VSBLTY Groupe Technologies Corp. (VSBY) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Okay. Welcome everybody to Wall Street Reporters Next Super Stock Live for December 16, 2021. We're closing out the year with a bang with one of our top-performing stocks over the last 12 months, VSBLTY Group. VSBGF over-the-counter. VSBY for all Canadians. And of course, Jay Hutton, CEO. Jay, welcome back.

Thank you, Jack. Good morning. Good afternoon.

Absolutely. Now Jay, VSBY has been really -- again, one of our top performing stocks in -- this is just in the last, well, 12 months. I think last year, this time, you were about $0.45. Recently went to $2. Of course, it started off at $0.17. So it's already been a 10x from the beginning, over 5x in 2021. But of course, what people want to know is, what's the path ahead for the next 12 months? Is this going to be our first 100 bagger? Jay, again, we've had [ head ] baggers, 20 baggers. We need that 100 bagger. And with everything that you have -- I mean like really VSBY has all the key ingredients to be that stock, which has that 100x upside, the markets you're addressing, the multiple catalysts -- I mean it's some of the incredible things that I want to kind of dive into today. And of course, the main thing is we want to open up for audience questions. I mean that's the big idea. So again, Jay, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions and then everybody, please submit your questions through a live chat and then decide for yourself, if VSBY is going to be our next -- or first 100 bagger stock?

So Jay, let's -- I think we should do maybe like a quick recap. Where -- what you've accomplished in the last 12 months, which has been a lot. I mean where the company was in the last December, really where you are now and then where you're going. So should we really start off with -- you have three different aspects; so should we start off with the store as medium business, Modeloramas...

Well, I -- we talked a little bit about this before airtime, Jack. And so I kind of wrote some crib notes on I would respond to that question. And allow me just a couple of minutes here just to review the year. The first -- the year started with -- I mean the most significant point of the year was the announcement of the letter of intent with AB InBev, which 60 days later -- maybe 45 days later, became a joint venture. Now we -- I keep referencing back to that whenever I have an opportunity to speak to shareholders either privately or in a public environment like this. And I do believe, and others do believe as well that so little about that deal has been disclosed. And so little about that deal has been fully appreciated. There's 2 components of value to that deal. I'm sorry, I'm going to make my review slightly longer, I will be as quick as I can. Certainly, there's license revenue that comes out of that deal by the end of year 4, that's in the neighborhood of $10 million to $15 million a year in license revenue, which goes directly to VSBLTY, and doesn't get diluted by participation in the JV. But of greater interest -- well, not greater interest, but certainly greater impact in that deal is the media revenue. What we're building here is a 50,000 store minimum, right, it could go bigger than that, network that connects small mom-and-pop, 12-to-15 square meter retail locations, initially in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. That's underway. It's in a few thousand stores at the moment. And we're at -- although I'm not -- because it's so competitive in this marketplace, and I could name 3 or 4 competitors that have similar aspirations, [indiscernible] enormous partner is asking us to keep the lid on some of the cadence details. And even though I reject that as a public company CEO in lots of ways, I kind of have to respect that idea. And balance -- the benefit of talking about it in detail versus blowing up a relationship. Go ahead.

It presents a good opportunity for an upside surprise, down -- a little bit down the road because when you...

And this is precisely the point I was about to make. The upside to -- listen, I'm excited about the license revenue. It's what fuels our fire. It gets our juices flowing. But the greater win in the ABI deal, which I believe is not fully appreciated, is the media value. That media value by the time we get to year 4, 45,000 roughly stores, its a $260 million media value, which 7 months ago was prospective, was a guess work. But now that we're in and selling and having brands buy media. We now know that our prognostications in terms of the value of those impressions delivered is right. And the best part about that is we now have behind us validation of the media spend. We have validation of the core business model. At the end of the day, the license revenue is wonderful and fantastic, but doesn't do anything to support the hypothesis of the business model. The only way that, that business model is supported and validated is that the brands, PepsiCo, Bimbo, et cetera, buy the space. The brands are buying the space. That's the bottom line. The brands are now buying the space, which derisks the thing as we go forward. I mean, from my point of view, especially in the third and fourth quarter, when this began to happen in a way that is material and repeatable, we've not only had brands buy the space, Jack, but we've had brands rebuy the space. So it's not like they buy at one time, "Oh my gosh, that was a terrible investment. Let's never do that again." It's more like, "Oh my gosh, that was a great investment, let's re-up." So we've now got 2022 contracts on the media side coming on to the books, which means that from our perspective, because we have a 33% ownership participation in the media revenue, we're going to pay all the costs of the network. But when we get those distributions, which are coming slightly faster than we thought, they're going to be material. And I can put that beside my license revenue as a way to fortify and validate the deal.

Okay. So very important, I think -- so one of the big -- I think one of the -- I guess the big takeaways in the last year, I think when you first came on program last year, you didn't really -- you were just in the early stages of the ad sales. Or did you start some of the ads by then or no?

