Hello, Colleen...and the answer is "8am this morning" <g>.
Just got back about 15-minutes ago. Wow, quite a morning. I spent about an hour with Calkins, who personally gave me the demo. Looking back, the meeting had three parts to it: The first was technical (seeing Visual Writer in action and talking about it technically); the second was Pacel's business-plan/marketing strategy; the third was stock/investor-relations related.
If someone were to have videotaped the meeting, it would have look quite unspectacular--just a couple of guys sitting in front of a laptop talking for an hour or so. But psychologically, you can understand that it was so much more. A part of me was constantly checking to see if I made the right decision to put so much faith (and money) in this company. I have decided that the answer is yes. But the details of how I came to that decision will have to wait for another post since I don't have time right now.
Actually, there is one thing I'll mention. Our meeting was interrupted for about five minutes when someone came to the office to talk with Calkins briefly. Because Calkins and this visitor talked out in the hall (while I stayed in the conference room with the door open), I could overhear the conversation.
It was a man from a company named Sentel who apparently knew Calkins already. He was there to ask if Sentel could team with Pacel to present a complete business solution to the client, which I think was a government agency. When Mr. Calkins came back into the room we continued our technical conversation, but later I asked about the man who came to visit.
What I got was a confirmation of what I suspected, that business was marketing to Pacel, not the other way around in this case. As we talked about it, I asked something like, "So this could be big business for Pacel?" His mood, for a moment became a little serious, and I was struck by this so much that I forgot the exact words of his reply. But basically, it was this dramatic moment (in my opinion) as he replied sincerely: "This could be very big." (Sorry to be so dramatic, but this was one of the most exciting moments of the visit for me).
More to tell and other tidbits to share, but like I say, let me save it for a later post.
I don't think there will be any news release today. His lawyer has the latest PR and I think he (Calkins) may want to add more detail to it anyway. Calkins is not big on rushing PRs, let me tell you. His belief is that PRs give investors a chance to get a status on how the company is doing and little more. The concept of a PR being a tool to surge the stock price up has, until recently, been a little foreign to him. At one point in our meeting I made a somewhat lengthy speech to him about how the average Pacel investor views him and his company. I'm not sure he liked what I had to say, but I can't help but wonder if my words made a difference with the CEO of Pacel (!). By the meeting's end I think we had a good respect for each other, he in his role as corporate CEO and me in my role as stock market investor.
More later (probably this evening).
Chris |
