ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Any investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Investors should carefully consider the risks described below and all of the information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q before deciding whether to purchase our common stock. Our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially adversely affected by these risks if any of them actually occur. Our shares of common stock are not currently listed on any national securities exchange. Our shares are quoted on the OTC Pink marketplace, which is a quotation system. Some of these factors have affected our financial condition and operating results in the past or are currently affecting us. This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including the risks described below and elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Risks Related to our Business and Industry
The success of our business depends upon the continuing contributions of our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Science Officer and the head of our Contract Research Operation and other key personnel and our ability to attract other employees to expand our business.
We rely heavily on the services of our board and executive team, as well as other senior management personnel and those we intend to hire. Loss of the services of any of such individuals would adversely impact our operations. In addition, we believe that our technical personnel will represent a significant asset and provide us with a competitive advantage over many of our competitors. We believe that our future success will depend upon our ability to retain these key employees and our ability to attract and retain other skilled financial, engineering, technical and managerial personnel. In addition, if we fail to engage qualified personnel, we may be unable to meet our responsibilities as a public reporting company under the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
If we are unable to retain or motivate key personnel or hire qualified personnel, we may not be able to grow our business effectively.
Our performance is largely dependent on the talents and efforts of highly-skilled individuals. Our future success depends on our continuing ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly-skilled personnel for all areas of our organization, as well as to identify, contract with, motivate and retain contract personnel on an outsourced basis for special projects. Our continued ability to compete effectively depends on our ability to attract new employees. As we become a more mature company, we may find our recruiting efforts more challenging. If we do not succeed in attracting excellent personnel or retaining or motivating existing personnel, we may struggle to grow our business.
The products we intend to market may not be accepted by the market
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Our success depends on the acceptance of our products in the marketplace. Market acceptance will depend upon several factors, including the interest of consumers and corporations to use our products. A number of factors may inhibit acceptance of our products, including (i) the existence of competing products, (ii) our inability to convince consumers that they need to pay for the products and services we offer, or (iii) failure of individuals and corporations to use our products. If our products are not accepted by the market, we may have to curtail our business operations, which could have a material negative effect on operating results and result in a lower stock price.
There is significant competition in our market, which could make it difficult to attract customers, cause us to reduce prices and result in reduced gross margins or loss of market share.
The market for our products and services is highly competitive, dynamic and subject to frequent technological changes. We expect the intensity of competition and the pace of change to either remain the same or increase in the future. A number of companies may offer products that provide the same or greater functionality than our products. We may not be able to maintain our competitive position against current or potential competitors, especially those with significantly greater financial, marketing, service, support, technical and other resources. Competitors with greater resources may be able to undertake more extensive marketing campaigns, adopt more aggressive pricing policies and make more attractive offers to potential employees, distributors, resellers or other strategic partners. We expect additional competition from other established and emerging companies as the market for our products continues to develop.
We may not be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors.
We will compete, in our current and proposed businesses, with other companies, some of which have far greater marketing and financial resources and experience than we do. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to penetrate this market and be able to compete at a profit. In addition to established competitors, other companies can easily enter our market and compete with us. Effective competition could result in price reductions, reduced margins or have other negative implications, any of which could adversely affect our business and chances for success. Competition is likely to increase significantly as new companies enter the market and current competitors expand their services. Many of these potential competitors are likely to enjoy substantial competitive advantages, including: larger technical staffs, greater name recognition, larger customer bases and substantially greater financial, marketing, technical and other resources. To be competitive, we must respond promptly and effectively to the challenges of technological change, evolving standards and competitors' innovations by continuing to enhance our services and sales and marketing channels. Any pricing pressures, reduced margins or loss of market share resulting from increased competition or our failure to compete effectively, could seriously damage our business and chances for success.
We plan to grow very rapidly, which will place strains on management and other resources.
We plan to grow rapidly and significantly expand our operations. This growth will place a significant strain on management systems and resources. We will not be able to implement our business strategy in a rapidly evolving market without an effective planning and management process, and, to date, we have not implemented sophisticated managerial, operational and financial systems and controls. We may be required to manage multiple relationships with various strategic partners, technology licensors, users, advertisers and other third parties. These requirements will be strained in the event of rapid growth or in the number of third party relationships, and our systems, procedures or controls may not be adequate to support our operations and management may be unable to manage growth effectively. To manage our expected growth, we will be required to significantly improve or replace existing managerial, financial and operational systems, procedures and controls, and to expand, train and manage our intended growing employee base. We will be required to expand our finance, administrative and operations staff. We may be unable to complete in a timely manner the improvements to our systems, procedures and controls necessary to support future operations, management may be unable to hire, train, retain, motivate and manage required personnel and management may be unable to successfully identify, manage and exploit existing and potential market opportunities.
Our commercial success will depend in part on the ability of the licensor of the technology to maintain protection of their intellectual property.