So the best part about this is the joint venture has actually created its own management team, okay? I don't spend every moment of every day selling ads on the ABI Network. There are people, professionals who have done this before doing that. And so -- because I sit on the [ Board of Winkle ] as the representative visibility, I get immediate updates and cadence reports, and that sort of thing. And in the last 60 days, my confidence has grown by leaps and bounds because that team is executing. And we're now seeing -- as we modify and adjust our cash flows and performance for the JV, going forward, I see that now manifestly delivering on the promise of the media revenue, which to me was the great unknown. I'm media-conscious. I'm media -- aware. I know the space, but I'm not the media guy. So that was always the risk of the model, right? I'm a software guy. So we build software and capabilities to support that media sell, but we're not that media cell. That's the first part. And the second part is...

Jay, this is a little bit like Google. The guys, they start -- they knew about software, they knew how to do search. But Nobody really knew could these guys actually sell those ads, or same thing with Facebook. So nobody knew Facebook could sell ads. When they started, nobody will know, and they did. So it's just the same thing here.

I turned around slightly.

And you're the Google of the physical ...

Sure, but I would say that I didn't know if we could sell it. Sure. That's an appropriate characterization. But more importantly, I didn't know brands were going to buy it. And I know that sounds like it's the same side of -- different side of the same coin. But what's really valuable here is that brands are seeing the value of in-store media impressions. And that's the big takeaway. I can tell you something else.

And this is relatively new. I mean this store as medium concept. I mean, with digital, it's still [ hypertargeting ]. It's still a new concept for a lot of these guys because you're basically...

It's not hyperbole to talk about us owning a pioneering in leadership position in this category. It's not hyperbole. I mean it sounds crazy for a small cap. We've recently had Boston Consulting Group, as I think I may have mentioned to you before, saying the store articulating as a media channel is a $100 billion business by '25. This is from almost nowhere. So...

Boston Consulting Group told you this?

Yes. And I can actually make that available. We'll actually put it on our website. I know that shareholders will probably want to see. I'm going to make a quick note to do that.

Yes, please. We never talked about it before. This is we're getting some new information scores medium $100 billion.

So this isn't guess work. This isn't conjecture anymore. Certainly, there were years when as we were pointing away in the evangelical segment of the creation of this business. We are absolutely shouting, and maybe no one was hearing. But now we're at a point where there's a real inflection going on. Walmart has created their own media company. Target has created their own media company. This is underway right now. Absolutely. And I was going to make a quick point about the ABI thing because there's 2 parts of that relationship that we're navigating on a regular basis. First of all, we're co-managing and co-owning the cadence of the media sales. So ABI is involved, we're involved. There's high collaboration going on. But once you build a network that connects all these stores together, you have to start thinking about what other things you can do of value to ABI to eliminate the pain. And we will soon be talking about projects, but we've just now added 2 additional revenue-producing projects, which aren't advertising-based. They're not based upon creating brand new revenue. They're based upon creating operational efficiencies in the stores. Once you have a network, what are the things that you can do using IoT, digital infrastructure and network to be able to inform the brand or the owner of the infrastructure, what's going on. And parts of these are built upon planogram compliance -- for those of you that understand how in-store works, eliminating fraud and planogram compliance, understanding inventory management. Computer vision is uniquely equipped to address those problems. Now I understand that, that's maybe a bit in the weeds, but the point here is, now that we've established a working relationship with ABI, it's trusted. It's collaborative, we're doing other things that create new revenue, which is exactly the hypothesis on why we did this.

Okay. Look, it's really interesting because they're -- basically -- okay, so it's sort of -- I don't want to use the word Trojan horse, but like once you're inside the stores -- once you're inside these stores, you have this massive network, there's a lot of additional things, services you can layer on top. So right now, you have the ad business, you have the security component business, and now there is this third aspect, which -- well, call it...

Third and fourth aspect, think of the power of connecting in real time all of the transactions occurring across a 10,000-location network, as an example.

Should we refer to this as the big data aspect of the business? Is this...

It's all big data. You talk to any major brands, pick one of the top 2,000 brands in the world, and the most strategic thing -- I should modify at end of my comments. The #1 strategic thing -- and this is odd, 2 years ago, I wouldn't be saying this is, believe it or not, sustainability. And #2 is data, big data. But it's a close second. The point is it's in the top 3 initial things that big brands worry about. They figure the more they know about the case of their inventory and supply chain and relationship with the customer, the more intimate they are with the customer, the more momentum and velocity on sales that they'll achieve. And it's not a whimsical notion.

Yes. Okay. So the number that you actually -- so -- again, you're generating revenues. The numbers are growing by leaps and bounds. I think last quarter, you did -- you announced it was a $4.5 million in bookings. This is not what you...

No. No, no. That was revenue. And it was USD 522,000. I have it in front of me here.

Wait, I got it completely wrong. Okay. So it's even better. Wait so $5 million revenues or bookings?

No. No, no. USD 522,000 was the revenue in Q3.

Revenue. But the bookings were $4.5 million.

Yes, correct.

So the bookings is -- I mean that's really -- and that is the thing that translates into revenues as the stuff kicks in. So it's like down...

