Wall Street Unplugged
Episode: 1196November 27, 2024

Exclusive with Wrap CEO Scot Cohen

Inside this episode:
  • Welcome Scot Cohen, CEO of Wrap Tech [0:10]
  • Wrap just undertook a major restructuring [0:54]
  • Wrap’s mission to disrupt Axon’s monopoly [5:38]
  • Don’t compare the BolaWrap to the Taser [7:04]
  • Wrap’s move to Virginia is huge for national public safety [17:14]
  • This episode is sponsored by Bridge Tower Group [19:54]
  • The company’s solutions go way beyond the BolaWrap [22:28]
  • Chile’s order is just the start of a massive global opportunity [26:00]
  • Why Scot believes WRAP has a higher purpose [41:38]
Transcript

Wall Street Unplugged | 1196

Exclusive with Wrap CEO Scot Cohen

Transcript was automatically generated.

0:00:02 – Announcer

Wall Street Unplugged looks beyond the regular headlines heard on mainstream financial media to bring you unscripted interviews and breaking commentary direct from Wall Street right to you on Main Street.

0:00:17 – Frank Curzio

Scot Cohen thanks so much for coming on Wall Street Unplugged.

0:00:20 – Scot Cohen

Good to be back, Frank. Thank you.

0:00:22 – Frank Curzio

All right, I’m going to start off with a real easy question, right? We’ve been involved in this stock for a very, very long time. I know a lot of people follow me, been in the stock for a long time, and they’re so happy to hear from you. I know there’s a period there where, you know, I’ve made a little bit quiet, but the stock was rocking and rolling. So, you know, January I think it was Q4 and for the full year 2023, you had to delay your report and then it turned out to be a much longer project than I think most of us thought. What happened during that timeframe?

0:00:56 – Scot Cohen

We basically had to end up. We ended up redoing our financials when our CFO left and we had a new team, and to the amount of work that was required to get everybody up to speed was more than anybody ever thought. And as we dug deeper and deeper and deeper, found more and more issues that just we just weren’t staffed the right way to get it back to where it needed to be. And of course we didn’t find that out until really the end of March and it just wasn’t cutting it. So now going to try to find a new auditor who basically walks is a very tough task, particularly in this environment. So out of nowhere we get hit with this and there were so many other things in the business we just had to attend to.

But this all of a sudden became Financial controls is a big critical piece for a company and quite frankly, they were lacking in the past and this is something that we had to get on right away. We switched, we found a new auditor, we brought in a new team and we fixed it. But it was a humongous body of work to get there and it took almost all the focus of the company at that time to get these financials back up. You basically redid an entire year of financials with a new team in the span of about four months. It’s a huge undertaking.

0:02:32 – Frank Curzio

So you were executive chair. Now you become the CEO. I mean, you’ve been a part of a lot of different companies and I know you don’t even have to be. You could retire if you wanted to but have you seen something like this before, where it seems like it was caught off guard? But not only that. You’re in a quiet period, you can’t say anything and people are asking me hey, frank, what’s going on? I’m like we can’t really. You know you can’t say what’s going on, right, because everything is being done. It took long than I expected. Have you ever been part of something like this where it took that long, or anything? Because it seems like the amount of work put in and I’m your friend, everything, and I know an amount of hours was incredible. But you know, now everything’s up to date, but it’s pretty crazy times, huh.

0:03:08 – Scot Cohen

Yeah, I have been part of it. I’ve seen it as an investor. It doesn’t feel good, but very here’s the difference: Very few people companies can recover from it. Typically, when you get knocked off your auditor’s walk and you’ve got a, let’s say, a, your balance sheet is where it is and you’re in the middle of a restructuring, talk about like there’s so many things that can happen to you that just put you down for good, and this is a case where we didn’t go down.

So, to answer your question, yeah, I have seen it and I’ve been part of it, and typically the companies aren’t able to come back and get themselves back current. So, yeah, I’ve seen it and typically it doesn’t work out well. But this is a case where this product, this product is really what we’re all fighting for. And when it’s clear and you get clear, like I am, this product is now not no longer a science experiment or a theoretical, it’s absolutely proven. And when you have that transformation and you’re clear on the performance of the product and where it’s gonna be, and you look at the future, you fight for it. And that’s exactly what we did and we made sure this continued to got back on track.

