Earnings Season - Back Again! w/ @MannishWaata

Starting point is 00:00:00 hi guys welcome to earning season i'm randy rowe at rt rowe on twitter and i'm denner hall at h denner on twitter and we are bringing another earning season to you this week so you guys at RTRow on Twitter. And I'm Danai Hall at HDana on Twitter. And we are bringing another earnings season to you this week. So you guys know earnings season, you know that by now, I hope you guys will be familiar with earnings season. If it's your first episode, welcome. We talk about business,

Starting point is 00:00:36 we talk about finance, we talk about it in a way, hopefully that any and everybody can understand. So it's not like, it's not like the business news it's like the conversation after the business and one of the things that we do a lot of is that we have we have we try to have um you know industry people if we can finance people ceos blah blah blah we've done a couple of interviews we've had great interviews and this week we are going to do

Starting point is 00:01:02 another one but before we jump into that i just want to touch on the market i asked then i right before we start a couple seconds if anything important happened on the market while we are out and oh not really i mean of course results are out yeah but we can cover that in our usual to be honest yeah so i don't think there's anything right now that we can just talk about to until later because today is an important episode, guys. Yeah, very, very important episode. So what we're doing is we're pausing that entire market review that we've been doing and we're interviewing one specific person that I know the long-time listeners will be

Starting point is 00:01:35 very, very familiar with. The return of the one and only Laren Peart, Mr. Manish Wata himself. That himself. Greetings, greetings, greetings thanks thanks thanks for having me again guys all right guys so that's laren mr blue that line the last time you were here i didn't make a big deal about the people that need to get a follow what your twitter status is um i try not to i try not to watch them But the last time I checked I had a little over 1500 followers

Starting point is 00:02:08 So some good growth I think Yeah you're still like me I don't pay attention to it I'm saying this right now going through Twitter just to check Yeah you have 1600 followers At the time you had like 100 I'm taking all the credit for that

Starting point is 00:02:23 Alright no problem I mean he's been doing a lot on himself doing randy yes yeah that's the truth i really can't take that credit lion has more than put himself out there so lion has been working on a bunch of stuff lion which one you want to talk about first line can i look like if me here say a cure corona i'm in a surprise no no um well yeah i guess we talked about um citizens response jamaica first um so which which has absolutely like blown up and mushroomed into um something i didn't even think it would have you know or gone places that I didn't even think it would so it started out with me seeing a video on Twitter big up to Twitter of a doctor explaining just how important ventilators were and then I asked some friends of mine you know or just asked

Starting point is 00:03:20 around you know you know like what's the situation they've been to ventilators in jamaica found out i've only had 35 and i thought that was absolutely horrible wow and being the 35 yeah five three million in the entire country yeah in the entire country you know i asked that question sorry to cut you there but you know i've been begging to find that question because it was a major thing for me 35 3 million yeah my god at the time yeah um so yeah so when i found out being the the crazy person that i am you know i figured you're like well why not just build ventilators out here um so that's literally how citizens response jay started i then called up two very smart people that I know, Yakini Wallenbrand and Tyda Costa, both of them engineers, and said, you know, let's try and tackle this.

Starting point is 00:04:14 And, you know, it didn't take any convincing, and that's how it started. So now we're still on the ventilator project waiting to get approved. But since then, we've done several other things. Firstly, we've fixed several ventilators. There are a lot of broken down ventilators in the system, so we fixed those, which is a major.

Starting point is 00:04:40 How many did you manage to get back in circulation? I think we're probably up to around 18 or so now, probably. Wow. Wow, that's big. Yeah, and we still have... And it took a lot of, you know, taking parts off one and putting them, you know, and just mixing and matching. Right.

Starting point is 00:04:58 But you increased the ventilator count by 50%. More than 50% line. That's actually impactful. Right. Wow. Well, if you look at it that way it's it's up we're up to about that now yeah that figure and then um so we're still working on the emergency ventilator and it's not it's not a ventilator ventilator in the in the truest sense um or or what what you'd be accustomed to see now. But what's been happening in Jamaica is that because of the shortage of ventilators,

Starting point is 00:05:28 the doctors use what is called an ambiabag, which is just a bag that they press and they use with their hands. But they literally sit down for hours, eight hours, just pumping life literally into patients. So what we've done is automated that by building a machine that just presses that back. But there's a whole bunch of technicality that goes into it because you have to know, you have to account for volume and pressure, something that they call tidal wave or tidal rate, sorry,

Starting point is 00:06:05 and pressure, something that they call tidal wave, or tidal rate, sorry, PEEP valves, a whole bunch of technical stuff that we are, we've gotten down the specs, no one, we're just waiting to get it approved. And then we'll just start building, mass producing as many as possible. Luckily, the situation is that Jamaica hasn't, you know, it hasn't gotten to that dire stage where we need hundreds of them, but we're still building them to supply to the hospitals for cases where they will need to manually or will need to bag a patient outside of COVID, for COVID and outside of COVID. So that's that's pretty huge. And then we're you know we've on Friday we delivered the last set of 5,000 masks to the hospitals so we've we've manufactured over 5,000 sewn masks. On Monday we'll be

Starting point is 00:07:01 delivering a thousand face shields to shields to the Ministry of Health. We're building on another 4,000 to be delivered as well. Are you doing this for free? All of it is non-profit. Wow. So, Larry, health minister? No. No, I'm really just trying to help.

Starting point is 00:07:27 The health care, you know, protecting the health care workers is primary, right? That is primary, yeah. Without them, there's no... Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we're manufacturing gowns as well. So, we finally found the right material that's waterproof, et cetera. We're going to manufacture thousands of guns. We're major major we were we we got an order from the

Starting point is 00:07:53 ministry just last week Friday for 46 testing booths. I'll probably send you guys a picture maybe you can put it up but it's a it's literally a booth. It's literally a booth that the healthcare worker goes in inside and they can the patient is outside and it's it's um it's technical again it's it's completely sealed off has um negative pressure and um protects the healthcare workers when they're testing potential COVID-19 patients so I'm especially proud of that. That is a major one. Outside of that there's at all well major we we just printed our senior video of this as well we just we bought some very special printers 3d printers

Starting point is 00:08:45 that can build that can manufacture sorry I can't print test swaps so just today the first batch of 325 test swaps was printed and we have three machines so we can print almost a thousand per day which means that a thousand people can get tested a day if needed or we'll add a thousand per day which means that a thousand people can get tested a day if needed um or we'll add a thousand test swaps to the to the pool of the minister of health if needed um that's major and there's other stuff that we're doing we built the tracing app um that that will allow every individual to to or it automates the manual tracing that the government is doing now.

Starting point is 00:09:28 It's like when they try to find out who touched where or went where. Yeah, we've built that up. There's a lot. There's a whole bunch of stuff. Like this group, we have, I mean, 21 subgroups what's up just for this project alone and each one is in is our project in and of itself wow how do you manage that yeah real question how do you manage that i don't and that's just the truth i don't manage um it's it's rough it's

Starting point is 00:10:03 rough and then at the same time you know trying to keep blue data afloat it's been very very rough right i think i plan to come to that on last or near last because i don't know but what as you can hear people that's one of the reasons so lion is one of my favorite interviews that i've done so far because you're not you guys just saying that no no no no no you should you should listen to the show line we don't we don't do anything it's one of the interviews i personally share like i introduce somebody to the podcast and i say listen to this episode specifically like this yeah because because you don't you've always been you see like that question i asked a while ago how do you handle that almost anybody else would give me some crap excuse or something something that's so nice

Starting point is 00:10:49 and so teo-ish but you just do the truth i don't have time for that i was actually just saying to somebody today that sometimes i think i'm too open and transparent you know because um it can you can get in trouble when people know too much right so yes yeah oh i don't i know that yeah um ask my rent yeah um but yeah citizens response j is it's been it's been amazing it's been an honor honestly um And I've realized from CRJA that, like, volunteer work is hard. Yeah. I'd say it's just as hard as running a company. It's really hard because especially, like, this is, I'm really, really passionate about it, you know.

Starting point is 00:11:39 And I just really want to get, I just want to support the government and support the efforts to fight COVID. And it's been an interesting journey. Yeah, boy, I'm proud of you. You said citizen response, and I didn't try and load that up. But there's an account people can see, other than your account on Twitter, which is in the show notes, guys.

Starting point is 00:12:01 So you can look it up. It's Manish Water. But is there a Twitter account they can look up to see some of these things? We do have it, but we haven't been manning it. But there is the website. We post the updates on the website.

Starting point is 00:12:12 So it's citizensresponseja.com. Citizensresponseja.com. Yeah, man. And of course, it's not just me, guys. It's a whole team. So we have, like I said, we have a main group that has around 40 people. So engineers, doctors, we have lawyers, microbiologists.

Starting point is 00:12:35 Oh, yeah, we're doing the salted face masks, sewn masks as well. So microbiologists. We have fabricators, just like overall, just passionate volunteers, accountants, because now we're getting donor funds. So we have to ensure that the accounting is sorted out and transparent. And it's just a team of people just working really hard at trying to support the fight as much as possible. trying to you know support the the fight as much as possible I like I mean congrats to you learn for helping put that together and so quickly if memory serves me correctly I mean I remember seeing on Twitter the video of you saying the 3d printing yeah that's a nice idea and then boom two over yes it's like well that escalated quickly like literally you know um

Starting point is 00:13:28 yeah things it's it's a mushroom so we're just five weeks in and we've accomplished a lot um i'm really really happy and proud of the team for that oh yeah and that dota class said lightly you literally helped and helped form and lead an effort that increased the ventilator count in the country by 50%. That's not a lie thing. I mean, I can say it since it's not you saying it. To me, that sounds like, I mean, you may have saved a life. I said it.