And as a small-cap CEO, I understand the focus on revenue. But what I try to do is not shift the dialogue, but augment the dialogue so that people understand that revenue is trailing, it's what did. And TCV, total contract value, bookings is what you're going to do. And it seems to me that, that metric is growing quarter-over-quarter and together constitutes the future health of the company. And on that instance, I'm extremely proud of the execution of the team.

I mean the most important -- I mean, listen, basically you're a SaaS company, SaaS companies are value-based. And on the bookings, the bookings is the thing that everybody looks at, right? Like I mean, maybe in the next 18 months, as the company matures, then the revenue is going to be much more -- it's going to be much more...

I accept that. Yes. I know that will happen.

But right now, right -- the number that everybody really needs to look, is the bookings. Now here's the question I'll ask you. The bookings number, does that include ad sales or no?

No. It's -- because that sits on the joint venture's balance sheet.

Okay.

The only time it impacts us is when there's a distributors, right? And this is why in preparation for a distribution or a dividend, if you will. Because we're preparing for that quickly, we've now created a Mexican subsidiary so that we can receive those dividends or distributions in a tax-efficient manner. And that's the things we do just internally to get ready for [ those ].

Okay. The future of the company, really, the big money is going to be -- I mean from the ad business, right, add revenue. So that's going to be -- that's a huge, huge thing the ad tech business. So how -- when can we see -- so are you saying, we're going to be seeing in the next quarter, possibly the first indication of these numbers through the ad sales?

The first thing we'll see is to the extent that I'm allowed to share is the joint ventures balance sheet. We'll get some peeks at that. Because as the shareholders of VSBLTY, we have a right to see what's happening in one of our significant interest. And then over time, that becomes a balance sheet impacting KPI or metric because we're getting distributions for that company. There are models that we've signed off on as a Board as to when those distributions will begin. I'm not prepared to share them because that's a Winkle -- that's a joint venture, the name of the joint venture is [ Winkle ] That's a joint venture decision, not my decision. So it would be inappropriate for me to say, I'm going to hold these guys to the planning because it doesn't allow for the pivot and the modification and the adjustment in the business plan. However, we are expecting revenue from that joint venture in '22.

Okay. But that's -- that's -- okay. So I think -- because I think a lot of people may not be clear, okay. So 2 things. One is the revenues you've had so for the bookings, that is only the licensing side. That's only the X amount of dollars you get per installation in all these stores, things like that.

Primarily.

Right. So -- but the real money is going to come from the ad tech business, which we -- you were expecting $200 million plus in the next few years. You're going to get 1/3 of that, and that's off the top, right? It basically goes right to the bottom line. You have no cost. That's your cut, right? So let's call that $70 million a year through your -- and obviously, it's going to grow into that. So in theory, I'm thinking in 2022 is, we could see [ $15 ] million revenues from that business. I mean is that fair to say? Because you have...

I'm reluctant to say and not because I'm trying to be stealth or coy or I just -- it's impacted by the cadence of deployment. It's impacted by the inventory sellout. Is it 50% or 100%? There's a lot of components that go into that. We expect revenue from that joint venture in '22, and that revenue will grow quarter-over-quarter. Now just so you know, we're a learning machine here. Other deals we're negotiating, particularly deals we're negotiating in the C-store and grocery space right now. Have us participating on the advertising revenue. A year ago, we made a proposal that just has us participating in the license revenue. But inspired by this idea, and the momentum that's occurring in Latin America, and recognizing that not participating is leaving money on the table, almost every one of our deals -- not all our deals, but almost every one of our deals has us with that blue sky component, if you know what I mean by that.

Okay. Yes. I mean this is the -- yes, this is where all the money is in the ad business.

Yes. And if we can successfully build a software support system, that allows for more rapid and more seamless capturing of that revenue, we should participate in the revenue. So that's basically been our argument.

Okay. And -- okay. So -- and what about -- so right now, the big stores, you got the Modelo stores [indiscernible] that is in Latin America. What about -- I know there's been talk about expansion outside -- into the U.S., possibly in other countries, I think India was mentioned at one point. I don't know if you said somebody said it, but -- what's the plans for this year in terms of global domination for VSBY?

Well, I'm not going to talk about a shut out with 4 minutes left in the third period. But India is a really good, interesting and attractive market to us and to our partners. That would be a wonderful first quarter initiative for us to get done. There is active dialogue. And its size -- there's nothing in India that's small, right? It's just nothing that's small. So that's an appropriate target, and that's an appropriate goal and objective for our organization.

Okay. What about...

So if you ask about other countries, if I might just finish that, we are not disclosing in this moment, but another country has been added to the Modelorama ABI project. We expect to have stores up and running. Could be late this month if we get fortunate, and if not, it will be January that those stores will be up and running. And that's particularly the interesting marketplace where ABI has local dominance, a lot of local influence and a really significant footprint.

Like Brazil. I mean which markets?

They haven't cleared me to talk about it, and I'm not going to be a reckless cowboy. So I'm excited about it. We are excited about it. We're in process of deploying it at the moment. And the best way to get on the wrong side of them is to be a cowboy. And I am not going to be.