Our success will depend in part on the ability of the licensor of the technology to maintain or obtain and enforce patent and other intellectual property protection for the technologies and to preserve trade secrets, and to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of third parties. We cannot be certain that the creators of the technology were the first inventors of inventions covered by their patent and patent application or that they were the first to file. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that the patent and patent application are valid or will afford us with protection against competitors with similar technology. The failure to obtain or maintain patent or other intellectual property protection on the technologies underlying our licensed biodiesel manufacturing processes may have a material adverse effect on our competitive position and business prospects. It is also possible that the technologies may infringe on patents or other intellectual property rights owned by others. If we are found liable for infringement, we may be liable for significant money damages and may encounter significant delays in bringing products and services to market.
If we do not continually introduce new products or enhance our current products, they may become obsolete and we may not be able to compete with other companies.
Technology is rapidly evolving. Our ability to compete depends on our ability to develop or license new technologies and products as well as our ability market our current products and services. We may not be able to keep pace with technological advances and our products may become obsolete. In addition, our competitors may develop related or similar products and bring them to market before we do, or do so more successfully, or develop technologies and products more effective than any that we have developed or are developing. If that happens, our business, prospects, results of operations and financial condition may be materially adversely affected.
We have no history of marketing our technology which makes it difficult to evaluate our business.
Our limited operating history makes it difficult for prospective investors to evaluate our business. Therefore, our operations are subject to all of the risks inherent in the initial expenses, challenges, complications and delays frequently encountered in connection with the early stages of any new business, as well as those risks that are specific to the biomass and energy industry. Investors should evaluate us in light of the problems and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies attempting to develop markets for new products, services, and technologies. Despite best efforts, we may never overcome these obstacles.
Our business is dependent upon the implementation of our business plan. There can be no assurance that our efforts will be successful or result in continued revenue or profit.
If we do not succeed in our expansion strategy, we may not achieve the results we project.
Our business strategy is designed to develop and market our products and services. Our ability to implement our plans will depend primarily on the ability to attract customers and the availability of qualified and cost effective sales personnel. There are no firm agreements for employment of additional marketing personnel, and we can give you no assurance that any of our expansion plans will be successful or that we will be able to establish additional favorable relationships for the marketing and sales of our products and services. We also cannot be certain when, if ever, we will be able to hire the appropriate marketing personnel and establish additional merchandising relationships.
Economic conditions could materially adversely affect our business
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Our operations and performance depend to some degree on economic conditions and their impact on levels of consumer spending, which have recently deteriorated significantly in many countries and regions, including the regions in which we operate, and may remain depressed for the foreseeable future. For example, some of the factors that could influence the levels of consumer spending include continuing increases in fuel and other energy costs, conditions in the residential real estate and mortgage markets, labor and healthcare costs, access to credit, consumer confidence and other macroeconomic factors affecting consumer spending behavior. These and other economic factors could have a material adverse effect on demand for our products and on our financial condition and operating results.
Risks Related to An Investment in Our Securities
If we fail to maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting, the price of our common stock may be adversely affected.
We are required to establish and maintain appropriate internal controls over financial reporting. Failure to establish those controls, or any failure of those controls once established, could adversely impact our public disclosures regarding our business, financial condition or results of operations. Any failure of these controls could also prevent us from maintaining accurate accounting records and discovering accounting errors and financial frauds. Rules adopted by the SEC pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 require annual assessment of our internal control over financial reporting. The standards that must be met for management to assess the internal control over financial reporting as effective are complex, and require significant documentation, testing and possible remediation to meet the detailed standards. We may encounter problems or delays in completing activities necessary to make an assessment of our internal control over financial reporting. If we cannot assess our internal control over financial reporting as effective, investor confidence and share value may be negatively impacted.
In addition, management's assessment of internal controls over financial reporting may identify weaknesses and conditions that need to be addressed in our internal controls over financial reporting or other matters that may raise concerns for investors. Any actual or perceived weaknesses and conditions that need to be addressed in our internal control over financial reporting, disclosure of management's assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting, or disclosure of our public accounting firm's attestation to or report on management's assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting may have an adverse impact on the price of our common stock.
Because of the early stage of development and the nature of our business, our securities are considered highly speculative.
Our securities must be considered highly speculative, generally because of the nature of our business and the early stage of its development. We have not generated any revenues nor have we realized a profit from our operations to date and there is little likelihood that we will generate any revenues or realize any profits in the short term. Any profitability in the future from our business will be dependent upon our ability to market the products and to source other acquisitions in the industry we have chosen either additional technologies or exploration projects. Since we have not generated any revenues, we will have to raise additional monies through the sale of our equity securities or debt in order to continue our business operations.
We may, in the future, issue additional common shares that would reduce investors' percent of ownership and may dilute our share value.
The future issuance of common shares may result in substantial dilution in the percentage of our common shares held by our then existing stockholders. We may value any common shares issued in the future on an arbitrary basis. The issuance of common shares for future services or acquisitions or other corporate actions may have the effect of diluting the value of the common shares held by our investors, and might have an adverse effect on any trading market for our common shares
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The Market for Penny Stock has suffered in recent years from patterns of fraud and abuse
Stockholders should be aware that, according to SEC Release No. 34-29093, the market for penny stocks has suffered in recent years from patterns of fraud and abuse. Such patterns include: (i) control of the market for the security by one or a few broker-dealers that are often related to the promoter or issuer; (ii) manipulation of prices through prearranged matching of purchases and sales and false and misleading press releases; (iii) boiler room practices involving high-pressure sales tactics and unrealistic price projections by inexperienced salespersons; (iv) excessive and undisclosed bid-ask differential and markups by selling broker-dealers; and, (v) the wholesale dumping of the same securities by promoters and broker-dealers after prices have been manipulated to a desired level, along with the resulting inevitable collapse of those prices and with consequential investor losses.