Starting point is 00:14:00 You may have saved one life. And that's been the mission. We just want to save. Hopefully we save what we're doing. Well, I hope we never need the ventilators that we're building. But if it does come to that, then I hope we will save some lives. Yeah, happy to hear that. And I know how good that impact can be as somebody who tries to do a little bit of charity myself. I like impactful charity, you know, it's one thing where you just give a money and it's a car. And when we got to the handovers at the hospitals, I went to Bustamante last week,

Starting point is 00:14:45 and the doctors were just so appreciative of the PPEs that we were handing out. It was a special moment for me, because they're on the front line, and they're risking their lives for us. They were just really appreciative of the stuff that we handed over to them yeah man and it's really impactful i remember shout out me a salty dr johnson she messaged me one away and said you can't get that guy that was on the podcast

Starting point is 00:15:16 learn for me because she's like uh yeah i think she's like ui but she was scared at the time you know she's like you know they didn't have enough stuff so she's at Yui, but she was scared at the time. You know, she's like, you know, they didn't have enough. So she's like, you can't have him working on it. And I'm sure I'm sure I'm getting like 10 of those requests right now. Yeah, there was there was there was two days that I had to turn my phone off. I was it was just overwhelming. Wow. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Yeah. Wow. But yeah, that's that Response, J.A. We still need all the help we can get. We still need volunteers. And, you know, post-COVID, who knows what we will decide to tackle next. I was going to ask about that. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:56 Yeah. So, I mean, if it's outside of possibly saving lives and, you know you know protecting the healthcare workers one of the things that that i am i'm hoping will come out of this and it kind of already has um been a side effect on the better word is um i strongly believe that that jamaica has the the talent and the brain power and the skill sets for us to become self-reliant um you know and and and we we have some very competent and capable um not just engineers but manufacturers locally so like i mean if you guys were to look at the the booth that we built it's top-notch and it's even better than what we saw so we we saw one

Starting point is 00:16:45 in from south korea and some from japan and we muddled it off of that and what we've built is is really really top-notch and um yeah it's you know and and and the government at the time they were looking to import you know trying to source um you know all of the stuff that we're that we're providing and we've built them locally and from from a manufacturing standpoint you know I'm very proud that we're able to do that and be self-reliant because to date 72 countries have have imposed export risk have imposed export restrictions. I was going to mention that about the export.

Starting point is 00:17:35 Yes, Larry. Yeah, I was saying that today 72 countries have imposed export restrictions on corona-related supplies. So the need for self-reliance is is is paramount and what we've been able to show the government is that you don't need to always look overseas for the solutions like we we have some really really bright guys the guys that on on the team the engineers on the team like they blow my mind every day they they yeah they the things that they come up with and how quickly they they um they ideate is is amazing and we build you know that we're just building so i mean name them uh you mentioned them before you mentioned two people yakini i think yeah yeah so Yakini Wallenbrand. Tyda Costa started out with the group.

Starting point is 00:18:26 But Ali Matalon has been very, very instrumental in just helping us to get things moving. She's a real superstar. And then there's, like I said, there's over 40 people in the group. They're all listed on the website. So just in case anybody wanted to see who they were. But yeah, it's just a group of really really good passionate

Starting point is 00:18:49 Jamaicans I like that and of course people listening they might be wondering you know how can they help you know how can I I'm listening to you at home right now lockdown how can I help you yeah so on the website there's a form at the at the bottom of the page or somewhere on the page and you just you know just put in your information say how you can help and somebody from the team will reach out to you i like that i see listed here because i'm looking on the website it says you need access to 3d printers spools sheets of laminate yeah um and that's usually found in like standard printers yeah and. And financial and any other kind of resources. So you guys need money, you need equipment,

Starting point is 00:19:28 or you need talent. Yeah. So the private sector has recently come on board and we're grateful for that. Also, Joe Matalon, who's through the ICD group, he's given us resources in terms of people. So he's given us an entire admin team from his cfo to his head of hr to comms people that that we have meetings every day at six o'clock

Starting point is 00:19:55 just to deal with administrative stuff because it's a lot it's a lot of moving parts i hear it now i'm hearing the ceo l line that's by the way that's the answer to the question how to handle it you know you just handle it through meetings and so on so six o'clock every single day admin just for the project just for the project and we have like i said there's 20 odd 20 odd other subgroups so there's a ventilator group the mass group the print there's a customs group just to get stuff in there's a it's just yeah and i'm in all of them and i just tried to coordinate and um make sure that delegate yeah delegate and um with the support of alien making and the other guys um diakomarson has been great as well great as well yes it's it's it's

Starting point is 00:20:48 good it's good stuff I like that I like that so people if you want to help with that citizens response j.com and I listed the things that they needed but I always need money I don't see anything here about how to contribute money though how do you how do you that should be there i'll have to go check on that in the website group um i'll post the question but yeah um i don't think i don't if you you know if you fill out the form and you say you want to donate then they'll give you the account information on it okay okay that's one yeah okay no problem and if you guys need any help with that that i can give, let me know. I'll link you up if I can put a small towards it.

Starting point is 00:21:30 Thank you. Yeah, well, thank you because you're helping out. Yep. So you have very quickly started to show really the impact of one month. Anybody thinks that one person can help? Yeah. See that candy there? You see a meat bro got off, right?

Starting point is 00:21:48 He can see this. He can find it. Yeah. Yeah, I did actually. I like that. What was that experience like for those of us who haven't? So I have to be very careful about this type of conversation because I'm quote-unquote a pollster, right? Yes.

Starting point is 00:22:10 Yeah, so I try not even to like posts from politicians. Either. Yes, I understand that. Or if I like something from, let's say, Floyd Green or Nesta, then I like something from Imani or if i or if i like something from let's say floyd green or nesta then i'd like something from imani or no because people people yeah people will do that yeah people look at that you know i remember like so floyd and i floyd green and i went to monroe right bergeron he's a fly green yeah man his his party is in is in uh he might have a birthday party every january and i always go and like this year in saint elizabeth yeah it's a good trip with like most of the time we get a bus bridging them go though but this year i just couldn't go because can't afford for a

Starting point is 00:22:59 picture to get taken or just somebody to sit me there and say yo you're a labor right you know that's true that is. That is true. That is true, especially with the impending elections. And it would be said. Exactly. And it's, like, that annoys me, you know. And I have bridging on the other side as well. And I just don't hang with it.

Starting point is 00:23:19 I can't fire them. And I just have to be very careful. Boy, that's good. I's good that's the downside of it I understand that so much even Twitter you can't say what you used to Twitter 10 years ago Twitter no

Starting point is 00:23:38 sensitive it takes me minutes to construct a tweet and I have to sit down and be very curious and be like alright so if I wrote It takes me minutes to construct a tweet. And I have to sit down and be vicarious. I'm like, all right, so if I say I wrote on a piece of paper, are tree huggers going to come at me and be like, yo, why are you writing something on paper?

Starting point is 00:23:57 You know? No, that's literally, I think about all of that before I tweet. That is 100% true. I noticed that you were doing 3D printing. Do you know what that does to the environment, Larry? Yeah, you know, I just wait. I know that my Twitter

Starting point is 00:24:15 faux pas is going to happen very soon. You just can't go around it, I think. I'm going to fall out of the good graces of Twitter very soon. I just know it. It's true that...

Starting point is 00:24:30 Yes. Are them fine? Seven years ago, you said, I'm tired of that, Gale. What did you mean by Gale? Yeah. I just know it will happen soon. I'm just trying my best oh god

Starting point is 00:24:47 so i've deleted so many tweets like like wrote them and just say oh i mean that's even about this yeah i know that feeling oh boy i know exactly what you mean i just make up my mind earlier already still say your order when they've come cancelling the cancel and done you know they still say they've come canceling canceling but I just

Starting point is 00:25:06 try to do my good and move forward but in case I've said anything and you guys

Starting point is 00:25:11 are playing this in the future to say he's unrepentant I want to state that I am repentant

Starting point is 00:25:16 and I am sorry for whatever it was we're all humans shit happens you know so let me We're all humans. Shit happens.

Starting point is 00:25:26 Believe me. So let me use that nice opportunity to segue then. So you've been doing a lot of stuff with Citizen Response. And of course, as you mentioned, that you are a poster. I don't know if you say poster in air quotes, because you are a poster. You just happened to be the new breed. My blow that was not larynx herex and i was very careful to not make it you know the larynx goals as is customary with the other gentlemen that do it or the other people that yes in the past yes yes that's true it's not the larynx goal it's the blow that goes and we

Starting point is 00:26:01 have a team of very competent people who in and of themselves are good statisticians and post us. It's a team thing. It's a Blue Dot thing. It's not a Larry and Peter poll. I was thinking about the other day when

Starting point is 00:26:18 Blue Dot is the Corona Safe poll. Corona Safe pollster. That is true yeah everything that's going on right now in the kind of common election yeah and it's not just an election because larry i charge you for this ad so it's not just an election if you think about it from a company perspective he can offer offer very quickly insights into a large customer base very quickly, very safely. And for, I assume here, lower, not I assume because I spent years as a researcher myself. I know for a fact that it is cheaper than traditional.

Starting point is 00:26:59 I thought you were talking about feelings here, Andy. From a company perspective, and that will come into certain things that we'll discuss later. Okay. Okay. But it is a major thing because now everybody's home, and we spend a lot of time in shelter, sheltering in place, you know, on lockdown, and yet still,

Starting point is 00:27:22 Lion can pull insights from everybody. Yeah, a client reached out to us yesterday morning, on lockdown and yet still lion can pull insights from everybody yesterday morning um and they wanted some quick insights and we we um we did the questionnaire sent to them they approved it and we got 600 responses for them in like a whole half wow and and this is this is through your platform that you mentioned on your last you know yeah yeah so that's it i mean i give you the free i'd say it again man tell the people so so um stop the addies this is the pitch the pitch is um you know stop stop wasting your opinions on Twitter for nothing, go to blue.community.com and get paid for your opinions

Starting point is 00:28:07 Dragged Oh my god Twitter don't pay you like I do Twitter don't pay you for your opinions, you know, but I do That's true Blue.community.com So blue.community.com

Starting point is 00:28:23 and it is the last thing I saw it was i mean i paid attention to the financial survey i was linking learn for a in-house every make a survey you know there's a specific one we can talk oh yeah that that is on me apologies but um the strength of that sort of platform is unmatched and i think now is the time i think corona really is representing a shift in in thing in in the entire world but also in the jamaican landscape look how quickly everything has opened up yep yeah delivery kfc yeah in my lifetime yeah yeah banking open up you can suddenly do all kinds of things online um yeah i want to think about it

Starting point is 00:29:06 now when i think i said it on the last episode that light i think very quickly you'll be putting your place planting your flag in the um arena of of you know data analysis and and local polling but i can say no well five months into 2020 when i I think polling, when I think data, I think Blue Dot. Yeah. I hope so. And I hope, you know, I've been like, I've been very, very, I don't know if I spoke about this on the last one, but I've been very, very intentional about building the Blue Dot brand, right? From, so being a nobody, a country youth, a poor country youth,