Okay, so basically you got Latin America -- what about the U.S.? What about -- would you come up with some announcements of the U.S. deals.

I want to remind the viewers and you that there was an announcement around U.S. which is Phoenix Vision, I don't think the market has fully appreciated that, and that's totally fine. I don't think we've given them -- and I think...

Well, people forget about things like the next day, we get it [indiscernible].

Well, that is threads, [indiscernible]small cap, news-driven. I understand. So Phoenix Vision is a key and a critical partner of the In revenue now they have built a network now. We are supporting them and replacing their entire technology infrastructure. And together, Phoenix Vision and VSBLTY are pursuing two deals; one domestic and one international.

That -- what -- is this the one -- this is the one with the charging stations? Or is that the sort of...

No Phoenix Vision is a -- what you might call a pure-play media company.

Okay. This is a -- okay. Okay. This is being asked for about. Okay. Okay. So this was a little while back. Okay. But also -- you also put out an announcement about the ads on these EV charging stations.

Yes. It's a fascinating area, Jack. So that deal is EOS. We're focused initially on the Atlanta marketplace, where there's something like 600 units, EV charging stations going into that marketplace. But you can imagine the EV category is absolutely on fire at the moment.

mean what we have -- I mean there's 2 of the hottest stocks right now is, one is Blink, and other one is ChargePoints, like and pure-play EV charging, right? So I think the one thing that these guys are -- and their goal is, hey, we're going to have millions of these charging stations in offices, everywhere-- global, right? But the one thing they're missing is the thing that you're offering; which is the ads and the security aspect, which is [indiscernible] damages the thing.

Let me give you the business model, which is quite fascinating to me. And I, every day, I'm learning about this new category. Thus, in the neighborhood of $600 billion going into EV in both private and public investment, just in the U.S., it's a lot of money. There's a problem, and the problem is that we all want to have a clean Planet by 2030. We want to have 0 emission and the infrastructure is not in place right now. About 3 weeks ago now, maybe 4 weeks ago, I met with the CEO of a former state-owned public utility in Europe. And they have deployed their first 3,000 EV charging stations in the country that they're a dominant player. And I only bring this up because I learned a lot from this particular meeting, which has expanded our go-to-market and our plans. He told me that of the 3,000 charging stations that they put in place, they tried something, and they included 60-inch large format digital display and the computer vision on 100 of those units, not ours. Every one of the units that has digital display was profitable. Every one of them that didn't, was not problem, was subsidized by the public utility. So it's a -- I mean that's a slam out. It tells you that you must deploy digital display for ad delivery and computer vision because that allows you to monetize, and will take you from a loss to profit, just based on their experience.

Okay. So essentially -- okay, so this is something that maybe we could see in the next -- in this coming year, in 2022, is really VSBY being a kind of a pure play on the charging station business. Because really, they do -- they will need to have -- and this is going to be -- the ad revenue, this is going to be a key part of ...

I had a feedback to our friends at Intel. And the consensus was, we better find a way to impact this because it's going to explode. And they grabbed a hold of it as Intel has been doing with ideation that comes from us pretty routinely. And we've now had multiple workshops with major EV participants to figure out how we crack this code. I'm not telling you or the shareholders that we'll absolutely crack this code because you don't know until you know. But we've got a real opportunity in that space. We've got a unique value proposition because we both do digital display and Computer Vision. Computer Vision, this CEO of the public utility told me something else that I want to mention to you. He said we don't know when a unit is in a fault status. So the only way we know is that when we look at our metrics, we noticed that station 12379 hasn't charged the car in 5 days. And that's atypical, so it must be broken. That's the fault management. Well, Computer Vision can identify fault management. It can either identify call management by identifying the fact that while there's normally a charge that happens within every 64 minutes on this location. And there hasn't been one for 120 minutes. That could be representative of pulse test. Computer Vision can see that and report on that. Computer Vision by the way, while providing a defensive muster on operational benefit can also help with the monetization and advertising. Because its going to tell you this many people -- these people -- because when you go to an EV station, your identity is known because you have a relationship with charging. You're paying for that charging. So it's no longer fire and forget broadcast advertising. It is narrowcast advertising, directly to Jack.

Now the other thing that you have is you also have the security layer that you can add on top...

Sure. I shouldn't have diminished that because you're right. Vandalism, I'd like to say...

In terms of the security tracking, whatever -- and we'll get into the security aspect of VSBY's business in just a second. But so really -- I think this could be a critical component for the EV business having really VSBLTY as a partner towards of the -- on the ad tech side and also the Computer Vision big data side because you do need to have those things. If you're going to have a network like all these guys -- their ambitions are to have networks of, I don't know, 10,000 stations.

We have dedicated the team along with our friends at Intel to focus and deliver results in that category in '22.

So this is one catalyst. I don't think anybody has realized -- or even -- nobody is talking about nobody has realized that this is really like one of the big opportunities for VSBY, which is like it's still like an iceberg, like people don't even see. It's like there's a massive iceberg that's -- that is underneath the surface, which is going to come up at some point and people say, wow, this could be -- that could be business could be bigger than ...

