Busy next few days as I’m going to ground to ferret out some new stories. As is tradition, I like to tell you ahead of time who I’m chatting with so you can familiarize yourself with the stories.
Last week, newsletter writer Nick Hodge turned over the furniture at VANC Pharmaceuticals (NPH.V), telling his readers he was getting out and that they should sell into the market price. Seemed an odd instruction, especially given he was into the stock a few weeks earlier and they’d put out decent numbers.
Hodge apparently wasn’t happy that the story wasn’t being told properly, that the recent financials weren’t press released, and that the marketing costs to pharmacists that carry VANC products was included in the sale price as per auditor instructions, not as a post-sale cost.
But Hodge’s words almost seemed personal, rather than professional, especially given that hge included stablemate Moseda Technologies (MSD.V) in his sell instruction.
Moseda’s only involvement with VANC is that both deals have been managed by Core Capital, formerly Hamza Thindal. I spoke to Kam Thindal about this, to see if there had been any shade thrown Hodge’s way, and he said no, that he was surprised by the call as Hodge had been gungho on the stocks not long ago.
I tried to get Hodge to comment but he doesn’t answer phone calls or tweets unless he has to, but others who have had dealings with him tell me he’s known to be tough to get in on a stock, and quick to bail on the other side.
VANC is getting creamed this week as a result of the flap, from $0.52 down to $0.38, and might be worth considering as the thing bleeds out and finds a new base.
But, on the plus side, it gave me a chance to chat to Thindal about Moseda, a company I’d covered way back before it was even public, and watched through a series of terrible name changes – MobSafety (referring to mobile safety) to MoSeDa (Mobile Security Data), and to its new incarnation – Reliq.
Thindal admits the new name hasn’t been overly popular (“Yeah, it sounds like relic, but we tried twenty different combos of names and couldn’t get good URLs on any of them, and it’s from the latin..”), but name be damned – a brief chat with new CEO Dr Lisa Crossley was eye opening.
Moseda has transitioned to a company that is engaged in the business of tooling up a patient’s home with sensors, wearables, and a direct line hook-up to family, friends, doctors and caregivers so that, when grandma doesn’t take her meds, an alert goes out. And when she hasn’t moved for twelve hours – an alert goes out. And when she doesn’t understand how to take use this gizmo she’s been given to measure her blood sugar, a 2-way voice connection puts her in touch with someone who can talk her through it.
This is a long way from the old model, of connecting medical devices in a hospital and helping them talk to the cloud, and further still from the initial plan, of hooking up logistics equipment so you could see where your hardware is when the transport fleet is out.
But I’ll take a solid pivot over a relentless persistence of a broken model any day of the week, and Crossely has her company engaged in serious pilot programs with serious US health entities right now.
Previously, I talked about Moseda a lot and saw the stock rise from $0.07 to as much as $0.35, presenting a big win for regular readers. Today I’m seeing a nice swell forming from today’s $0.21, with a much firmer business case in place, a recent acquisition that amped up the company’s offerings, and the potential of more to come. I’ll be doing a podcast call with Crossley soon, with any luck, to really flesh out the story.
Also in the works – talking to the folks at Distinct Infrastructure (DUG.V), which is in a weird place right now.
Everyone who looks at DUG likes DUG. It’s Lite Access Technologies (LTE.C) but with more revenue, more business, in more places, doing more things – and with a market cap that’s nearly half LTE’s.
But DUG has a problem – and it’s one shared by many companies that don’t have lithium in their name – they’re seeing investors pulling their cash from good long term strategies like DUG to take advantage of the gold rush that is coming from random lithium stocks.
I know I’m guilty of this – I’ve made good money buying stocks that I have
no idea about but are running on the lithium craze, and would have been a fool not to. When a rush hits, you ride it.
But meanwhile, back at the ranch, DUG is booking serious revenue and growing quickly. The current $0.125 share price doesn’t reflect the reality on the ground at all.
I talked about LTE back when it was $0.45 last year and needed help to scale quickly. Credit where its due, they marketed the hell out of that stock, to the point where, today, one wonders if there’s value left in the ticker. But there’s most definitely value in DUG. Stupid value. Will be talking to them tomorrow for details.
Secova Metals (SEK.V) is a company I talked to about six weeks ago and wanted to dive in harder on, but they’ve been super busy getting their company cleaned up and ready for a run.
That run looked like it was happening when the stock went from $0.045 to $0.95 in a few days, but has settled down again in the time since. Looking forward to connecting with Morgan Good and seeing what’s progressed.
Lastly, talking to the new honchos at IBC advanced Alloys (IB.V) who have got themselves into a company that I’ve long fantasized about owning. The tech that company has is insanely great, and they’re dealing with companies that supply the US military, but it has long been beaten down through a lack of financing. From what I hear, this is changing. I’ll share what I learn late in the week.
That’s it for now.
If any pubcos would like to be added to this list, catch me on Linkedin.
–C.