Starting point is 00:29:44 that's all I'm going to say. Not a JC or a poor country you that that's all right not a jc or case you're a campion youth i said that in kingston you just get a whole heap of enemies um with with it no but there there are like connections that you get um yeah man that's that old boy network yeah yeah yeah an old girl network is strong for like Immaculate too and Andrew here. Yeah. So yeah, I've just been very intentional about building the Blue Dot brand. So like I remember even in the early days when I just started, if I went to, and I still do it, if I go to,

Starting point is 00:30:17 let's say I went to Lorna's for lunch, to get lunch, instead of giving them my name, I would give them Blue Dot. So they'd literally call up blue that and then sometimes i would wait like go on like i don't hear and just make them call blue that two more times so people would hear it um and and then i you know just go collect it after that but but there's one funny time where i went to i did that one day and then i went to a pitch the day after and this lady was like I've heard that name before and like she just couldn't place it but I know I'd seen her the day before at a lunch

Starting point is 00:30:51 you know but but like you sometimes you just need that just that just little bit of familiarity um and like somebody just like even if they can't place where they know you from or where they heard the name from it just give you this little bit of edge. I've been very intentional about building the brand and just trying to make it easier for me to not have to introduce myself or introduce the company too much. At least some people I'm hoping by now in the respective spaces that

Starting point is 00:31:26 we that we want would have heard of us by now I hope so but if not they're going to every time I turn around I see if he's on TV yeah i worked at pr man i worked at pr dude that's how good you're supposed to do yeah uh and and of course you mentioned having to manage all these projects but we and people if you don't know we keep referencing this last episode larry was on you know for top of your head than what the episode number was oh no no i mean you know guys go to podcast.every michael.com and click episodes and look for the one that says uh i think the dot is what it's called in my mind let's call it the the larian episode so now i have more i call it survey says oh that's so witty episode episode 24 survey says we do that insights and so just in case you're saying like why we keep

Starting point is 00:32:25 referencing stuff i won't i learned to tell him whole story again he did give his start there in that episode that's a pretty good episode so he did he details that so now we're checking in back with him and i'm saying that because he has done something amazing with blue dots since i will give a little bit of background here so blue dot started when it started um and it existed it was being run for a while and built it up and then he went into you can correct me if i'm wrong here then he went into a sort of a partnership with sslvc at the time so it was one of the the portfolio companies of sslvc yeah yeah sLVC has gone through its own troubles during that time, its own changes during that time, and come out of it.

Starting point is 00:33:09 Not all the companies made it out, but the ones that have made it out seem to have been pressing onwards. And now we have a major step from line to line. I didn't want to take your shine. I'll allow you to announce it. So although it's announced already, but since then he has? I've bought back the company. So SSL, yeah, I sold 50% of my shares 20 months ago.

Starting point is 00:33:35 And luckily, fortunately, I was able to purchase those shares from them about two weeks ago. Oh, major move. Is it? That's how I feel. Is it a major move? It's a major risk. In COVID times. You hear what? Risk is the

Starting point is 00:33:59 hallmark of profit. All I know is risk. All I do is just take risk. I don't know anything else but the tech risks um but you could you're under right to a fight that's all we do um but um what was i going to say yeah you can you can liken it to like moving out of your appearance house in in an economic in a recession recession that's what it is because there's their support that we would get from from SSL being a larger company they have cash or some

Starting point is 00:34:37 cash and you know there are a couple times when when receivables were low cash flow was low and i you know we would um get payroll support from them um i know we don't have that anymore and you know i i made the decision to do the the buyout um the the week of the first case announcement in j. Wow. So during that time, you saw, that's an opportunity to move on it, man. We can imagine how you felt going into that one.

Starting point is 00:35:13 Right? I'm still, I still wondering, I still have doubts and just being totally honest. I do. I mean, I believe in Blue Dot and I believe in the company,

Starting point is 00:35:21 but we lost, the first week, so the first case was the 10th of March within that first week I got so many emails if I could show them from clients just saying boy we kind of don't know what's happening

Starting point is 00:35:40 so these projects that we had confirmed with you we're putting them on hold yeah we had in video we put them on hold yeah we we had in the first week of March I think 30 million dollars worth yeah 30 million dollars worth of confirmed projects meaning approved they're just waiting on us to go projects and we lost over 80% of them in the first week. Wow. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:36:08 Wow. That sounds rough. Did you have to lay off? I know that's a business reality. Yeah. So we did. I don't know if I'm just, I don't want to say soft, but I'm a very considerate person. And that decision to lay off was horrible. And I mean, I said it on Twitter.

Starting point is 00:36:35 The only thing that I could have done for them was, so they're still on our health insurance plan. It is costing us a decent amount of money. Yes. And they got supermarket vouchers um from us or supermarket support from us um and that's also major that's food yeah and i'm hoping we'll be able to take that back on you know when this thing whenever this thing ends but it's just never and it's not like if it's not like you find somebody for you know mis this thing whenever this thing ends but it's just never and it's not like if it's not like you're firing somebody for you know misdemeanor misdemeanor from for no you're right

Starting point is 00:37:13 yeah for doing anything right for doing something wrong you're firing somebody you know in an economic downturn you know very in very uncertain times um and it well not far let me use the word the proper layoff furlough um and it was just it was just it was just a bad experience but i would tell you that that's a good thing you know you see if you were if you sounded glib about it or if you saw that okay we'll give you an example Then that will be very different. Yeah. Well, I mean,

Starting point is 00:37:47 it's a hard decision. It's a hard decision. It's a hard decision. And it should be. It should hurt. It should hurt. It's supposed to. If it didn't hurt,

Starting point is 00:37:54 that's when you have something to worry about. Yeah. And maybe, you know what? Maybe I'm not the right person to say that because maybe I'm soft but I don't think

Starting point is 00:37:59 that's a bad thing. Feeling isn't a bad thing. Yeah. So it's good to hear that and it's good to know that you're looking for the opportunity to bring them back and yeah and it's just it's hard all wrong you're just mentioning kfc yeah yeah um but yeah so so i bought back the shares um i've acquired the 50 percent my sslbc um had in the company and And, you know, like I said, that comes with its own benefits

Starting point is 00:38:29 and its own downsides and problems. But, yeah, it was a major decision. Of course, I lost sleep over it. The SSL, they were very gracious in the deal that they gave. The SSL, they were very gracious in the deal that they gave. And I'm grateful to them for the support that they have given us over the past 20 months. Zachary Harding, who is now the CEO, he's working really, really hard to turn SSL into a super host

Starting point is 00:39:02 or into a power host. They have some major deals coming up that when they announce them, I think the general public will be pleased. It was just time to move on. What I had said on Twitter

Starting point is 00:39:18 because I have my own angst with finance Twitter, right? Shut it up, man? Yeah, I think what I will say is that I notice that the members of quote-unquote Twitter finance who make the most... I'm not trying to be... to no man talk straight who made the most sense who made the most sensible comments are those who have been in some sort of managerial or leadership position

Starting point is 00:39:57 and who understand like really what it takes to run a company or to be in charge of a P&L, you know, and who understands that shit happens in companies, you know. And deals fall through. Like tech, for example, right? So deals take months, sometimes years to come through. So earlier we would have announced that Craig Hendrickson was taking a stake in the company. Craig is a great guy, super smart. And he was at the time acquiring 20 of the company and the deal went through

Starting point is 00:40:48 um so much so that to this day like just this week i was applying for some e-commerce for e-commerce um platform at one of the banks and they did a company search and craig henderson's name is still on the company documents for blue dot as a shareholder, as a 20% shareholder of Blue Dot. But months, like literally the week when I was waiting for him to send the money over to us, right? The deal done, sign off, lawyers paid, everything. For some reason, I don't know, and I really don't want to get into that um he decided that he didn't want to do the deal anymore and i got athletes yeah wow that's that i can understand how that might be especially to a ceo if you say you know that's a problem i don't have to

Starting point is 00:41:39 worry about no more and then suddenly i don't spend money already i hired people i hired staff in anticipation of those funds coming in like put projects in place started doing things right and and the money never came in um but but i'm bringing this up because if i let's say i'd mentioned that in a prospectus right or i'd mention that at an agm and it didn't like it was something that i was sure of like and the less noted that is like if the money don't reach your account it don't it don't say it don't say it's not sure that's the lesson major key um but um yeah so the point i was saying that if I put that in the prospectus, right, or some mentioned it at some age, I mean, if I was listed on the stock exchange, it never materialized. People would have been down and, you know, you said you're going to do this and it never happened.

Starting point is 00:42:39 You know, that's right. Yeah. end of life yeah and and this is the type of things that that finance twitter they jump on and like chastise and yo you're a bad ceo and this and that and blah blah and like people just don't understand and i'm not saying that ceos shouldn't live up to their word but like shit happens there there's been projects that i have been absolutely sure that we were getting and they just don't come true that's part of business i never realized but maybe i need to pay a bit of attention to twitter um i never even realized you know no that's a good point actually let me take what i can from it and speak from my pov because i know i can be harsh to companies. Am I? Not really.

Starting point is 00:43:25 I just take it for granted that things happen and sometimes things don't. But then I understand it from having worked in companies and having led efforts. I get that. But I think maybe I join your criticism here, Laren. I think maybe sometimes when you lean completely on the books, I think maybe sometimes when you lean completely on the books, you don't remember that the books are a paper representation of real life and real life cannot be contained that way. I made a tweet saying, what came first, the book or the lesson?

Starting point is 00:44:01 And it was to do with something like that. People often look at the numbers and the company to them is nothing more than just all that this balance sheet every quarter and this is what the company is what's your cash flow like what's your cash flow like there's nothing practical about what's happening in the actual company the one that's on the street doing all the work is just all got these numbers and that's exactly how it is this tells the full story more and there's nothing to add to it beyond this uh so that was a criticism of that type of thinking and i can see it in someone's website on twitter some people have met they don't speak as if boy this company is a real thing beyond these numbers there's so much that you did i mean as an investor you are entitled to know what's

Starting point is 00:44:48 going on with the company i get that great but there's so many things that happen day to day like you just can't know you just can't know and and i think at the end of the day it boils down to like the ceo you know like do you look at the look at the record of the ceo and and what i will always say is like never sleep on a real and true entrepreneur yes yes yeah it it it is going to um they're going to rebound if it's a real grit true entrepreneur then go and rebound of course well you're a great example of that because you have bought back the company um and larry believe it or not well you're on the show that is listened to loved and hated by a lot of finance twitter um and i'll be straight i'll, and hated by a lot of fans on Twitter.