Yes, of course. But this is why I can skillfully dodge the criticism that this is, "Oh my gosh, it's just yet another marketplace you can pursue? How do you do all that?" Well, we do all that by intelligent partnering. We build our plumbing. We're going to build our plumbing anyway. If you can apply that plumbing into 50 different markets, why the hell wouldn't you do that? Especially when you have partners like EOS that are well financed, well understood, well regarded and have reach. That's our go-to-market. And all we need to do, is focus on their needs and together we will land and expand.

Yes. I think it's [indiscernible] anybody that's through to the stores and they have seen essentially VSBY is just purely a technology -- really an IP technology company.

We are a platform company.

You're not manufacturing anything. You don't have guys in the field. everything is done through part. It's almost like they still make Dolby. I don't know -- it's a license -- it's a technology, which -- and people license it, that's what makes everything work. So the margins are massive. Okay. We're getting a little bit short on time. I want to talk about 2 key aspects of the business, which is the security side of the business, which kind of ties into some of the other things, and also as GIS, and then we'll open up for questions. So the security asset, Jay, just from a high-level talk about some of the capabilities and how this is being used in the market? And maybe examples of how it could be used?

Yes. Sure. On the security side, what we do is we build -- it's geeky term, but we build inference logic, and inference logic can be instructed to identify an object of interest or an event of interest or a person of interest or a mix thereof. An example of an object of interest would be a weapon. If a weapon is seen in the field of you, physical optical weapon like not concealed but held up, see our cameras at a distance even can identify that that's happened, can engage in that event with an alerting mechanism that actually is connected to things like building workflow. An example of that would be when a weapon is detected, let's lock down the building. Now we all know about the active shooter DNA in the U.S. You see how that would be useful. So we have an enormous opportunity, just in building safety. Facial recognition. There's people that are going -- that are coming into a building, and some of whom are allowed to be there and some of whom are not allowed to be there. Facial recognition is a perfect example for that. Facial recognition in the wild is identifying scanning groups of people looking for people that are wanted by the police, as an example. A license plate detection following a vehicle through a smart city infrastructure for the purposes of forensic investigation or whatever. Zone crossing. I have people moving from a place, they are allowed to be to a place they're not allowed to be, which is in the alert mechanism. So those are all examples of AI logic running on infrastructure in cameras that are benefiting for city analytics and for surveillance.

Okay. So in terms of revenues, like you got deals right now, like this is going to be added on top of -- this is a layer that could be added on top of, for example, EV stations, the coolers, like this is being used in ...

Yes.

In today's news, it was radar -- I get these guys mixed up.

RADARApp.

RADARApp. RADARApp. So you have deployment in Mexico right now. A bunch of these things going on. Like what is...

Yes. So Mexico City kind of like Manhattan is divided up in the boroughs, except the Mexico City, they call them counties. Each county has a mayor. We've got 4 or 5 counties underway right now, Benito Juárez, Miguel Hidalgo, Cuajimalpa. And this is an additional county. Brand new mayor, who sees what his peers are doing in other proximity -- close proximity counties, and enormous impact. We've got a couple of mayors reelected because of the increase in -- the tangible increase in safety.

Okay. That's a -- that's [ hot buck ] yes. So if the guy knows that, hey, if he uses VSBY, he's going to get re-elect a maybe for life.

Well, I don't know that that's a -- I mean it's a cynical thing, I suppose, but that's practical, right?

Because I mean basically, what your system does is -- it is a security aspect, but there's also like the quality of life in terms of making it...

Quality of life. The sense of safety, the sentiment of safety, the feeling of being protected, just putting a camera up increases that low sentiment metrics. But this is Magdalena Contreras, which is a part of Mexico City, and we're in the first phase of a deployment with them. And the decision they made, unlike some other counties, who have bold dumb cameras, no AI logic running on them, and smart cameras, AI logic running on them. 100% of the cameras in Magdalena Contreras are AI cameras. So this will be really interesting litmus test for us, and it's the first phase. It's 4 phases, and it's going county-wide. So we're excited about that. It's just another notch on our belt here that allows us to have greater coverage in Mexico City. The greater the coverage we have, the greater ability we have to track individuals or cars as they navigate through the various burrows.

Okay. And of course, [indiscernible] all this like underlying technology, the machine learning, everything, you can leverage it and deploy that when you -- let's say, when you do the stuff with the EV charging stations globally.

Certainly, it's the same plumbing.

Same plumbing. Yes. Okay. We're kind of running a little bit late, so I will be real quick about Austin GIS. And then I want to see if we have, let's say, 10 minutes to go through. We got a lot of questions as I want to see if we can ...