0:04:22 – Frank Curzio

And you were able to do this without restating anything, right, I believe. And also, in the middle of that, it looks like you could cost dramatically, your balance sheet improved and again it’s like your last sales number wasn’t that great. To be honest with you, I wasn’t expecting that. With the amount of work that you did. It seems like you had to get the foundation built and now it’s built. But people that know me do this for 30 years. I usually run away from companies like this, but just the thesis is so intact and to me this company it just it’s a no brainer of. You know, we can get more into the details of that, but yeah, there was no restatements or anything, right?

0:04:52 – Scot Cohen

No restatements, of course, restructuring we’ve shrunk the business to where it is today, but completely ready to lean into it and crank it back up when the when the business is there and we’re just meeting it. And crank it back up when the business is there and we’re just meeting it for where it is, for getting the right people on the bus and getting the right team together so we can go into this next phase, this transformation phase, which I believe we’re in right now. I’m sure we’re going to get into that.

0:05:20 – Frank Curzio

Yeah, let’s talk about that, because I look at a product and I look at tasers. I hear from a lot of chiefs specifically, I know you probably talk to a lot of chiefs because I believe it’s in your. You know, it’s not even like you’re testing this in 140 police stations, like it’s actually using it. These people have been trained. Some of these people have been trained. I mean, I don’t know how many countries it’s in, I don’t know if it’s, you know, well, over 30 or 60, I forget. But I mean this is kind of everywhere and I think people are kind of waiting on the sales part, but it’s.

It seems like when I talk to the chiefs they’re really pissed off at the current system.

It’s, it’s Axxon, it’s tasers, it’s through the tasers and we know the video feature. But tasers, I mean, you know, if you look at the record of something, that one, I don’t even think they’re being deployed as much, right, but that’s the gateway to actually get into everything else with Axxon. But once these chiefs sign with Axxon, Axxon just blows them out of the water, raise prices completely, and there’s zero competition. There’s nothing else that they could do where they’re like okay, let’s move to this service and it’s a complete monopoly in this business and where I see where you guys are penetrating this market now and you’re in it. It’s like you said, it’s not a test. I just feel like this alternative not only for the device, where it’s better, it’s the only non-lethal. It seems like a no-brainer where sales are going to be coming in. But I guess maybe talk about the device, and I don’t know if you can talk about what you’re hearing from Chiefs, but what I hear is you know they’re sick of year one, year two, these five-year contracts.

0:06:49 – Scot Cohen

It’s dramatically higher and there’s nothing they can do about it. It seems like there hasn’t been nothing new on the belt for over 30 years. Axxon, the tasers, are the last thing to hit the belt in over 30 years. This is the only device that’s been absorbed on the belt by over the level of the quantity of the departments that we’re in right now. We’re in 60 countries right now. There hasn’t been anything else. Let’s just start there Now, with regards to just Axxon essentially dominating this industry.

The market’s telling us there’s plenty of room for other people to enter the market. Yes, we enter the market with the Bowler app and, yes, we bought a body cam business. Yes, we bought a training app, a virtual reality business, and we put it together, but it lacks the real, the successful integration. What we’re doing now and that integration that we’ve had time to digest and talk and listen to, our clients, our biggest customers and small customers as well, are telling us that we need to compete end to end. The market’s telling us and our customers telling us we have to do it and we need to do it now because, for the most part, they’re running a very successful business. It’s as closed of a system as it could possibly be and it’s very hard to break into that. But once you’re on the belt you can land and expand and that’s what we’re planning. We’re on the belt and we’re going on more belts and we figured out a path and a strategy We’ll be talking about in the next call, our first real call, when we’re laying out the new strategy and vision.

But we’ll be talking about how that belt space for us there’s a place for us for that and how we see the future, because I have no doubt now, Frank, we’re going to be on every belt and every officer, not just in this country but around the world. It’s happening now. You can’t see it as much, but I’m starting to see it. I’m starting to hear it from the chiefs. There’s behavioral change happening right now, both in policy and other movements that are going on mindset movement that there might be something else to use, or they’re being forced to consider new options when there’s passive resistance and I know we’re going to get in a rich conversation about that. It’s a big term coming up and it’s a real important spot for us to play. We should not be compared to tasers. It’s a different, different tool, totally different Guns, tasers, batons, pepper spray they’re very hot. It’s a different level of force.

0:09:21 – Frank Curzio

Talk about the level of force, because there’s a big thing where this is. You know they had to change their designation of tasers to less than lethal because it has killed people. Just that interaction, especially when it comes to mental patients, right, where they’ll just come out at you, where, okay, it’s a taser or a gun, or even if someone has a knife you know, I’ve seen this in the field where you know the BolaWrap works, sounds like a gun. I’ve got shot by it, right, I’m like man, how is this not? How are we not seeing more sales in this? When I look at this device and, like I said earlier, it seems like a no-brainer.