Starting point is 00:45:46 And I'll be straight. I'll be playing with you. A lot of what I am able to do in terms of analysis of companies and predictions of stuff is simply because I don't do what they do. I don't look at the numbers and think that they're just numbers. I look on real life, and that is why I'm able to predict things. That's why I'm able to predict gains, because there's nothing in that book that tells you that, yo, this man was out one night and he'm running to the CEO or somebody else, somewhere else.

Starting point is 00:46:10 And then afterwards I see them start doing things together and it looks like they're planning to do something that will, they don't see the raise in revenue or the raise in profits until after it happened. The numbers can't show it until after it happened. profits until after it happened the numbers can't show it until after it happened and great great prediction of stock prices relies on understanding the company understanding what the real company is and the people behind it and what they do not from not from just looking at the numbers and and i'm not knocking analysis of numbers here because that is key but it has to be analysis paired with real life and i'll be playing the majority that i at least have come across or seen especially on twitter are incapable of it that's why they don't make the money they just talk about the money that is the truth yep and and i can tell you so so i

Starting point is 00:46:56 so because i was on the visa and visa was listed i just got a small taste of it but you as a as a listed ceo you live your life in quarters that can happen true that can happen yes yes you live your life in quarters and that is that is extreme pressure you know um one of the one of the reasons why i was untrusted to to i look i said to ssl take me from under vc and put me under ssl the group just so that we don't have these reporting requirements because literally i remember one time twice um some bad results came out and two clients called and was like yo yo, what's going on? Are you folded? You know? Yeah. So it is a lot of pressure. It is a lot of pressure and people just need

Starting point is 00:47:53 to understand that if somebody, especially a founding CEO who put a lot of sweat and equity or sweat equity into a company, they're not making losses um yeah it's just that things just haven't materialized yet things that time yeah we're going somewhere we're trying to get there boy i'm sitting down coming to eating

Starting point is 00:48:22 everybody won't get rich but you listen to stock exchange you want your stock to the there it's not boy i'm still coming to eating everybody won't get rich you want your stock to the well there's there's no reason why you're going to be joking around with that too yep um no not done yet not done yet i i do because i already have the bad guy tag so i keep wearing it here the truth all right we forget that there are real people behind it right um and what happens then is that because we're not paying attention to the real life things the reality of of what it is that we're analyzing um we tend to we tend to forget that exactly like you said nobody wants to make a loss and two people, people are not dumb. I find that to be, that I will say that person that's a rampant problem in finance Twitter.

Starting point is 00:49:09 The assumption that everybody else is dumb. And I know it sounds hypocritical coming from me, right? Because I'm the guy who hits a lot of finance Twitter. But I don't think people are dumb. No, I actually don't think people are dumb. I take it for granted that by the time I have heard, remember by the time we hear about Alassano, the CEO already knew about it for the last

Starting point is 00:49:30 month and a half. And probably put things in place to rebound. Exactly. For the last month and a half, he knew about it. But during the journey, during the whole quarter, he was saying, boy, things might be going bad. He might have been optimistic

Starting point is 00:49:44 or something and he just followed through to make everything go bad. He was going through it in time. Exactly. He or she and the reality of it is people are not stupid. So if you're sitting in your underpants on your mother's couch telling us that NCB definitely need to fix them online banking. They make billions of dollars. You think they don't know you know full well yeah you think why why why larry and do just simply have everybody's

Starting point is 00:50:12 cell phone get the app and then just do the you came up with that in your underpants but the guy who came up with the company never figured it out yeah they see how don't go sleep over that 20 nights already and don't exactly exactly one of the most annoying things I've found on my small entrepreneurship journey I was on a call earlier and it came up and I had to laugh because a friend of mine and I remember her complaining about it years ago also and it's that how much a CEO has to deal with being told, you know what you should do? And you can't be mean to people. You have to be gracious.

Starting point is 00:50:53 But I realize that people, maybe it's just me, but it is so annoying when people say, not that I don't want them to say it, but, yo, you're telling me this idea? I have had the idea for the last eight years. And what you're seeing is me building something big enough so that i can afford to do that idea that you have it's not magic that allow me to it i need money time and resources and i'm not knocking for your idea i want the ideas but don't feel bad if i say yeah man thank you or don't seem too interested because i already had the idea and then the worst part is when you

Starting point is 00:51:22 do it they might say yeah man i need to tell her and for doing it, you know, you just have to kind of take it, but I understand it must be hard, but I want anybody listening to understand this, right? The people who do compete and Larry made a great point. And he said, founding CEOs,

Starting point is 00:51:38 founding is one thing. If somebody come in because they're hired, but a founder likely had a dream and still has that dream. I know more about the dream and the reality than you have even figured out yet so don't think that i'm dumb ncb know that them system need work yeah um the jmmb know that people want to trade online in real time jsc knows that their website is rubbish but it's a matter of whether or not they have the will the resources are the talent or the time to do it and some of them have it and can and some of them don't you just need to take that into account when you're thinking about it and i also want to remind

Starting point is 00:52:17 some people the universe of this line i want to come on me i can take the heat. I want to remind some people, especially on Twitter, on finance Twitter, that there are real people. It's a lesson I've had to remind myself when I'm annoyed. And I think they need to remember it because you often think that the people have money. It seems to think that if people have money or you think they have money,

Starting point is 00:52:39 you also think that they don't have feelings. And you have to remember that just like anybody else, they have feelings. And more have to remember that just like anybody else they have feelings and moreover unlike everybody else you are actually criticizing their dream yeah so it's one thing if i say i don't like those shoes but if i say learn you need what are you doing about your heavy receivables you need to it blue that is a man dream he you're literally treading on his dreams, to quote some poetry.

Starting point is 00:53:07 You just have to remember that. And I'm not on the flip side line. I'm not letting you off the hook. Meaning, if you are listed on that show, I'm going to question you. Yeah, you have to put on your big boy pants and know that you're going to come. And know that you're accountable and you're held to a higher standard. That's good. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:53:22 We know that. But I need people to measure that criticism with a little bit of common sense i'm saying that a good example is um tyrone yeah i've seen other things said for tyrone people talk to me about tyrone all the time and it's like things are terrible and i say yeah it looks like a bad situation, but they're also angry with me because you're not a customer. Yes, exactly. I hear you bring that up because I'm not joining in on the criticism.

Starting point is 00:53:52 I never wanted to mention it because there's a bias. Tyrone is my virgin and we have our little CEO circle thing where we talk about these things, but don't sleep on a real entrepreneur. I can guarantee you that even especially know that the world is turning to training and and training and and not the

Starting point is 00:54:13 traditional type of training um um syllabus or whatever you call it like you can't sleep on a company like i create it it things just go and take time well you know it's funny i mean tyrone's abridging my mind as much as as you're abridging my mind so it's not we don't talk every day but i mean it's abridging i talk to you and people have heard him on the podcast also a great a great episode and similar to you straightforward um which works for me because i'm pretty straightforward also. And I'm open about it. I talk about it all the time and I say, listen, I create going through a rough time, but that's fine.

Starting point is 00:54:51 It was expected to go through a rough time. That is what is supposed to happen. If you look on it dispassionately, it's a company that's going through a rough time, but it doesn't mean it's dead. In fact, it's very hard to kill a listed company and it's very hard to kill a listed company, and it's very hard to kill a listed company that has a CEO that started that company

Starting point is 00:55:09 and is still there. Now, I also, I will admit some level of snobbishness in that I'm not going to join in with people and try and tear Tyrone down, because the truth is you don't understand even what's really happening. So why would I join in with you? It's not that I don't think that things are are great there things are bad but fine all right if i tweet him and say

Starting point is 00:55:29 tyrone what is going on in your company how is revenue good what does that fix yeah i have helped make his day worse and if i'm a shareholder how does making the person leading the company feel worse help yeah how does putting somebody on pressure help so i'm not saying that's with pressure because i put pressure i know but the pressure and you're entitled to you know like you're on a a gym you can be um what's his name you can staple yeah you can be mr all these days this is david yeah david who writes right for every mickle so let me let me big up on that yeah you're entitled to do that but but i just the the underlining point is like things take time deals take time um projects get time to take time to

Starting point is 00:56:13 get off the ground um and that's you know that that is that is what i'll say that i can guarantee that that aggregate will rebound but what did i say yeah it will yes i mean i'm i'm banking on it rebounding i did so much literally well i mean i saw my chair but i will be buying back more and i i said that as i stick to that because it's it's too good an idea to stop it and it's an idea whose time has come and there's no stopping an idea when it's time has come um yeah but i will say the tyrone talk when tyrone accept my invite and come back come back tyrone the people need to hear you yeah um and that's one no go ahead go ahead i said just just to tie up one more thing i don't want to you know anybody to get the impression that that the you know the relationship

Starting point is 00:57:02 with craig and and us when so like said, he's an absolutely great guy. He was a client, or he's a client, National is a client of Lodat. They loved what we did for them. They decided to put in some money, and then something happened, and it just couldn't happen again. It doesn't work out. It doesn't ever work out, and that's just all there is to it. And that's just part of business. It it's just business it's just this roller coaster that happens in

Starting point is 00:57:29 business you know like i i wish i could accurately explain how much the ups and the downs that that i have that i go through daily with from employees to clients to getting notes to not getting projects to carry payroll to receivables issues to like the that going on now like where i you know we literally don't know what's going to happen in a couple months that that is right it's stressful yeah yeah i can imagine and it's just you have a shoulder i i i i said on the episode you're here at last that um the workers get to go home the ceo does not yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so people don't get it so i'm not here i'm not here whining about it you know like nobody cares you're the ceo is you pick this up on yourself you know but i'm just saying it it is a lot and i'm not going to set up being an

Starting point is 00:58:25 entrepreneur some higher calling either because it isn't it it does take a little bit of craziness but it's a lot yeah of craziness um and a lot of risk and but yeah but that's just how it goes and you know what i'll say you should say you're human everybody else it being the ability to complain is one of the benefits we get of being human right and if you want to complain complain because the truth is when it's time to celebrate everybody go and celebrate yeah yeah that's one of the things that i like about bringing especially young ceos on this just like i said tyrone is yo, it is an opportunity for you to put your voice out there as a general response

Starting point is 00:59:08 and get some release out there. Get some points out there because it's hard. I know it must be hard to sit down and take like a beating on Twitter and go say nothing. I know I struggle with that

Starting point is 00:59:19 because I don't have no ties like that. So you try me, I will put you in your place. I don't care. But I can imagine being like a CEO and you can do it. You have to sit down and take it. And then you come tomorrow and somebody take it. And then 3000 people retweet it.