Okay. So really quickly, Austin GIS. And unfortunately, because I've not -- I don't have clearance to talk about all the participants, everyone but one. There are 5 participants in Austin GIS, August created. RADARApp, which is the company with whom we built the Mexican deployment, small in our business, we call them ISVs; independent software vendors, they're a 10% owner; VSBLTY, 10% owner; and on the Board, Tech Mahindra, a $20 billion Indian company, they're a 10% owner; Tech Mahindra, a 10% owner; and then a large -- unnamed large player who own the majority. And the reason why that company is not yet named is the company, AGIS, is allegedly in stealth mode, something I argue with at the moment, but it will come out of stealth mode in the first quarter of next year. And at that point, all will be known about who they are and who the players are and what's the strategy. But I've got to tell you, it's a very important deal for us because it gives us equity ownership in something that already looks like it's going to be significant value. I understand it's going extremely well. I don't have clearance to talk about their financial metrics, but I was briefed just a week or so ago, and I was blown away by how quickly they're rolling. And it's only been 4 or 5 months.

Okay. And this is basically an infrastructure as a service.

Yes. Large deals, their target is $200 million plus. So instead of you, Jack, deploying cameras, servers, network, all that thing in the city of xyz, the city of xyz goes to Austin GIS. And they sign a 10-year contract where everything is paid for on a month-to-month basis, per -- whatever, per month, per camera, whatever. And so this Austin GIS has secured debt instruments to be able to do that over the long term.

Okay. So these are basically big government deals. And this is like -- and they're doing for you and what you're doing for them is give them technology, and getting a piece of the action. You have..

Not only a piece of the action, Jack, but we have a ROFR. We have a Right of First Refusal, where if anything in a new opportunity touches or leverages computer vision, we get to say if we want it or don't want it. So there's an enormous upside potential for us. And 3 of the very large deals they've done already has VSBLTY licensing at the core. So we're already beginning to benefit. I project, although I'd love to be wrong because it would mean that somebody else has supplanted them. But I project within a year or so, Austin GIS will be our largest customer.

Okay. So this is -- okay, this could be really huge. So will -- do you think that the Austin GIS business could that potentially become a majority of your business in '22. Is that -- could that account for the majority of revenues in 2022? Is that possible?

It's possible, yes.

Okay. I mean essentially, Austin GIS could be much bigger than everything you're doing now. So no...

And I think you might also know that VSBLTY has a 30% carried interest in something called RADAR USA, which is the creation of a U.S. entity, combining the assets and capabilities of RADARApp in Mexico, and VSBLTY in the USA to build infrastructure for our police departments, for homeowners, associations, schools, hospitals and various infrastructure. Austin GIS has a deal with RADAR USA to do that with them. So -- and we have a 30% ownership in RADAR USA. So we've got a bunch of that batch here, right?

So there's -- okay, this is -- again, this is what makes a super stock. When you have multiple catalysts in place are built in, which could have a massive impact on the valuation. So like right now, nobody is even accounting for the Austin GIS.

Well, I get it. I get it. I understand.

That could be potentially 10x the size of -- And the EV side of the business. And there's a bunch of like things which could become really huge in the next...

It's really easy to drift into the promotion/hyperbole of VSBLTY. I try to avoid that and focus on execution and delivery.

Let me do that for you.

Okay. But you're right. I mean there are mostly ...

Legitimately, there is -- this stuff is -- it's like a dream -- this is -- it's like a dream scenario because you really have these things that are -- these built-in catalysts that are going to emerge in the next 12 months, which could be huge. I would say, okay, let's get some audience questions. Okay, Bob asking. I think it's asking to Jay not to me. Okay. 2021 budget billings, what is going on with [indiscernible]

I don't talk about deals that are done. And investors ask me all the time, I understand it. But I just -- we're out of the $50 million market cap thrust and carry of small caps. And we're playing with big partners. The best way to pee in the pool -- I was going to think of a different way to say that. But the best way to do that is to talk casually and without constraint about your pipeline. I understand why people want it, especially small caps who are driven by news. But I can't do it. Our vision is $1 billion to $1.5 billion market cap company. And the best way to put that vision at risk is to start being cowboy about your pipeline. I just -- I won't do it. And I appreciate the need to do it. We've got to thread the needle.

Yes. I wouldn't say for any investors that they want to, okay, who are the partners what's coming on is -- look, just look at what the company has done in the past. I mean so you can extrapolate from there. I mean you're dealing with like some major, major players now.

We're pretty good. We're pretty good, I would say, Jack, I'm not a guy to sort of pat myself on the back, but the team is pretty good at landing big influential, sizable, committed partners. WestRock is S&P component company. Johnson Controls, we all know who they are. Intel. I mean the list -- it's a long list. And I didn't even mention ABI, who [indiscernible]

Yes. No, no, it's actually -- probably no, it's incredible because like when you think about like the old partnerships, everything, it's really like all these blue chip partners. It's not -- I don't know of any microcaps. I mean -- I don't think I've ever come across a microcap, and this is like in maybe several decades, which has the level that you have at VSBLTY. I mean like -- and especially this Austin GIS. This Austin GIS, that was basically discounted, because nobody really knows a lot about it.

I understand, why it's discounted. I understand why it's discounted. I told you that.

Yes. It's a freebie, it is a surprise -- it's an upside, it could be a massive upside surprise. Okay, let's -- question here. Jay, you stated the 2021 revenue $4 million to $7 million, '22 -- okay, '22, next year's revenue $12 million to $15 million revenue. Is this still on for...