I know you’re going to talk about strategy and if you could provide the data around that date, you’re going to do that call and everything. I don’t know how much you could talk about. How do you see this turning into where you know Chief’s like we need another, we need an alternative to an actual sale. Like is it? Did you see more data? You talked about integrating the whole package. I mean, can you talk about that? Like what’s going? How is this going to?

0:10:16 – Scot Cohen

result in sales. So in this whole narrative matters a lot in public safety and policing, so we had the wrong narrative. Let’s just start with the name of the company Wrap. Okay, it describes what we’re doing. It describes the device. But that’s what we all thought and that’s what we taught and that’s what we trained and that’s what we communicated. But it turns out not to be right.

There’s something else happening than just the wrap. It’s not just the wrap, it’s actually. It’s got sight. The three things that are happening are sight, sound and sensation.

The laser can throw you off and change your mindset. It can get you out of yourself. When you shine that laser on somebody, it changes behavior. You can see it in all the body cam footage. And then the sound itself is also a startle. I’m hearing more and more comparisons to a flashbang to get that advantage. And then, if it wraps, it wraps, great, you got it all, but if it doesn’t, you can still get your hands and take that person into custody without having to use as high levels of pain without escalating, without having to use as high as levels of pain without escalating.

See, we’ve been describing it wrong and we’ve been training in a way that wasn’t as integrated as it should be. And when you integrate defensive tactic training with our BolaWrap training and you spend the time to get connected and truly deliver a message and go over and you get repetition in and you have to really land narrative, land narrative, land narrative. So it’s in the officer’s head and it’s they really, truly believe it, their confidence level starts to increase. That’s where you see usage increase. We’re seeing a 75% to almost sometimes three to four times in some cases, spikes in usage when we’re having a real engaged, integrating training moment. And so the difference between extensive usage and just sitting there and not really seeing the numbers to me is all about how we land integrated training and how we stay connected. And that is something we’re innovating on, that’s something we’ve been working on and that’s something you’re going to hear more and more about. Not just our clients but our investors will hear how we’re executing on that. It’s going to make a big difference.

0:12:38 – Frank Curzio

Now how many forces are currently? Is it over 140,? I think law enforcement agencies. Do you know the numbers on it?

0:12:44 – Scot Cohen

We’re in 60 countries, we’re in over 1,000 departments. How many are actively using it? Yeah, tough to tell because they don’t always report, and so the only way a lot of times that we get to know that they’re using it is the reordering of cartridges. But what we’re seeing is not just reordering of cartridges, reordering of more units. So they started with a dozen, they’ve gone to 20. And we’re seeing them indicate for more no-transcript and and here’s where I’m starting to get a lot more confidence we’re seeing I’m I am hearing from our biggest con, our biggest customers taser uses going down.

I see them. They’re not you, because of the policies. Policies are changing. They’re making it more difficult if you’re not being attacked or if you’re not a threat. In many states certainly plenty of departments you can’t go to your gun and you can’t go to taser. It’s it’s it’s fairly nuanced and as that trend continues, if that’s the trend we’re on, it’s debatable. It’s going to. It’s not going to be this way in every state or every department. It’s going to be a variety of different policies. This way in every state or every department. It’s gonna be a variety of different policies. That will be forever. But this is a trend and this is why my confidence has really started. It’s going a lot higher. It’s just it’s coming from the customers. The customers are talking to us and we’re listening. I’ve spoken to, I met with our top 10 accounts in the last six months and I’ve spoken at dozens of chiefs, major cities and smaller cities and talked to a lot of policymakers. It is there is real, real movement. You’re going to see and that’s where I think you’re just going to start opening up and you’re going to start to see domestic volumes finally catch up.

Problem is, in the past we weren’t able to really get clear forecasts. It was choppy. It was a new company, a new product. Nobody likes change. Nobody likes change period. Nobody likes change. Nobody likes change period. Public safety and change, policing, changing I mean no, no new tool in 30 years. It’s, it’s. It’s. It’s not going to just happen overnight.

The mistake I think the expectations were so high. You saw it, you saw it work. It wrapped around somebody perfectly, and everybody’s like this is going to be the next thing. It’s going to be everywhere, and that’s common thinking. You see it. Seeing is the next thing. It’s going to be everywhere, and that’s common thinking. Just see it. Seeing is believing. Well, guess what it’s not actually true. It takes more. It takes narrative support, it takes training support, it takes real teamwork to support that customer, that client that we’ve got, and make sure they know we’re there for them and we have to be fully connected. And when you’re seeing that, when you get there, the results are speaking for themselves and it’s exciting.