Starting point is 00:59:32 And ding, ding. No, no, no, no, no, no,

Starting point is 00:59:35 no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

Starting point is 00:59:42 no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no you're right you said you said it in a line when you come on you're just coming back to twitter you know twitter is a really angry sad place you know it really is even i even i when i'm there

Starting point is 00:59:50 sometimes i've looked at my own tweets and i'm like yo this is just negative why am i why am i exposing myself to this up and turn up the notifications man it's a negative place for you, man. I just had to ask. I've been quiet recently, but looking at Twitter, I can't see the point. It's like a waste of time just being there sometimes. What does it do for me? It's content.

Starting point is 01:00:21 I get content from it. I learn things quickly um or or i become aware of things quickly um yes but yeah that is good for that big up twitter though i get a lot of support um until i made my first um faux pas which you are going to apologize for right now. Yeah. Yeah. Until I do that and I fall out of Twitter's grace, then I do get a lot of support.

Starting point is 01:00:54 Support and comments from Twitter. Yeah, man. And somebody said this to me and I should say, Twitter can be negative but the truth is there are positive people out there. We don't pay them as as much attention and they also tend to be very quiet so big up the positive people and yeah and twitter is powerful so citizens response ja started out of from twitter

Starting point is 01:01:15 me giving 250 000 to jasmine dean crime stuff came out on twitter um i made a tweet the other day about this this lady that was a cancer that has cancer that um um she needed a house and gene lorich in big up gene lorich in saw the tweet call food for the poor and the lady getting a house from food for the poor so there's there's a lot of positive and powerful things that can come from twitter so big up to you yeah man yeah man yeah it's just it's just to kind of reduce some of the negative and it's that the negative gets so much amplification yeah so quickly yeah man people love that story yeah but that's like that's another thing you mentioned the jasmine bean thing that you did

Starting point is 01:02:00 learn and um that's a sad story but i hate i hate that it's it has become a common story oh yes yeah yeah and and it's you know what i hate that was yeah yeah it was yeah yeah what i hate about it was my own um i mean if you're jamaican you know we don't like it we don't talk about we know it it's like you see things yeah very desensitized yeah yeah it's just I hated the reaction to it and somebody else said to me them say you don't know it's like when somebody that you know goes missing it's even worse than a murder because you don't even know you don't know yeah yeah I've spoken to the family and yeah, it's horrible. It's horrible. Boy. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:02:52 Yeah. Yeah, it's a rough thing, but I like that you bring it to light. And we can't avoid it because it is part of our reality until we all do something about it. And I like to say we because I have my part to play. We all have our parts to play. And I like to say we because I have my part to play. We all have our parts to play. So, yeah. I hope I've inspired somebody to just do, like, instead of just talking about something, just try and do it. And you don't have to have no resources either. Yeah, man.

Starting point is 01:03:18 Yeah, I do. You've inspired me. I quietly give money to causes now. I quietly, stuff where I can get impact, you know. quietly give money to causes, stuff where I can get impact. So I'd rather give somebody, not the government of Jamaica, but I'd rather give one person 10 grand if it can impact me more than I give it to a big charity.

Starting point is 01:03:32 For sure. So I do small things like that. We're all doing our own thing. Yeah, so I should load it up. I try not to. I don't want nobody to bother me. But it's great to see But it's great to see, and it's great to see that it's coming out of

Starting point is 01:03:47 a young person doing something for themselves and built up. You know, that buyback story, you know, that's Steve Jobs level. Yeah, the buyback. So bringing it back to the business line, I mean, I know it's expensive. It was public how much you paid for it?

Starting point is 01:04:04 No. But I mean, they're listed, so i'm sure it will come out soon it will come up but you don't want to make it public no i think the loop article kind of gave a hint and i told how much it was worth on the at the time and you'd about 50 percent yeah we got that i know you spent a lot of time you got a haircut oh that's good that's good um well then brings us to the next business question how you going to afford it when are you going to list it let us help you with that line so at this point in time my primary goal is staying up we just are I'm just trying to stay afloat, trying to keep the company going for as long as possible

Starting point is 01:04:50 without having to do any pay cuts or let go of any people. Of course, though, I would have ambitions to list at some point or have some sort of exit maybe. But, you know, for right now, outside of staying afloat, there's a lot of value that I think we can add, not just to our clients, but to the country as well from a data analytics standpoint. And I want to focus on that for the next couple of months

Starting point is 01:05:30 and also expanding. I've been talking about expanding into Trinidad for a while now and I'm just going to do it. So the focus right now is to just grow our value and grow our client base and get the revenues up so that if we do list at some point in time we can have a good um valuation i like that i like that remember if ever things get too rough there's a market out there waiting to give you some money we can give you a quick two or three i'll give you 150 200 million yeah quick and fast yeah um

Starting point is 01:06:08 yeah and that money i'm sure will help you think you think the market would you think like right right now the market would um you think people would be in the tickets right now undoubtedly that's interesting okay 100 um i think also i think that you are poised in a place and space to do something that tyrone also to bring back tyrone but tyrone also tried to do and still has a chance to which is the i don't know jamaica has yet to have a jeff bezos ceo when i say that i mean um a ceo who has who comes out from the jump and says, guys, I'm building something major. It's not going to make you that money yet. Don't look for the money yet, but with me.

Starting point is 01:06:53 And Jeff Bezos did that maybe two decades ago, and he did it up to his last reporting meeting. He started off with, listen, i think was eight billion in profits is like i want you to sit down you know you should take a seat because i'm going to spend all that back on the company so you're not getting to shareholders but what he's saying there is stick with me and i think you have an opportunity to do that i think you could and this is randy's craziness here um i think you could list it even as a loss-making entity from now with a realistic plan to get to profit and expansion. And from the jump you do it.

Starting point is 01:07:31 So, of course, there'll be naysayers, there'll be noisemakers. But in time, you'll ignore them. And Corona has made your options, investment options, very limited. So I think it's a good shift in the culture that you can take advantage of and say hey guys you can say listen it's 2020 now we want to be a profitable regional entity in 2030 and i am doing an ipo now for the people who are interested in that and interested in listening with me if you're looking for big profits next year and big dividends don't buy this you're willing to say on the ride jump on exactly and you have to

Starting point is 01:08:11 no one has come right out and truly said it yeah when I said that not not to say that I know there's somebody show tonight them really right now say no but it was said very I know the first guy said it but the truth is because Jamaica is so profit oriented them say what I'm to make it look very pretty tyrone had the same problem he said it at the front but he also made it look so pretty that the people who are looking at just the prettiness ignored the message yep um so i think there's an opportunity for for a company to listen now and the leader that company to come out and say we are on a x years journey i do not expect profit until this time however there is some value and our thing is that let's say we're making a

Starting point is 01:08:51 loss we're going to make a hundred million next year are we looking at the year after that to cut the loss to 50 yeah and if you're interested in this you can come on and look for cap gains but don't expect dividends until year five and if you good, if things work out and you're like, hey, we're paying a dividend in year three, that is its own thing. I think it's time to pull Jamaica a little bit away. Not pull it away from profit, but have it think more holistically or sensibly.

Starting point is 01:09:19 And I think you have the chance of that. I'll talk to you some more next, because you kind of just inspired me. But I'll think about it. There are some deals that. So yeah. I'll talk to you some more next week. It kind of just inspired me, you know. But I'll think about it. There are some deals that are working on. Definitely, if those come through, then it would be really attractive, I think, at that point in time.

Starting point is 01:09:36 But who knows? For right now, though, the word is just trying to make our clients happier than they are. So you're not listing yet, but you are stabilizing the business. And I like that. And in time, we're getting... Yeah, we're stabilizing. So again, just shocks, right?

Starting point is 01:09:55 So at the beginning of March, I was very sure that we were going to double our revenue for this year. So our financial year is um july to june and in the first six months of our of this financial year we did our revenue from the previous year so july 2019 to december 2019 we did our entire 2019 2018 revenue and really yeah Yeah. That's growth. And based on the prospects and just like everything that I was about to do and, you know, like how it's going to go out on some new initiatives, I was pretty sure we're going to more than double. We'll probably do 120% in revenue.

Starting point is 01:10:41 And then Corona came. And like I said earlier in the interview, we lost like $30 million worth of projects in just that first week. And we're just now rebounding because I think businesses are now, all right, so we're going to have to live with Corona, so let's just continue. They're not in the wait and see mode anymore uh which they were for the first couple weeks um so we're where things are picking back up now um but you know again that is something i would have planned for you know like i was going in for it the team was excited we had a third moment on our on our whiteboard and every time we get a million we we take it out and we shade it in. Yeah, man.

Starting point is 01:11:25 We were so excited about it to make this go, you know, and Corona happened. Yeah, well, it's not the same maximum. Yeah. Was that that, eh? They had to realize that we

Starting point is 01:11:42 can't crack our business until it's done. Yeah. and i'm going to be honest like the first two weeks in so after the 10th of march um in the midst of trying to get this deal sorted out with the lawyers and you know lawyers take forever after the things big up dimitri and christian um and and as i said lawyers it was i was probably like functionally depressed because i just didn't know what was going to happen and there was so much stress and and even even like more stress no because because i tell people all the time like mental work so i've never worked on a construction site

Starting point is 01:12:18 i can't say this mental work harder than physical labor yes it doesn't it doesn't you don't go home from it yeah yeah so like just the amount of strategy and like thinking and pivoting and restructuring of even prices because companies don't have so much money now so you have to offer some some little discounts and some even just some break even work just to maintain um just to maintain the relationships and then like for me what's been happening and i know a lot of companies probably not even thinking about this well i'm not saying i know maybe some companies not thinking about this work for me because we were so differentiated before and like i was at a certain amount of comfort that oh my company

Starting point is 01:13:11 my competitors were not going to start doing the cool stuff that we're doing but no because of corona it has fast-tracked whatever plans they had or forced them to start looking at things that we're doing that we were doing from two years ago so all of the cool stuff with the technology that we have now they're probably acquiring those technologies now and then the playing field going level but yeah but but i can't rest on that because then the thing with pricing is that if you and the next man offer the same service, then you only can compete on price. And when you compete on price... And quality.