Yes. I'm not going to front run our revenue because we're just too close to the end here to say it. But no, we have been impacted by supply chain. We have been impacted by the ramping up of our partners, especially in Latin America. I'm speaking specifically of Tech Mahindra. And those will have a modest impact, but I think shareholders at the end of the year will be pretty happy with how we've -- despite all of that persevered and secured a sizable revenue metric for '21. And then the setup for '22 is even more significant than we had previously thought.

Okay. Coming from Bob. Okay, $4 million billings, $15 million -- runway for '22, $45 million to $50 million, with $10 million in equipment.

I think it's more of a statement than a question.

Not a question. It's a statement.

Yes.

Okay. Question from Jeremy. Jay, you mentioned that you're picking and choosing which jobs, I guess, which partnerships you're taking off, so you can execute is -- I would assume that because you do not have the infrastructure to handle more. So what are you doing so...

Yes. What a great question.

Do you have enough bandwidth? Yes, that's it.

No. The answer is no, we don't. And I'm being honest with the shareholders. But we're fixing it this way. About 3 weeks ago, we had an executive management strategy session, which was externally facilitated, something I particularly like to do because it allows for the bias to be removed, or at least somewhat effectively removed. We're adding 14 head count. And we've already added 3 of the 14, and all of those people are execution-based, deal flow based. We've got 3 people that are going to be responsible for what we call channel management, which is all these big partners that I've mentioned before. They're being managed principally by me and by my Chief Commercial Officer and our Chief Revenue Officer, and we're distributing the load a little bit better, which allows us to scale. Now before people ask the question, we think we can do this in a very accretive way, and we don't think it's going to impact our overall spend enormously or delay our profitability in a material way. So we think that every one of those people that we've identified will immediately hit the ground and create meaningful revenue impact.

Okay. So right now, you're hiring -- these new hires, these channel managers.

Only 3 of those are channel management. We're making the investment in data science. We're developing a professional services group inside the company for customers that want like 92% of what we do and then 8% of a bunch of stuff we don't do. So we have to have that ability to create custom application capability.

Okay. So for example if one channel manager could be just -- that guys could focus on EV charging stations, partnerships deployment. The other one is...

Great question. We'll have a vertical orientation like that, and we'll have an account designation. WestRock as a company is really doubling down on us right now. And so what they've asked for is a dedicated team. And so we'll build ---underneath the channel management, we'll build a dedicated team. Now there won't be only that and nothing else, but they will have a direct responsibility for that.

WestRock, they're going to be deploying your systems in the U.S., right? This is WestRock in the U.S. market, right?

Yes. For sure, the U.S., and elsewhere as well.

Okay. So -- and just to clarify, so you have a partnership with WestRock. They are the ones who make all display, the traditional display, in-store displays like paper displays the massive company. And also you have Sensormatic, which is -- Johnson Controls Sensormatic, which is those -- the security system. So you have these tremendous partners -- and those are the guys that get you into the stores. And it's not like Jay Hutton is calling up Walgreens and pitching them on a deal. It's really the guys that John Controls...

In some cases, it is. In some cases, it is. But in most cases, what we've identified those partners for is reach and C-level access. Because when you get -- when you pitch your deal, especially a deal like ours, which is disruptive and changes the game and a lot of things. And when you pitch it at C-level, we get significantly more buy-in than if you go at a lower level. And WestRock and Johnson Controls are 2 examples of us skipping the middle layer and going right to the top.

Skippy asking, was there a VSBY installation at New York's Penn Station last month...

That one is out in the bag. Yes, there was. And it's not the only one in the wild out there. Because we've got this sort of weirdness that we're doing innovative marketing solutions and retail solutions for very large brands. In many cases, the brands want to be the entity that messages that to the Street. So when we front run them, it gets very uncomfortable.

Okay. As far as -- so if anybody sees one of these things, like, let's say, Penn Station. They don't see -- VSBY's name is not on them, it is usually like brain. Like basically, you're in the background, you're like Intel Inside, right? That's the old thing. You like VSBY inside. It's not like they're going to see -- everything -- so it looks brands take the credit and everything else, and you're basically supplying the IS.

The first place that people that own shares in VSBLTY will now is that is either in our financials when we identify the momentum caused by that. Or if we get fortunate, we convince the brand to talk about us in a more open way. And we -- you know it is a 50-50 proposition. And I would say that brands are more and more willing to talk about their innovation in retail because in a way, it's a badge of honor for them as well, right, that they're deploying innovative solutions directly at retail.

Okay. So is -- any plans for Austin GIS to go public? Well, we're seeing the spin-out from Intel. Intel is spinning out that -- what's the huge business -- the car business that -- car vision...

Autonomous driving.

Yes. So is that a possibility that Austin can...

Well, I am on the Board of Austin GIS. I am not the decision maker on that possibility. I can tell you that, that has been actively discussed. It's not the only potential liquidity event. What is it, Jack, something like $1.3 trillion in SPAC money, expires in November of '22. So I think that there's some real interesting possibilities there as well.

Okay. Okay. Interesting. Now I'm thinking that maybe you have these 5 major blue chip partners. I think probably from a diplomatic standpoint for all of them to be kind of aligned, get along, they probably would want to have a public company that way.