Our common shares are subject to the "Penny Stock" Rules of the SEC, which makes transactions in our stock cumbersome and may reduce the value of an investment in our stock.
The SEC has adopted regulations that generally define a "penny stock" to be any equity security other than a security excluded from such definition by Rule 3a51-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. For the purposes relevant to our Company, it is any equity security that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions.
Our common shares are currently regarded as a "penny stock", since our shares are not listed on a national securities exchange or quoted on the NASDAQ Market within the United States, to the extent the market price for its shares is less than $5.00 per share. The penny stock rules require a broker-dealer to deliver a standardized risk disclosure document prepared by the SEC, to provide a customer with additional information including current bid and offer quotations for the penny stock, the compensation of the broker-dealer and its salesperson in the transaction, monthly account statements showing the market value of each penny stock held in the customer's account, and to make a special written determination that the penny stock is a suitable investment for the purchaser, and receive the purchaser's written agreement to the transaction.
To the extent these requirements may be applicable; they will reduce the level of trading activity in the secondary market for the common shares and may severely and adversely affect the ability of broker-dealers to sell the common shares.
FINRA sales practice requirements may also limit a stockholder's ability to buy and sell our stock.
In addition to the penny stock rules promulgated by the SEC, which are discussed in the immediately preceding risk factor, FINRA rules require that in recommending an investment to a customer, a broker-dealer must have reasonable grounds for believing that the investment is suitable for that customer. Prior to recommending speculative low priced securities to their non-institutional customers, broker-dealers must make reasonable efforts to obtain information about the customer's financial status, tax status, investment objectives and other information. Under interpretations of these rules, FINRA believes that there is a high probability that speculative low priced securities will not be suitable for at least some customers. FINRA requirements make it more difficult for broker-dealers to recommend that their customers buy our common stock, which may limit the ability to buy and sell our stock and have an adverse effect on the market value for our shares.
Our common stock may experience extreme rises or declines in price, and you may not be able to sell your shares at or above the price paid.
Our common stock may be highly volatile and could be subject to extreme fluctuations in response to various factors, many of which are beyond our control, including (but not necessarily limited to): (i) the trading volume of our shares; (ii) the number of securities analysts, market-makers and brokers following our common stock; (iii) changes in, or failure to achieve, financial estimates by securities analysts; (iv) actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results; (v) conditions or trends in our business industries; (vi) announcements by us of significant contracts, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments; (vii) additions or departures of key personnel; (viii) sales of our common stock; and (ix) general stock market price and volume fluctuations of publicly-trading and particularly, microcap companies.
Investors may have difficulty reselling shares of our common stock, either at or above the price they paid for our stock, or even at fair market value. The stock markets often experience significant price and volume changes that are not related to the operating performance of individual companies, and because our common stock is thinly traded it is particularly susceptible to such changes. These broad market changes may cause the market price of our common stock to decline regardless of how well we perform as a company. In addition, there is a history of securities class action litigation following periods of volatility in the market price of a company's securities. Although there is no such shareholder litigation currently pending or threatened against the Company, such a suit against us could result in the incursion of substantial legal fees, potential liabilities and the diversion of management's attention and resources from our business. Moreover, and as noted below, our shares are currently traded on the OTC-BB and, further, are subject to the penny stock regulations. Price fluctuations in such shares are particularly volatile and subject to manipulation by market-makers, short-sellers and option traders.
We have not and do not intend to pay any cash dividends on our common shares and, consequently, our stockholders will not be able to receive a return on their shares unless they sell them.
We intend to retain any future earnings to finance the development and expansion of our business. We have not, and do not, anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common shares in the foreseeable future. Unless we pay dividends, our stockholders will not be able to receive a return on their shares unless they sell them.
A decline in the price of our common stock could affect our ability to raise further working capital, it may adversely impact our ability to continue operations and we may go out of business.
A prolonged decline in the price of our common stock could result in a reduction in the liquidity of our common stock and a reduction in our ability to raise capital. Because we may attempt to acquire a significant portion of the funds we need in order to conduct our planned operations through the sale of equity securities, or convertible debt instruments, a decline in the price of our common stock could be detrimental to our liquidity and our operations because the decline may cause investors to not choose to invest in our stock. If we are unable to raise the funds we require for all our planned operations, we may be forced to reallocate funds from other planned uses and may suffer a significant negative effect on our business plan and operations, including our ability to develop new products and continue our current operations. As a result, our business may suffer, and not be successful and we may go out of business. We also might not be able to meet our financial obligations if we cannot raise enough funds through the sale of our common stock and we may be forced to go out of business.