We can’t cover the whole country, we just can’t. We’re not big enough. Yeah, maybe a couple years ago we had a lot more staff, possibly be better, but now, as a result of technology, we believe and you’ll hear about this we have a more efficient way to train that doesn’t cost us what it used to cost us. Our business model, our go-to-market is a lot more efficient than it’s ever been and now we can go build something special because the ground is finally firm. It’s not hoping that we’re getting this big order and that’s going to solve all problems. No, we fundamentally got deep into the people, into the systems and the controls, to make sure, when this happens because it’s happening, that we’re set and it’s sustainable, because we got a long way to go. There’s a long way to go here. We’re barely. We haven’t even scratched the surface here.

0:16:32 – Frank Curzio

Yeah, and that sounds great too, because it’s I mean I did it with my business too right. I mean you just want to excel into growth mode without really building the foundation. It seems like, you know, although this was a reset I think it was you know it’s a reset that was painful, I think, for everyone for shareholders I know you’re the largest shareholder, I know you haven’t sold shares. You know just how you have the cost structure in place and what you do and and and, not just a story, because we just saw news come out which I thought was fantastic this week which was from Virginia. Maybe you can go into that, because it’s not like, hey, we’re seeing this or this is going to happen. I mean, this is a very popular governor that people heard of that. That was saying very, very, very positive things, saying we are supporting this, we get behind it. Why don’t you talk about that?

0:17:18 – Scot Cohen

news that you just released, uh, this week, about Virginia. Yeah, so it started off by by by moving there for incentives. That um made sense to us. But then as we started our visits, we started to see the labor pool um, a lot of talent there at very different prices we’re seeing in Arizona. So from an economic standpoint, with the stimulus, the incentive package and the talent pool, that was enough to start those meetings and start the process. But we didn’t expect the governor to be the governor to be so engaged. It just started happening.

Governor Youngkin is a special human being. He can be doing anything he wants, but he chooses to serve the people. He chooses to take his time to make his state and his country a better, safer place. It’s deep inside of him. You can tell when you have somebody like that, a leader that’s been able to connect the community, the public safety community, the political community and the business leadership community and bring in a company like ours. That’s talent, that’s what it takes to build a business, to connect.

This is a public, it’s a public company, it’s a public safety play.

I mean, you got a leader like Governor Youngkin who cares, who’s making the phone calls, who’s spending his time with us talking to us about the problems in school safety, hospital safety, use of force.

He’s into, he’s, he cares about this and he and he is clearly respected around the world.

So, when you add up everything and the opportunity, if we can just get Virginia right and, by the way, we have over 10 percent of the departments already carry BolaWraps in the state of Virginia, we’ve trained over 4000 officers it’s closer to Washington, which, under this new leadership, we plan on being much more active in Washington because that sets up the global play for us and there’s a lot of federal business for us to do. So now, as a result of being closer and being on the East Coast, we think this is just close to where our customers are. This is closer to the federal government and get one state right and the data that we’re starting to see should open it up for the rest of the country. This is not that difficult to understand with the data and we haven’t had the data yet, but we’re hearing about it, we’re starting to record it and we’re doing things going forward that’s going to make the data crystal clear. Just something that needed to get done. It’s getting done now.

0:19:55 – Frank Curzio

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0:21:30 – Scot Cohen

No, it does not. Right now, unfortunately it is not doing that, but it does for a taser, right.

0:21:36 – Frank Curzio

So I feel like they’re more inclined to take out BolaWrap, which is not going to tape, just because sometimes it should be recorded event. But compared to any of the tasers, sometimes if you don’t do anything it’s not going to be recorded event. If I’m an officer, I’m going to be honest with you. If I’m an officer and I know one of these things are going to record, one of these things aren’t going to record, I’m probably going to pull out the thing. If it’s the same situation where I know the BolaWrap could help us, you know someone just who’s approaching me that I’m saying hey, don’t come any closer. You know, again, with no weapon, I as an officer, I would pull out the BolaWrap instead of because you know just not to get recorded.

But then, how did they get the data? Because the data, it seems like once they get this data, that’s where you, again, when it comes to I know police officers and a lot of industries, it’s you know, just look at it. Whatever data says, that’s it. We need to see the data, we don’t care, we just need to see the data. But how do you get the data recorded?

0:22:23 – Scot Cohen

So they still record. It’s just not. We’re not connected to that. We don’t have a device connecting. So it’s automatically recording. It’s something we’re building in for this next generation.