Starting point is 01:13:57 And quality. When you compete on that, then it's only the customer, it's only the client going to win. That's true. Compete on that, then he's only the customer, he's only the client going to win. So I have had to not be comfortable with the differentiation that we've had in all of the technology, the neuroscience and commune and all of that stuff. quote-unquote cool stuff or other ways of doing things and new technology just so i can i can again be ahead of the competitors when they catch up to where i was two weeks ago or three weeks ago or pre-corona you know and so it's been a it's been like just a constant like thinking and paranoia and just being worried and you you know, like just consistent, perpetual strategies, strategizing and thinking. And doubt.

Starting point is 01:14:52 And doubt. And so much doubt. And so much doubt. You know? Well, if I can help you with an external view, Laren, I have had, I mean, like I like i said as a researcher for a couple of years um and i've used some of the big guys and i can tell you this one advantage that you do have even if the big guys come with what you have done i don't trust them the way that i would trust you

Starting point is 01:15:19 and it's not because i know you i've seen that because at the end of the day they have here's a great example that we can mesh the two things. Danai started trading with JTrader. He's never used any of the old systems. I started trading with the old systems. I remember when Moneyline started. Danai knows JTrader in a way that I don't.

Starting point is 01:15:41 Even though I know it really well, but it's just second nature to him because he has always used it in the same way you have always done that you started this so even if somebody have the money to come and follow you then they will have the understanding to um really do it so you are way ahead at the end of the day if i'm sitting in my board meeting and we have a survey and the question is do we use xyzZ or are we going with Blue Dot? I'm going with Blue Dot. What the hell do those guys know about getting tech to use and get opinions?

Starting point is 01:16:13 And moreover, they're not getting things right. I remember they were forced into it. So you're doing it because you have a passion for it. This is what I know. This is what I want to do. Versus what coronavirus we need to find some other way to make money. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Well, thanks for it. This is what I know. This is what I want to do. We need to find some other way to make money. Yeah, exactly. Well, thanks for that.

Starting point is 01:16:29 It's the difference between the shelter you find and the home that you built. You're way ahead, my lord. And I will see you. I would put money in that company if allowed and I know I'm not the only one. Well, I mean, you put some thoughts into my head around this. Let's see what happens. Yeah, well, I mean, you put some thoughts into my head, Randy.

Starting point is 01:16:46 So let's see what happens. Yeah, well, I'm there. If you want to hear the thoughts again, let me know. I don't do the consultancy as much. I do it for free. But if you want the view, I give the view for free. I give the help for free if you want. I do see you have a huge potential here. And I think, especially once Corona

Starting point is 01:17:06 stops, I think it will be very obvious. The second it stops, it will be very obvious. There's a new age. It's another example of the change in the culture. Yep. Corona might actually end up having been one of the greatest things

Starting point is 01:17:23 that happened to shift us. I think it will having been one of the greatest things that happened to shift us. I actually think it will. I think it will be. I mean, outside of the economic impact, which is going to be horrible, my opinion is that we're about to see a recession like we've probably never seen before. And the health impact, if it does get to that spike point and the curve doesn't flatten is going to be horrible but outside of that um the prime minister has announced that um you know we we need to be a digital economy and they are going to be putting steps in place to to give to ensure that everybody has access to broadband or some sort of internet or data or wi-fi or whatever

Starting point is 01:18:03 to broadband or some sort of internet or data or Wi-Fi or whatever. And only good will come from that. And businesses have realized that people don't need to be in an office to finish and do work. And there's a whole bunch of other, I think, agriculture is meant to make a comeback, which is huge for us. Agriculture is meant to make a comeback, which is huge for us. And we'll become less reliant on tourism. That is my greatest wish.

Starting point is 01:18:36 Yeah, you said the same thing last episode, Dana and I. That we'll be less reliant on tourism. And yeah, I think there's a lot of good that will come out of it. Yeah, I like that. But we can speak more on that point because that is something that we've seen in terms of, well, Danai and I have said it, the possible fallout in the economy. Because the reality is tourism is 30% of the country's earnings. And tourism has now been on pause for how long has it been?

Starting point is 01:19:09 Since mid-march well it's been full pause mid-march but it was slowing down from around january slowing down january let's say halfway february by march april and over in may so it's almost three months that's almost a third of the year without a third of our money so jamaica has taken a pay cut and that's and they're real people behind that and those real people can't consume the way they used to consume so there's going to be an echo effect, I've actually been moving my portfolio around in preparation for a lot of those

Starting point is 01:19:34 fallouts it has affected so many people I have a virgin that drive a virgin of a virgin that is a Jota bus driver the man just buy one bus just after a year save up the money buy a bus because tourism was booming like tourism was it was yeah and um yeah like the bank come to him the other day. Damn.

Starting point is 01:20:07 You know, because he has no income. He need it. Yeah, at all, because no tourist to pay for it. Oh my God. Well, they don't take it yet. They've been calling him and they're trying to work out something, but the point is he don't have income.

Starting point is 01:20:23 True, true. And it's going to take a little while. It's not have income true true and it's going to take a little while not starting but no and it going to culture Wow yeah and unlike more Bay and Oteros and the grill that like most the majority of the economy is is dependent on tourism yep yep yeah yeah then I i said what i think cpj yeah cpj didn't want to do those box deals yeah is that yeah 4.2 million tourists coming to this country every year this country of 2.8 million people those people aren't here to eat that nice food in the hotel the food i forgot somewhere yeah yeah that's 4.2 million mouths of consumption even if it's one day consumption that isn't here anymore so i to me it's clear and i can see why the government wouldn't

Starting point is 01:21:13 say something about it yet because you have to be careful in how you broach this and how you bring it across to the people yeah but for the regular people listening i know like if you can start putting away money yeah put it away if you can start if find things that are as you say local based you know find things that jamaicans will need right farming might see a return because we have to we have to feed ourselves you know like i've stopped discretionary spending um wow yeah because we literally don't know what will happen

Starting point is 01:21:46 in two or three months yes that is true I'm not personally I'm not seeing beyond I'm not seeing into July right now

Starting point is 01:21:54 I was May June and when we get to June I start to think about July and August but I think zero yeah i think you know the truth is that like i think i said this the last time but we're in a

Starting point is 01:22:11 bubble here like us in court midtown slash uptown kingston we're in a bubble and we're like we're so we might think we're not we're very removed from the realities that people are experiencing right this minute. 100%. And if you think you're not, then you're definitely in a bubble. Yeah. That's the truth. If when we're talking about Twitter, you knew what we're talking about, you're already in a bubble. The majority of Jamaica is not there.

Starting point is 01:22:41 Yeah, because that's the content you consume and that's your reality. Twitter, if you're on Twitter every day and you're on Instagram and you follow certain people, that is what your world is. Yes. Yeah, that is the truth. That is the truth.

Starting point is 01:22:57 What time general foods open? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you have to understand that's not where the mass of the economy is. You're saying that, eh? Up to unfit it too for you see like restaurants closing down and all those restaurants it's not poor people own them yeah and then a lot of people that consume from their old building there other consumers are from certain spheres so as much as it as much as some people not realizing how much they're actually feeling it,

Starting point is 01:23:27 at some point, they must face reality. Something must reach them. It's like a credit card that you ignore. Yeah. Well, the truth is business owners have always been closer. It's so weird. Business owners have always been closer to the ground than most of the other people.

Starting point is 01:23:42 They have to be. Who buy from them? Most of the other people. It has to be. Who buy from them? Most of the people. Yeah. There's a reality to that that we don't even that some people face and that we don't even, we can't even

Starting point is 01:23:55 you know, like some people literally live day to day. They wake up in the morning, then go buy, like in certain communities, you can buy one squeeze or two piece. You put your toothbrush through the window and you get one squeeze.

Starting point is 01:24:16 And you get one egg and you get one little bag of oil and you get one sausage and one slice of bread or two slices of bread. And that's it for now and then you go hustle a little money and then you go back and do the same thing yep yeah i'll never forget the first time i did a survey i won't search community i was in i was doing a survey i was in a rough community and that's when i knew that you could buy chicken skin wow i didn't even know that yeah yeah buy chicken skin if you spend ten dollar more you can get ketchup oh you mean as a yeah man yeah man oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i i saw regular that's like that's like a snack yeah if you have a little money yeah

Starting point is 01:24:59 yeah there's this place in ochi back in, you know, when things was rough that you'd go there, I would go there just to buy dumping and curry gravy. It was the best thing, actually. That actually sounds good right now. Yeah, man, you should buy some fry dumping and curry gravy.

