marketing efforts (more on this later), to meet with various potential customers, industry experts and partners. The purpose has been to understand customer business needs, complete site surveys, negotiate pilots and contract agreements, and gain further insights into customer requirements for broader deployments and future roadmap requirements.
The process to close these opportunities is not simple. Just because a shooting occurs in one store, does not mean that retail chain will buy the next day. A typical engagement will progress through site-surveys, trials and pilots (sometimes in multiple locations), a redesign of the customer’s security operations, IT integration, proposal negotiation and contracting, and budgeting. It’s a complex sales cycle. In all cases, we are working with our customers on pragmatic and phased deployments in alignment with their business needs. These longer engagement opportunities have allowed us to understand their needs for now and in the future. Despite this, we have been building pipeline and closing new customer contracts.
In addition to ongoing customer activities, last week we hosted a highly successful Demonstration Day in Las Vegas. Attendees ranged from a security consulting organization for major pro sports leagues, to representatives from the entertainment industry, to a number of casinos. These demo-day activities have led to requests for pilots at three pro sports arenas and a major global entertainment and casino organization, along with receiving valuable industry-specific feedback on refinements to the product to allow for wider deployment applications. I was pleased with the excitement from the attendees as well as the insights from security experts on how to best align with security operational considerations. Most importantly, the product performed extremely well, exceeding expectations for those customers’ specific needs.
Alignment to customer needs is critical. Through the many customer engagements in the past few months, it’s become very clear to me that customers have varying needs for a weapons detection solution, whether it’s the level of detection, alerts, costs, or their security operations. Our product fits some of these opportunities extremely well, and others poorly. By getting laser focused on those customers where there is a tight alignment of our capabilities to their needs, we are increasing interest and accelerating the sales cycle.
The Market Opportunity – A Growing Pipeline
The market opportunity for our core solution is very solid.
- 100% of all companies I have met with are interested and seeking solutions. This is rare. My experience with past technology companies has been that approximately one third of all prospects are interested, one third are not, and the rest are “exploring”. I have yet to meet any “tire-kickers” for our Patriot One solutions, or those who say that the solution is not for them.
- The quality and quantity of our pipeline has changed rapidly over the past 60-90 days. As mentioned in prior communications, we have been scrubbing through the pipeline and re-qualifying each and every account. Through these and other activities, we have been rebuilding the pipeline with high-quality engagements. At present, we have a number of customers in the late-stage pipeline – in site-survey, pilot, or contracting stages – that have been developed in the last 60 days. These opportunities comprise organizations in our target markets – such as major sports organizations, casinos, commercial property, and manufacturing and distribution – and are a reflection of the narrowed focus that we initiated back in January. It should be noted that there are any number of actions that could delay or cancel these opportunities; therefore, this is not a committed forecast, but instead an indication of the Company’s focus, momentum and a rekindled market.
- Unfortunate incidents such as those of March 22nd in Boulder, and increased mass shootings overall, have created a significant inbound interest for our VRS-Weapons and VRS-Disturbance products. Companies that have deployed camera technology from Axis, Hanwha, and Avigilon (now Motorola) are now looking to deploy our VRS solutions due to the lack of quality artificial intelligence (AI) in those existing camera solutions. Said another way, those companies make solid cameras, but they lack advanced AI to solve complex problems. These customers are specifically seeking cost-effective solutions to increase weapons detection capabilities at a distance using their existing multi-vendor camera systems. These organizations may or may not be ready for a full MSG solution at their entranceways, but have expressed interest in a quick-to-deploy, cost-effective solution to provide enhanced protection for retail, commercial property, and schools. We are currently discussing with three states protection of schools and government buildings, and with multiple retail organizations.
In summary, the demand for our solutions has not diminished, and we are seeing improvement in the quality of engagements and resulting pipeline.
Our Products and Technology – One Size Does Not Fit All
Our MSG and VRS solutions are working well in our target markets. Recognizing that our products are new applications and disruptive technology, we are putting in the work up front to work to not only deploy the technology, but to work with customers to define or redefine their security operations. Customer input continues to shape our future roadmap to enhance the flexibility, effectiveness, useability, and intelligence of our solutions.
The flexibility of our solution has also allowed us to address a number of diverse applications and environments where our competitors’ products were not able to operate due to physical or environmental issues.
After meeting with many organizations in multiple industries, it’s clear that the right solution for our customers is not a simple matter of selling a pair of MSG towers. There is a complex equation to work through to balance the detection rate, the alert rate, the costs, the security operations model, spectator throughput, and environmental conditions. We are uniquely positioned to address these concerns with the flexibility of our technology and the ability to offer customized solutions versus the one-size-fits-all force-fit of our competitors.
Ramping Up Our Sales & Marketing
- Our sales organization is now being fed by the marketing activities launched in January, generating quality leads on a daily basis. Further, we are continuing to hire top talent in sales and marketing in order to serve the growing pipeline of sales opportunities.
- Our customers, prospects, and investors will begin to see the rollout of new content, campaigns, a revamped website, and new and energized branding focused on promoting the customer experience versus promoting our technology. The website is being redesigned and will continue to be enhanced; content is being updated; and you will see an increase in our voice in the marketplace via blogs, infographics, news stories, and other content, which drives more inbound traffic and leads. Please watch for these changes in the upcoming weeks and months.
- We have signed three new partners in the last month and have pilots with all.
In Conclusion
In my last newsletter, I wrote to shareholders to introduce myself and present my initial views and opinions on the market. Over the past 90 days, and after 50 days on the road, and after meeting with numerous major pro sports leagues, dozens of stadiums, a number of global entertainment organizations, and Fortune 100 companies, I am more convinced than ever that the demand for our solutions remains strong. Looking forward, we have a number of initiatives underway as we continue to gain traction in the market and expand our market presence.
As committed, the next communications will be an investor Q&A webinar, scheduled for early May. We welcome all questions from our investors on that call and will also focus on addressing the evolving vision and market opportunities for the Company, and key customers who are adopting our vision and solutions to fundamentally change their business models.
We have completely rebuilt the Patriot One executive team, and I am pleased with the leadership, innovation, and, most importantly, the “hustle” that this team is showing. We have a culture that is now “Customer Obsessed” with a focus on driving customer engagement, closure, and customer delight with our solutions. Our engineering team’s responsiveness has been outstanding, allowing us to iterate quickly on customer needs and offer compelling and customized proposals. We have keen insights on the right way to position the product in the right environments to ensure customer outcomes and satisfaction, and a growing pipeline of name-brand, quality opportunities. Our focus will continue to be on customers, driving revenue, and providing pragmatic delivery and execution for the business.
Finally, the best way that I personally can drive shareholder value and stock price is to deliver revenues. That is our priority.
Best regards,
Peter
For further information, please contact:
Patriot One Technologies Inquiries
info@patriot1tech.com
www.patriot1tech.com
Media Contact
Andy Murphy
amurphy@threeringsinc.com
CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER STATEMENT:
No securities exchange has reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to system sales, product development, licensing, commercialization and regulatory compliance issues and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as “will”, “may”, “should”, “anticipate”, “expects”,” believes”, and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations include counterparty default and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements only as expressly required by applicable law.
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