But right now the way it’s still recorded on body cam. For the most part it depends on whatever policy you’re working with, whatever municipality or department you’re in. So it does it’s department specific. So, look, frank, it’s not, it’s not, hey, I’m not going to get recorded. So therefore I’m going to use the BolaWrap. It’s more. What’s going to get reported? That’s a question because if you have to report on use of force, which most cities you do wrap right now is non-reportable. In over half of the jurisdictions we’re in right now Over 500 departments their policy reflects a not, it’s not a use, a reportable use of force. Now I’m not going to sit there and argue with city legislators whether it should be or shouldn’t be, but I’m just giving you the state of the union right now and that’s fine. But I believe the data that we’re looking for when we complete this system and here’s the new news, you saw it on today’s press release this is going to be a integrated system solution. This is no longer selling a device. You can’t win with the device, you have to sell the whole system, and when you’re selling a system, you’re absolutely recording everything and that’s when we’re going to get the data that we need to win, because this gives officers an advantage they never had before.

When you’re looking at somebody and they’re passively resistant and they say no, frank, I’m not, or no officer, I’m not putting my hands up or I’m not interested, leave me alone. You got a choice. It’s training from here. So are you going to your gun, taser, baton, pepper spray? What are you going to? Are you going to use a force? No, it’s voice, it’s voice, it’s voice. But depending on the level of resistance, you have a choice, and that’s if they’re not armed and they’re not a threat. That’s when we suggest and the training is get your ball out, be ready, because it gives you an advantage.

You know who wins there. Everybody wins, but the officer stays safer because when he goes, he or she goes hands-on. That’s where people get hurt and it’s dangerous. When you wrestle somebody and you’re in a hands-on situation, guess what? They have access to your belt. You’re gone. Your taser, you don’t. It’s not a place you want to be. It’s just not a place you want to be. This is a behavioral change. It is new. It’s taking time. We think we figured out what the problem was. It was narrative and integrated lack of integrated training. We’re on it, we’ve called it out, we’re fixing it it.

0:25:20 – Frank Curzio

We’re putting, we’ve called it out, we’re fixing it. So rap is the largest position in my portfolio, one of my biggest positions, and there’s a reason why for that. When I look at axon, uh, we’re looking at. You know which is the taser? Right, they make tasers called Axxon. Now, uh, switch their names for the right reasons, they don’t call themselves tasers anymore.

$50 billion market cap, 2 billion in sales, 50 billion market cap. I see your market cap at 70 million and I’m looking at 4 million in sales, where you, basically, you know you’re trading at a lower multiple actually than they are right now. Yet, when I see the Virginia orders, when I see how big that’s gonna be, when I constantly see you know, when I see how big that’s going to be, when I constantly see people talking about and different police departments talking about, but, more importantly, one of the biggest things that I’ve seen, which is incredible, is international. Okay, I said earlier, in 60 different countries, and Chile just announced their 2025 budget. Okay, this is coming from them saying that they have $38 million remember doing $4 million in sales allocated for 2025, right for their budget, for the purchase of 10 500 BolaWraps now. So let’s get approved, right, but they actually have the uniforms that are being made with the pocket that’s going to include that, right, so it’s, you know, with a pocket specially made for the BolaWrap. That is one country and one order.

Could you go into the international because I know you’re very safe? I I felt like you uh, you know, optimistic in the past because of how enthused they were, these countries, because they really against taser, right, I believe they think that that’s like a use of force and you know it’s brutal force on criminals, like they’re totally against it. But could you talk about the international demand? Because this one order, again, it’s in their budget, this is them reporting and I know you don’t say a thing about it because you’re saying, oh well, might not happen. It looks like to me it is going to happen for them to do that and actually make the uniforms. But that’s just one country. How is the international demand? What are you seeing there? Do you have meetings and whatever you could talk about? I think would be really cool.

0:27:15 – Scot Cohen

Part of the new strategy we’ll be talking about in our call. You’re going to see a lot more connectivity with the federal government. We believe that our product is in line with the US foreign policy and the US agenda for overseas. We’re looking to deescalate, looking to create and keep peace. A lot of the countries that we’re in are not carrying guns or tasers and we think that, as a result of us, what I’m seeing is that connectivity with our federal government where we are overseas is what’s going to help us push over these deals and get them over the line. There are, like you said, chili alone. Just that we’re being told. That’s I mean, I think it was public, it’s every uniform, it’s going to be every officer.