Starting point is 01:25:21 Where is that place? It's called Remiki in Ochi. It's a place of yui. They sell the best fried dumplings and we used to go there in the morning and buy fried dumplings with gravy. But to me that's a snack. I'm not even trying to make that sound like that's struggle food. That's like, some people can't even do that. You know what I mean? Yeah. And bringing it back to reality, that is actually

Starting point is 01:25:49 why Jamaica couldn't really do a full lockdown because some people just cannot lockdown. Literally cannot lockdown. Yeah. People who their investment is cash but that's the simple reality yeah yeah the extra 20 i met my put in every day and maybe once every week my win yep for the 20 and look at extra buy me an extra craving here too and that's just how them live yeah you have

Starting point is 01:26:17 to understand that in terms of doing your reality i think about those things i think about projections as stocks so if people want and while having this conversation not just that we care about the country but it comes right back to business analysis yeah if that man who used to smoke three cigarette can only smoke one that means that two cigarette sales gone right if he used to drink everybody like him yeah them just them just done the kids used to be at school used to drink cran water they're not in school for the last two months yeah and when we're not buying that to break up bring home so yeah there we go yeah so it's something to consider along those lines but look at what other you know random data you can throw at us sir line i think we need to start call you start stock how you make it come

Starting point is 01:26:58 in and give us a date i know um your next big service okay I should have prepared I should have looked at some of the studies that we did recently and no pressure no pressure no really because I know you'll have something post corona that everybody will be interested in meaning something about what people feel about the corona thing

Starting point is 01:27:20 I know you did do one asking some questions so we did a part one good thing that has come out a part we did we have up we've well one good thing that has come out is that we've partnered with capri so damien king and dr diana thorpe um we did some interesting studies we did two week we're about to do another one for them but at blue dot we're about to do a massive massive what we call the new normal study um a comprehensive study on because consumer behavior has changed right and it has changed uh more drastically than you think and how companies um would have marketed to their their consumers before they can't market to

Starting point is 01:28:09 them the same way no that's yes that's true that is a fact you know like um we did a we did a little east of one post east or east of one study the other day and I think it was, don't quote me on this I'll probably post it on Twitter after is 30 or 40% of the people who we polled either A didn't buy any Easter bone this year or two

Starting point is 01:28:37 they would have gotten it from the company that they work for and they didn't get it yeah and this was just this was just one month after the first case right and and one thing we need to realize is we're just six or seven weeks into this when we were almost like two months now two months into this first case has been announced and already companies have lay off staff the government has to go back to the imf um people start suffering already and we're just two months in

Starting point is 01:29:15 so it's going to require a real restart yeah or or we need to understand that this thing can get worse and we're probably in the best of it right now right now we're in the best of it i don't i don't want to be known you know like harbinger of doom right perfect word harbinger of doom but i i hoping it don't get that way but i think we've been most of us are being a little naive to what could possibly happen and what the next couple of months could possibly be. I agree with you. I agree with you. I complained about it, saying that I'm not hearing anybody talking about what people should prepare.

Starting point is 01:30:00 That's why I said the point about the government. I don't expect it to come from the government because the government to be very careful when they say ignite any any panic um yeah but for regular people yeah i i see the storm coming um but yeah so we're we're we're doing uh we're going to start uh what we call the new normal study um it's pretty expansive. And at the end of it, we'll literally be able to advise our clients and hopefully some new ones from a very strategic standpoint. How do you now operate in this new world? And especially, like I said, consumer behavior has changed. And especially, you know, like I said, consumer behavior has changed.

Starting point is 01:30:53 And there are a lot of brands that people are now trying because they are cheaper. And what's going to happen is that you're going to try this other brand because it's cheaper. And you're going to realize it's not so bad. Yeah, right. and you're going to realize it's not so bad yeah right you know so why am i spending fifty dollars more hundred dollars more on on this tin of corned beef or whatever yeah xyz when i could get the same here and then suddenly your life your lifestyle hasn't changed but you have started giving money your branding has changed right so the man loyalty exactly so the switching costs so you know you have you have brands who have a lot of goodwill and equity and and a brand name and and just because of the equity that the brand has their switching costs

Starting point is 01:31:35 or what's called our churn um is high but but corona has removed that loyalty and that equity in a certain way. And people are trying the new packs and the other brands. That's right. Nobody knows if you're eating cheap and clean if you're inside your house. Yeah. And people are going to realize that, yo know this is not bad actually why am I spending money on this so hold so hold it these companies market today to this new type of consumers is going to be different when you the Randy it was it

Starting point is 01:32:20 called is it a brand profile or the persona profile? You wouldn't know what they're talking about. That you have on your consumers, they have a different profile now. Yes, they do. Yeah. Because the entire demographic has changed and the taste has changed. It really is.

Starting point is 01:32:40 Well, you see that? I'm telling you that you understand why I say that you have an advantage over anybody else. Because right now, competition is into this, trying to make sure they can sound like how you naturally sound. Because you get it. And your team gets it. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:32:53 Because it's what you know. You're primed for it. We saw the need to do this type of study from early on, but we couldn't do it because it was too early. So now that we're sure that the attitudes have changed and the lifestyle has changed and the behavior has changed then we can do it and then we'll follow up with it you know in another four weeks or you know we'll we'll make it probably quarterly just to so we can map the the changes um and be able to properly inform our clients as to how they know go about marketing to this new profile of consumer.

Starting point is 01:33:30 Yeah, the new Jamaicans. I know obviously this won't be completely public because it is an internal tool, but will parts of it be made public? That's a good question. And put together like something condensed. Yeah, we can probably summarize some of it. Probably like media consumption.

Starting point is 01:33:52 Media consumption has changed a lot. That is based on another study that we did. Media consumption is probably the starkest change that we've seen across. That is true. Yeah. If you think about it. You say,

Starting point is 01:34:09 I'm trying to remember when last I watched TV. Or listen to radio in a car. Yes. And I used to listen to a lot of radio. Media consumption has changed a lot. A whole lot. Yeah. You said on a podcast.

Starting point is 01:34:27 Yeah. You said it and I I'm acting surprised but I'm done look at the stats all the time we get thousands of listens if I got 2000 listens in one month it would mean that something has gone wrong right I think about it and we haven't been doing this for a year yet

Starting point is 01:34:43 yeah that's a low number for us. Wow. We really have changed. How people consume content has changed. So I'll probably post that for the general benefit of everybody when we do it. But, I mean, just to nail a point, you know, like monitoring consumer behavior is extremely important. So one of the things that we, and this is outside of Corona, I mentioned it on a live conference the other day. We were looking at some data last year and some supermarket data. data last year and some supermarket data and we we realized that the what that what is called the average weight of purchase decreased for the supermarket

Starting point is 01:35:36 which is essentially the basket size or in layman terms people stop buying if people used to spend $50, dollars they're now spending ten thousand dollars and this is last year's data all across supermarkets so the the average weight of purchase decreased but the frequency increased right so i was about to ask if the incidence has gone up yeah that's good so the frequency increased so so supermarkets have been have been winning from last year um and and and so. And so the client, the supermarket chain that hired us, of course, we had to look into it some more. And it was because of the plastic ban.

Starting point is 01:36:13 And if you think about it, it makes sense because you don't have a bag. You go into the supermarket, you just pick up what you can carry in your hand. But you go back three or two or three times a week because of that. Ah. You see what I'm saying?

Starting point is 01:36:29 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's say you go to the supermarket once or twice a month. No, you're going to the supermarket four, five, six times a month. And that's... So their top line their other bottom line has has increased because it's more opportunity for them and the strategy that we that

Starting point is 01:36:53 we and the supermarket chain implemented uh i can't speak specifically to what it is but what it what they what you need to do then is to increase the opportunities to purchase those and get those impulse buys in so you're going there to pick up one item normally you know you're right but you know there's the chocolate there's the all of those other things so even though the even though the the basket size or the awop aka average weight of purchase decrease they've caused the frequency increase their sales their revenue increased plus they they're able to sell more they started selling bugs that they they have a new rep they have a new skill that they never had in 2018 because they're now selling your bags um and the frequency of the visits increase that is at least true for me anecdotally

Starting point is 01:37:50 i have like 20 bags that i keep forgetting to carry no joke yep i've never carried one i have never carried one to the supermarket the closest i've come is I carried it in the car once and I went in without it. I remember my inside. So they're selling bags like crazy. So they've added a new skill and

Starting point is 01:38:16 they've won it. Yeah, I like that. And that's direct evidence of data yeah and impacting a company yeah targeted marketing yeah and honest you know it's like when you get those insights noise what do you know do you know when you get when you have that insight what do you know do to to a A, still increase the average weight of purchase for the frequency of visits? But anyways, that's the stuff Blue Dot does, guys.

Starting point is 01:38:56 Please tell your bosses. I'm definitely charging Blue Dot for this. Well, you know, the bosses are listening because, I mean, I pay hard attention to the data too. And anecdotally, things that come across to me or people talk to me, they tell me who they heard from sometimes. And it's good. A lot of people listen. I didn't know that. I'm proud of that.

Starting point is 01:39:17 I hope more people will listen and will link line. Blue Dot. Blue Dot. If you're not the head of a company whatever you're just trying to make some money there's blue dot communa.com um and it's in the show notes and if you are running a company you're in marketing and you're trying to find the best bang for you no limited book or you are running a company you want to know where to put your limited arrows you know less shotgun more sniper it's blue dot i personally swear for them

Starting point is 01:39:46 having seen their work um yeah that's not off a bridging thing not a bridging thing i have seen their work and their work is good um they're not good great uh and yeah thanks larry i mean i don't know if you have anything else you want to tell the people? No, I just wish everybody all the best doing these trying times and especially to fellow CEOs or business owners or even just

Starting point is 01:40:16 people who were in charge of our P&L. You know, it was rough and we just have to try like stick together and in this together and um try and push through it you know like it's like i said i've had my moments when i'm very sure i was functionally depressed you know i was functioning but i was my headspace was just not in the in the best space at all um but you know it's all you so you get out of it and rebound and then

Starting point is 01:40:47 start putting things in place and brush yourself up and you know we're only human right i like you i like that and i like that you're speaking openly about things i like the pressure yeah some people enough people walking around like you don't even know bro trust me yeah i i i didn't know that i i could have anything like the pressure until you look back i said it's something about all generation in the line yeah well i've been watching the jordan documentary and the last dance yeah and yo you should watch it because one is a reminder of when we were younger and just how goddamn like he was just unstoppable like you knew like bolt really was like him like you know that when he got out there like i don't know how we're going to go but i know i'm going to win and it also reminded me of just how we like men yo mental

Starting point is 01:41:39 health was invented in 2015 right it never exists in the 90s so like us kids who came up during that time the idea of depression anxiety what is anxiety anxious yeah but if we don't we don't have that so to hear you know saying it i think it's good i think other people i think our ceo should say because what you do is stressful and it has a mental load i i remember like telling people who would tell me that they're the person i remember telling them to snap out of it and i feel so bad right now because it's not something that you snap out of you know it's it is a it's a real chemical thing yes yeah it seems silly i don't know if it seems silly to you hearing us say this but to us is like i knew i remember i was saying something i was saying to a friend of mine i

Starting point is 01:42:33 was like yo i just feel like i know i have this to-do list and there's all these things on it i was like because i do three i remember five more i don't end it and i pause i go hold on is this anxiety and she's like well you feel like this all the time? I was like, only when I'm awake. She's like, well, yeah, that's anxiety. It's not a real thing to me. It's our generation, really. It's like we have to learn.