It's really interesting -- For me, it's fascinating because I get a front row seat. But Tech Mahindra and HCL are both Indian-based companies, and they're massively competitive with one another. So it is very interesting the dynamic that occurs in the room. And you're right, the best way for them to sort of feel comfortable about their 10% minority participation in this company is under a construct, which is more transparent, and all the things that a public company gives you. So that's a very real possibility, brought about not by circumstances in the business, but by the dynamics of the board.

Okay. Okay. Jay, 2 more questions. I'm sorry, we're way behind here. We have to do another thing like it might have to be a 2-hour type of deal. Jay, how is the cash position going forward over the next year? Do you have enough cash? I guess they're asking is there going to be a raise? Will there be dilution? That's the big question.

We have no plans for a raise. We have had the benefit of -- The last financing had what I might call pocket financing with a bunch of warrants. We've had the enormous benefit of the last 90 days, something in the neighborhood of $3.5 million to $4 million of warrants come in, which was sort of already dilutive. I wouldn't say that it was not dilutive because the dilution was taken earlier, right? And that cash has come in, and we're sitting with a very strong balance sheet. And I would say that barring catastrophe will eke out profitability based upon what we have available to us from a cash point of view right now, with no need to tap the marketplace outside of an enormous -- unbelievably important and valuable transaction on the acquisition side, which I don't see at the moment.

Okay. All right. Jay, last question, we'll wrap up here. Okay. So you were already at December 16. What -- can we expect any big news in the next 2-3 weeks, anything to wrap up the year with, what is kind of milestones?

Yes. We've -- I've announced one security deal this morning. There's another security deal. And just to be clear to everybody, I don't know if I'll be able to announce this with a sovereign government, and that's been done, and it's a large deal, it's a 17,000 camera deal over multiple years. And I'm going to try and find a way to cryptically get some of the details out because I think the shareholders deserve to know, and I've spoken about it a couple of times in this kind of format. I have a couple of entities to navigate. I have systems integrated to navigate. I've got a very aggressive government entity to navigate. So set your expectations low, understand that it's done and in the books, but might not be widely and fully disclosed. And that's just part of the game in security. And so I just say it's early to report it, but that is the reality. Other things we've got going is we've got a bunch of momentum around a set of partnerships, alliances that we've never done before that are brand new to us, that are extremely strategic around what is projected to be the NRF show, although I heard this morning that, that could be at risk because of Omicron, which would be tragic. And we'll find a different way to get it out, but that's January 16, some important deals for us that we've been preparing for, for several months. That's the short term. Sensormatic has got a new product coming out with us at the core in the second quarter of [ '21 ] That -- those are the sort of majors and continued progress on a couple of things around convenience store in the U.S. and an offshore international media network that we're looking at, at the moment.

Okay. So to wrap up, I would just say from an investor's perspective, one big thing that keeps popping up is I think one of the big value drivers in the VSBY story for investors is really -- the company's underlying value is actually increasing dramatically because you have these this massive moat in terms of the relationships that you have with some of these partners, the government sales and everything else, where let's say, a player like Intel -- not Intel, let's say, Google, somebody who wants to be in this kind of space of big data, that kind of -- they wouldn't be able to build that internally, it will be very, very difficult. And I think it's much cheaper for something like that to let's say, write a check for out of $2 billion, $3 billion, and have those -- have that thing -- I must say that you would sell at $2 billion to $3 billion, but... it's impossible...

When I sit back, as you do on a fairly regular basis, just to be smart and proactive. When I sit back and look at potential exit paths, acquisition exit paths, I don't put Google in the mix. I don't think we're on their radar. I think we will be eventually I don't think we are. And they've got a lot of things going on internally, which distracts them from where the growth segments are and the growth is absolutely in this whole store as media for sure. But there's 4 or 5 critical participants and strategics on that list that are $40 billion, $50 billion, $80 billion market cap companies. So I don't think we need to have Google in our list to be comfortable that we've got an exit path. And we're not looking to exit right now. So...

No. Okay. I'm just using Google as kind of -- because there's always -- this is an area which they always wanted to get into, but again, like you said, they kind of distracted because they got a lot of internal things going, but they've tried to -- with the smart city stuff that they do -- it's something that which...

They have a group called Google Sidewalk.

Sidewalk. That's the one.

Which is precisely in our arena. Listen, those guys are aware of us. But just because that business unit is aware of us doesn't mean Alphabet is aware of us. Right? So I think we'll just keep chipping away, playing the long game, executing, and we'll rise on the radar.

Yes. So again, the takeaway is, again, this massive value of having these moats. The big catalyst with let's say, Austin GIS, and you have multiple catalysts right now in place, which could be worth a multiple of what the stock is right now. So it's pretty crazy. Jay, okay. let's catch up in the new year.

Wonderful. I had a great...

Okay. We have to do like a 2-hour block to get to the questions.

We can do that. I know how to talk for 2 hours.

Okay. Jay, thank you very much.

All right. Cheers. Thank you. Have a good holiday season. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Thanks you.