0:28:06 – Frank Curzio

So it’s materially different than that first 33 million that was in that budget which I think is like I don’t know, maybe 40 000, I want to say 35 000, when I, when I research it, this is like 25%, just 25%. They’re talking right now, so yeah.

0:28:21 – Scot Cohen

Yeah, well, it’s. Yeah, I think that particular force is about 31,000, but there’s also two other forces for a total of 100,000. We haven’t even started talking about the security guards. So it’s just. It’s actually bigger, Frank. It’s no different than dozens of countries. Yes, it’s further Okay, and the first one’s the toughest one. We’re another. I mean, I told you we’re in 60 countries. We’re not big like this potential, but the conversation is not just a dozen or 20 or 100 or 1,000. It’s full deployment from all their officers. This is a trend. I see it advancing.

And look at how Chili started Started off with a fairly small order and then training and a lot of footwork to get it to where it is. The team did an incredible job. Getting it to where it is Just takes time. Never before have we seen it in the budget. So this is the first. It’s new. It’s a hell of a validator for the company. From a shareholder perspective, we’re winning in a very big way.

Assuming we can execute on that, and I believe we can, I’m optimistic and I don’t think Chile’s an isolated incident.

In fact, I know it’s not because the conversations we’re having with other countries are just so clear and, to me, the more, we’re referencing usage and, as we’re discussing and explaining the training in a way that relates to them a little bit better and it mostly coming from really respecting their current practices and bringing and and and and figuring out the integration of the BolaWrap program with their current practices is what’s landing a little bit stronger and I think it’s more and more. Confidence takes time, but the end of the day, the results we’re having almost zero mechanical issues. This thing is working. I am so proud of the engineering team for what they put together. They did a great job and it took time, as you know. I mean still a lot of the fixes were done in the last couple of years, but we put a lot of money and time into the development of the unit. Now I think it’s stable. It’s actually performing really nicely and as we land this training, it should be extremely clear because the data is going to be crystal clear.

0:30:49 – Frank Curzio

And that’s just one. That’s just one country we’re talking about with this. You know many others and I like you being very upfront saying you know it’s not like that big in all the countries, but we are having conversations like that. How is it bureaucracy, I mean, is it difficult? Because I know it seems like in the US okay, you got to go through the training and I get it, but it seems like the orders are small.

And I covered taser when it was single digit stock 15 years ago, uh, when I used to work for Kramer and saw it like the orders were all over the place. You’re lumpy, which hurt. You know the stocks all over the place, you know it’s all based on orders and now they have a system in place where you know the taser is basically meaningless. It’s the gateway and here we’re going to sell the data. We’re going to sell the data. We’re going to charge 13X more for the cloud yes, that’s true and I looked it up and because when you charge the government, they really don’t care what they pay. So there’s no checks and balances there. It’s not a real company.

So how do you get in? Is it more difficult on the international front? Because I know the orders, like you said, 10,000, 15,000, they could be these monster orders of change. I mean just put that in perspective. I mean getting this order, even if you spread out over two years, and say, if it was 20 million and 20 million, just say, and you put the multiple on what is it? I wouldn’t put 25 times 20. I mean you look at a market cap of 400 million when you’re at 70 million. I mean you guys could do how much that is for the stock price on one order.

But is it difficult to be more bureaucratic there? Is it harder to penetrate? I mean, or is this, you know, could this happen a lot quicker than the US?

0:32:14 – Scot Cohen

What’s nice about Chile is the gold standard of Latin America. So everybody looks to them for policy and pristine governance and training and vetting of technology and training. So the fact that we’re starting there. I believe and I’ve heard that throughout the region that once you get chilly, the rest of the region will fall. It’s the gold standard and everybody’s watching.

We have the same not so similar in the States, let’s face it public safety, policing and just in life in general, we follow what’s working. We want to know who else is using. We want to know how much, how often, they’re using. We want to see how they’re using it. Very similar You’re seeing major cities change, behavior change. Right now this is all post-Floyd. It’s taken a while to set in. Policies have changed. I’m seeing policies change and when they change, behavior changes. That’s the intent of the policies and none of this is around escalating force. I can assure you it’s going the other way. We’ve got the only game in town here Right now. There’s no competition. I’m sure somebody’s going to show up. They’re showing up overseas, but the beautiful thing about this is let them show up. It’s not just the device, it’s the way we train, it’s the integration, it’s the system solution and to answer your question about when we come into these governments yeah, they’re bureaucratic and yeah, it takes time.