Starting point is 01:42:55 We're just to learn. We're just to learn. So I'm happy to hear that. And I'm happy to hear. And you'll see, we use it. We use it. Just here's proof. Dennis Rodman was found

Starting point is 01:43:05 in a van with a rifle about to kill himself you know what that you know what his team said trade him literally that was the 90s trade him yeah yeah we just mental health invented in 2015 i thank god but but you know like i was i mean not to extend the length of this but i was thinking about this guy right so when we were growing up our we had a lot of macho um role models like like super quote unquote superheroes are not superheroes yeah but we had swartz niggas stallone um yeah bruce willis everything was bad yeah like real batman show like gun show like and those were like we had some real macho men yeah and it was tough like you know we had to be tough and we wanted to be you know like schwarzenegger you know so and those were the quote-unquote like male figures that we had in our life um outside of uncle phil Bill Cosby, you know, but it was them.

Starting point is 01:44:07 But I was thinking about it from the flip side, you know, like these kids know, like they don't, like who is that real, real man that they have? You know, like... LeBron. LeBron, who is the greatest teammate ever, who is into... Yeah, they don't have that.

Starting point is 01:44:24 They don't have that. And I don't know that that's a bad into... Yeah, they don't have that. They don't have that. No. And I don't know that that's a bad thing. Well, I don't know. The super... I think about super... Peter Parker is like a scrawny kid. Yes.

Starting point is 01:44:35 Yes, that is true. But anyways, yeah. Random thoughts. Well, I mean, you're not wrong, but I don't know that it's not bad right because even when i'm looking at some old cartoons you can find them on youtube as i got all of our cartoons were really rough yes they were and now looking at them now is is different i am happier that the newer generation hopefully is is um more in touch with that stuff yeah it's just uh it's just uh

Starting point is 01:45:06 the i don't know it was just about that jordan documentary and rodman especially that i should watch it because you're in the 90s yeah man in the 90s rodman was weird now i'm looking at rodman he's like it's just an emo kid with blue hair yeah but he was out there he was out there yeah yeah but then weird no it's just that's just little little i don't know what are the little rappers yeah you're right yeah it's a good shift it's a good shift and i think it in times in times of of crisis a good shift can happen and to tie it all up i'm happy that at least we can show a part of the good shift happening through blue dot through through line and for jamaica yeah um and in spite of the bad things i we did talk about how toxic twitter was earlier and i cost off some people if they're

Starting point is 01:45:55 still here let me let me try and put my one light out there i want big up at least one person um mrs kerry and margan at patriotic, who is always nice and supportive on the timeline. Yes, of me too. She's really, yo, I don't know if Kerry, I hope you're listening to this. She says things very lightly or quietly or she might send her one message.

Starting point is 01:46:17 And I don't know if somebody's saying that, but sometimes it's the right time, she said. The right time. The right time. I remember one day I heated it up, I heated it rough enough, because nobody can stop me, and I just got a DM,

Starting point is 01:46:30 I don't read a DM, I told her thank you, and I just put the phone down, no tweets went out, no thread, no nothing, and it all worked out, so Kerry,

Starting point is 01:46:39 thank you very much, you are a light in the storm, you're a part of the silver lining. Nice, nice, but thanks guys this was this was fun i enjoyed um no thank you yeah thank you and when like we said last time when you did that big study i mean we i'd like to be able to button up the corona issue so you did a big study we invite you back and see if you can have a little panel and we talk completely about

Starting point is 01:47:04 it and how it ties into the market. We haven't forgotten stocks, guys. Don't worry. I don't want to pressure Lion today to pick my stocks because I know they're shifting grounds and I don't want to get into them anyway. Please. Thank you. I appreciate that. No problem.

Starting point is 01:47:20 No problem. I'll be the all-country one because I always pressure on people. I pressure myself. Here's something I haven't said before. Then I, you're cool with this. I'm going to talk about a company we talk about off air. The banana chips one.

Starting point is 01:47:32 Oh, sure. Go ahead. Yeah. So, so my, again, guys,

Starting point is 01:47:36 I didn't put it, although you may have heard that depending on what it is, you might've heard a disclaimer at the front. If not, definitely not an insurance salesman. Also not a investment advisor or a lawyer or anything right not investment advice but i personally think i'm looking nicely right now at jamaica producers um i i suspect that they are weathering the corona

Starting point is 01:47:58 storm a lot better than people might think currently um i can't know. Just like Lauren, I can't see past July. Yeah, I can't see past July with any great clarity currently. But I can say that their last set of results would have been good. And I have been given, I've been given, we got this person, I won't call her name, but she knows herself. I was having a conversation and she shared something with me based on the conversation. Just showing that juice sales in europe have been going up turns out everybody's inside and eating up too much food also so i think jamaica producers is one of

Starting point is 01:48:34 those companies that will do a lot better i know that the experts show that them speak out of this guy don't i'm talking ball kingston warbs is dead stuff still coming in the warbs are still around and that's one part of the business jp snack so we got a bit of insight about them from the wisinco wisinco's most recent report and they are profitable not just profitable they're doing well increase increase profit yeah so that we think of these paying off for them And it's funny Because we spoke about The kids not going to school And blah blah blah

Starting point is 01:49:08 But this bike Is not going to school Snacks are still being eaten So Of course And me if I tell you Wisinco has 17,000

Starting point is 01:49:18 Distribution points 17,000 Distribution points Across the island And that is crazy Yep And they are They are Unstoppable In my opinion Yeah points, 17,000 distribution points across the island. And that is crazy. And they're unstoppable, in my opinion. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:49:29 I say anecdotally all the time, but I'm glad I have the expert here. I call him all the time the largest and most expansive distributor in Jamaica. Anybody beat him? No. Other than government no no yeah so i mean and then they have it down to the stall man and that's their advantage uh-huh yeah so so whereas some companies just go into the brick and mortar like a real you know they have their distribution points down to the store down to the vendor that's why water took off so much but anyways yeah yeah and that's what about that is your exact your your mission the points because that means that anything that touches the wisinko distribution network is likely to see so they sold 30 of their snacks division to wisinko and of course wis Wisinka handles the distribution of it

Starting point is 01:50:25 which is why you see those at your own snacks in every gas station and stars and all over because it's not getting the Wisinka treatment and Danai you referenced the subsidiary gains that we saw yes associate gains from

Starting point is 01:50:40 share of profit in associate ah yes a subsidiary i call it yeah yeah sorry associate because it's not 50 um so i think that they are they're they're going to the great and we're seeing call reported uh 2.7 am i seeing this right for the quarter for the nine months this is a million to a million yeah so that's um jp booking a much better a better number for them yes so what we think of books is a percentage of all jp will be booking for them 30 of it yeah exactly so that that says to us that um if you do the math on that i'm'm not going to do your homework for you guys. We'll call it one homework.

Starting point is 01:51:27 If you do the math on that, you have a good idea of what one arm of JP Snacks sales revenue would have looked like. And you can estimate the rest, which we've done. And so in my view, I am paying a lot of attention. The next thing I'm going to get very lucky with is Jamaica producers. And I think they might not think they are definitely going to weather any corona storm and they're also going and so is with cinco as the whole well we don't know but you know for the people who are looking longer than a year or two longer than two or three months definitely those might be two things you want to ask your licensed investment or financial advisor about

Starting point is 01:52:06 yeah then i have anything you want throughout throughout i'll speak but i said this is based on results of two companies that came out and separate barita you can see that this This, you know, Barita pushing. Look at the money Barita has made in the market, despite all the noise in Corona. Me and Randy were saying before that I'm sure we have people that can quote us on this. They've seen us say

Starting point is 01:52:35 that Barita, they somehow some way find money, despite this Corona thing. And the market was down. It's such a big company. And despite that their investment gain was still a large part of their heavy profit increase that they got in the last quarter result they have moved much since but because of the push from corona downwards price profit increase so to me that's oh despite it being worth more the price was low so to me that's a buying opportunity

Starting point is 01:53:07 right there for burrito yeah for the people who who might be interested in that like they're definitely going to quote us it's the dark horse horse. Yeah. That's another example of tying it back into what Lauren said. That's another example of a young hungry CEO. You can't call them out. I even mentioned it this week. I said, Barita is not done yet. You've seen all of this going on right now.

Starting point is 01:53:39 Interestingly, we were looking at the numbers in our little group there and Big Up Stewart South, he was looking at the numbers in our little group there. Big up Stuart South. He was looking at the cash flow statement, and he was saying he thought they sold some investments to buy more marketable securities so they can push, so they can meet the obligation to their marketable securities. The securities pledged assets because that's a repo so the pledged assets to borrow

Starting point is 01:54:10 more money from repo deal for short term financing and he realized that the pledged assets had gone up by around 10 million so he was thinking that they have a higher commitment to pay but the debt and whatever but I made him look at it properly.

Starting point is 01:54:26 I don't know if I made him, I reached out to suggestions of, boy, maybe you're not seeing the right thing and you can't write. And the conclusion we came to was that, hey, maybe they're beefing up to finance some deal or something because the company's too healthy. The cash they got is still really cash, despite

Starting point is 01:54:41 you know, we had a lot of noise around, boy, it's just investment gain, we don't have any investment gain cash okay we are with them turning those investments into cash and they did this during covid yeah because these numbers include covid so the books are you can look at the books and realize they're getting ready for moves you can see actual getting ready to do something something is coming for barita and more and more the look at it, the closer it looks like it's coming. And without something else coming, you can look at the numbers you have right now. Barita is not done. You can look at the management.

Starting point is 01:55:16 You can look at what they seem to want for the group. They're not done. So I'm joining Randy on his dark horse journey. I'm on the carriage as the dark horse is dragging. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope it works out for both of us.

Starting point is 01:55:35 I definitely hope it works out for both of us because we will need the money. While the pipe is on, catch water. You know my style already. Alright, so I won't carry this on too long thank you very very much Larry thank you guys thanks for the opportunity yeah man

Starting point is 01:55:51 big up Danai for joining me in the carriage with Barisa and thank you everybody for listening I will call time on this episode of early in season and yeah thank you guys for listening and look out for us again next week when we

Starting point is 01:56:08 will go back to our company our entire market analysis don't worry we haven't forgotten hey guys thanks for listening yes yes Yes! Yes! What the? What's that? Oh, it's called...

Starting point is 01:56:33 Valentine's! Thank you! I don't need that, man. And you don't need cigarettes. So we all have our differences. Valentine's Day, bro.

Earnings Season - Back Again! w/ @MannishWaata

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