What I’m loving right now? You saw that on today’s announcement, we’re now going end-to-end integration. We are offering almost everything our competitors are and more. We will offer more. So now, all of a sudden, we’re not just having a BolaWrap conversation. We’re talking body cam, we’re talking training, we’re talking drones and cyber. Right now, people want to deal with one shop and when you’re there with the decision makers, we’ll see how this goes.

It’s early innings, but what I’m feeling right now and I think the team is seeing there’s a real interest to do business with another company um states. There’s one dominant player in the states, maybe two overseas. It’s a little bit more um of a variety of different competitors. But what I’m finding is it’s easier than I thought to get into these connected conversations and what we’re seeing is costs have come down dramatically, pipelines going up. That’s where we want to be, because when this stuff starts hitting, you’re going to see it right in our earnings because the costs are so down. We’ve made, we’ve developed the and that we’re not. We don’t. We’ve got that $25 million worth of inventory at MSRP that we’ve stockpiled, we’re going to sell and when we do it goes right to cash and it’s really going to. The market will see this. If we’re successful, or should say when we’re successful, and I think that multiple taser, I would think our axon, I would think are we traded at a higher multiple because we should be growing faster?

0:35:16 – Frank Curzio

There’s a lot of mark to grab right here so when’s the date that you say you got to come out for for investors? Is that coming up?

0:35:25 – Scot Cohen

we’re um, we haven’t set the date yet. We want to do it before year end. We have an annual meeting coming up. Do it before year end. We have an annual meeting coming up right before year end and we’re going to either do it, we’ll most likely do it afterwards, I really want to do it 24 and we’ll get into 25. I prefer to do it 24. So we’ll send out notice shortly. It has to be in the next week or so. We’ll probably set up notice.

0:35:46 – Frank Curzio

Cool Because I think investors too, even from when people talk to me, you know there’s not much I could say what you know during that that period, but now you know. I just tell them hey, you know what it’s my largest position. I know you haven’t sold a share in the stock, but it’s when you see the potential upside, you see there’s only monopoly in there. I guess my next question is what makes them so great, exxon and Axxon and their great uh company is is the data portion right and the margins on the data they will charge? How you’re talking about this whole solution and you talk about drones as well, which is, you know, huge.

Yeah, it’s getting bigger and bigger, huge growth market with drones and capturing and safety and stuff. You know how do you? How do you get to the data component where and maybe I’m thinking too far ahead, because once you start selling this device, it it’s going to be huge. But to turn yourself into, say, a multi-billion dollar company, right with the data, how do you provide that solution? Is it hard to say if it’s a different country, say if it’s Chile, say if it’s Virginia, a state, when they purchase BoloWrap and they purchase a solution in the trading, how does that filter down to where? Hey, we also have the data. Is it data for everyone? Is it data exclusive to Exxon? Is it a new data system? Can you explain that part, because that’s another level where holy cow this thing? Now you’re talking about a multi-billion dollar company.

0:36:59 – Scot Cohen

I’m going to correct you for a sec. The difference, the transformation. Yes, we’re growing data, but it’s not the data’s transforming, it’s actually the people. You’re going to see a quality of people in this company soon that will reflect where the plan is going, where our vision is. It’s the people with the backgrounds that, when you put the data and the tools to work, that’s going to be executing on that. That’s the execution of the vision and that the people, the talent, the background and experience, combined with these new tools that are already available.

So, to address that, a year or two years ago, for us to try to pull this off and provide these solutions, these data solutions, would have been we wouldn’t have the talent or we have the money to put the talent together to provide those solutions. Today, it’s a fraction of the cost and what we’re finding. There’s a number of companies that have very, I would say, prolific solutions that can go against. I actually find some of them to be better than the tools currently on the market. That need help, that need representation, that want to be part of our family, because they see us as a leader, they see us as an innovator, they see us on the belt and a segue for them to kind of come in under us. So there’s a handful of companies weren’t actually not making all these tools, but we’re partnering and bringing them underneath us and in some cases we will make it on ourself on. In some cases it will just be an integration model. So the access to these tools is there’s so much more available than they’ve been before, and I know you, as you’re watching a lot of this AI development there’s so much work and there’s so much application for the AI to make us more efficient and safer. Think about just all the video footage that’s out there and to be it’s tiresome, it takes forever to go through it. But now, with the AI, you can get to really evaluate whether your tool or your training was effective or what really happened, and you know what all that does. At the end of the day, it makes us safer.

I’m hopeful, I know that between the drone programs that departments are using and the way they’re going about it, we’re going to be able to get ahead okay using tech of these situations before they escalate, and that’s exactly what we’re about. When you’re de-escalating something, I mean and it’s training, it’s de-escalation training Get it Our tool. I want you to think about it as a containment tool. Yeah, it’s restraint, but it contains someone without using paint to get you in compliance, and it gives officers an advantage that they never had before. And we’re seeing it work.

We’re watching the data come in and we know it’s just a matter of time. We got to get the right partners, we got to be end to end and we got to put the right team in place, which we’re doing now to make this a full-on competitor for the marketplace, and the market is telling us to compete. The market is telling us go and offer that, because the biggest clients, the biggest cities I’ve spoken to in the last two months, the chiefs, the biggest cities in the country, and they’re all asking can we please come in and compete for this business? And guess what we’re going to actually do that? I’m just not going to sit there and just listen to that request. We’re going to take action and it’s now.

0:41:01 – Frank Curzio

So let me ask you a personal question. When all this went down, I mean this is really big. You’re looking at six months right Going through the books new order, restructuring the business, not to mention new baby on the way a lot going on Again. You’re someone that didn’t have to become the CEO and you can retire if you wanted to, and right now it’s really nice seeing you like this, compared to just in the past and stuff you feel like you got energized. Um, any chance that you were like man, holy cow, I don’t know if I could do this or whatever, because now it seems like the amount of work that you put in and you could just see it, the reflection of that, I know you, of how excited you are now. I mean, does that make you much stronger now going through that process? And, um, you know, talk a little bit about that, because I know it could have been probably easy for you to walk away with everything going on.

0:41:49 – Scot Cohen

Look, frank, I mean would I have liked all the past leadership just to work out. Of course it would have been amazing. I mean, it’s just a high five moment, but I guess life just isn’t that easy and it’s not that you know, it just doesn’t work that way. It was a startup, you know, launching something new in a market, and the expectations are really high. I mean we traded at a half a billion dollar mark cap. Our stock was 15, raised $100 million on the way. Expectations are high, and for good reason, because I think it’s clear that once this gets the data behind it, it’s going to be everywhere. So I understand why the expectations are high. But from an investor standpoint which I am if you’re not performing, you can’t be afraid to make changes, and we did. Change is hard, but I’m not going to do the same thing. You know the definition of sanity do the same thing over and over, and that is what we were doing. I mean, you can say there was a twist here and twist there, but no, we took this thing. We had to do what we had to do. We met the business where it is.

I am the biggest investor in this company and I care deeply about it. To me it is absolute legacy and for all our investors, for you and everybody that owns a share. I hope that you feel the same way. This should be legacy for all of us. It doesn’t have to be unique to me. We’re doing something important here. What we do matters and it’s going to have impact, not just right now, but for your kids and their kids. You’re going to see that this is a serious behavioral change impact that we’re making right now. This is higher purpose, for sure, and it just so happens our shareholders have a chance to get really rewarded if we do this right, and I believe we’re on perfect ground. Right, it’s stable for the first time.

The expectation I’m fine with. Now. I know team members. We put the controls in place. We’re putting the team members in place. We’re putting the new go-to-market narrative strategy. It’s happening now. You’ll hear about it more in detail, but I’m proud of where we are. I feel the best I felt about this business from the day we started. It’s transformed the whole time, but now, with the move to the East Coast, this is deep. This was necessary and, yeah, to answer your question, we are more resilient than we’ve ever been. We can stand up. We went through a lot, Frank, to get here. There’s no turning back, then we’re going to do it.

0:44:24 – Frank Curzio

That’s great, listen. I think investors are going to look forward to that meeting. It’s a couple of weeks before the year, hopefully, but um, I really appreciate you coming on. I mean, it’s not easy. I know a lot of people have been frustrated the way the stock’s been acting, but to me, I always saw it where the thesis is very well intact and at the end of the day, that’s all I care about. Is my investors right? I’m not getting paid marketing dollars or anything. This is. I have a bigger position. I’m sure most people do so. I feel it as well. But just to see where we are right now at this price and the opportunity in front of us, it really looks incredible. So you know, again, it’s all about execution. I think everybody knows that. But you know, coming on explaining that and going through in the humble part is really, really cool. And then you can see I think people can see that you’re very motivated to really take this to the next level. So I really appreciate coming on. That means a lot. Appreciate your support and confidence.

0:45:06 – Scot Cohen

Thank you.

0:45:09 – Announcer

Wall Street Unplugged is produced by Curzio Research, one of the most respected financial media companies in the industry. The information presented on Wall Street Unplugged is the opinion of its host and guests. You should not base your investment decisions solely on this broadcast. Remember, it’s your money and your responsibility.

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