Latest / AST SpaceMobile Podcast / BeWhere CEO talks about their partnership with AST SpaceMobile

Transcript

BeWhere CEO talks about their partnership with AST SpaceMobile · AST SpaceMobile Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, I'm here with Owen Moore. Beware holding and symbol Bew on
• 0:05
  the adventure Exchange and BEWFF on the OTC.
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  And the reason we're here today is because Owen has created and
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  his company have created something entirely unique in the
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  IoT space where his very low cost units are able to connect
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  directly to the new ASTS satellite network.
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  And Owen's going to explain to us the real import of this new
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  innovation. So Owen, thank you for joining
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  me today. And I'm going to give you the
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  floor here for 3 or 4 minutes to really kind of give us a, the
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  setup of what was happening before your achievement here and
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  what you see as the really the, the game plan going forward and
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  how this market's going to open up with your new product.
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  Excellent. Well, thank you for having me on
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  today, Keith. I certainly appreciate it.
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  It's exciting times in the white wireless technology field.
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  AST Space Mobile is completing a constellation of satellites that
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  traditionally have been discussed around providing
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  broadband connectivity for any cell phone wherever you happen
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  to be in the world, whether you're within cell coverage or
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  within remote areas. The thing that we did completed
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  last week and announced just yesterday is, is we took one of
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  our commercial IoT asset trackers that leverages low
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  power 5G technology and we successfully connected that to
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  the AST space mobile network and transmitted our asset tracking
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  data over that network through Bell's landline network into our
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  AWS servers and and provided that information in our
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  application. To our knowledge, this is the
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  first time a low power 5G asset tracker has been connected to
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  AST space mobiles constellation of satellites and and the
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  importance in the industry is that our our, our our price
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  points are already among the lowest in the market.
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  They were traditionally limited to cellular traffic, cellular
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  transmission within cellular coverage.
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  And, and as as the constellation of AS TS network gets spilled
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  out, this will provide ubiquitous coverage for our
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  clients. They will be able to leverage
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  hardware that they've already deployed in the field.
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  And, and, and it'll bring the price points down for satellite
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  asset tracking significantly from from where that's been
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  historically. The satellite asset tracking
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  market is, is recognized to be somewhere between 6:00 and $12
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  billion annually. And, and as you reduce these
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  price points, we're going to see that addressable market just
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  expand even more rapidly. You know, as you as you reduce
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  the price points of the product and the solution, it opens up a
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  larger number of assets and lower valued assets to be
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  tracked. And and I think that that's
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  that's what's generating the excitement about the news that
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  we put out yesterday. So I heard two things here. 1 is
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  that you've created this new connectivity on a very low cost
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  device that opens up more Tam and functionality.
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  But two, your existing client base doesn't need to buy a new
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  piece of equipment for this. This this works on your existing
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  hardware that you've got already got deployed out of the field.
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  Is that what I heard correctly? That's correct.
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  It's it's AST is backwards compatible.
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  It communicates with our cellular module in our device
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  without any expensive satellite technology.
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  That that's the beauty of ASTS technology backwards compatible.
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  So you've been in business now for many years and you've
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  deployed in total how many devices out there in the
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  worldwide field that? Yeah, we, we've sold, we're
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  approaching 500,000 devices. So we've sold since about late
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  2018 when we launched our first low power 5G asset tracking
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  product. And so all your distributors now
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  have all this new information. And again, it's, it's all about
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  price point is what I'm hearing. You're you're, you've said
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  before that your client base is very price sensitive.
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  Listen, bringing the price points down is an effective
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  mechanism to disrupt the existing market.
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  That's what we did, you know, 6-7 years ago when we launched
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  products using leveraging low power 5G, low power 5G modules
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  were significantly cheaper than earlier generations.
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  It supports an, an architecture that that is a little bit
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  simpler, but but a lot more efficient from a price
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  perspective. And, and so you know, back then
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  we disrupted the asset tracking market that was terrestrial
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  based, cellular based. Today there's an opportunity to
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  disrupt the the satellite based asset tracking market by by
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  leveraging our relationship with with AST and Bell Canada, AT&T
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  and, and, and, and we're excited about the possibilities.
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  Anytime you can you you know, bring a product to market that's
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  a fraction of the cost of existing solutions, it opens up
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  huge opportunities. We're now on the 6th generation
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  of product key three. We have all the reliability
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  functions and features as our competitors at at a much lower
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  price point. And so the company's been
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  profitable now for or at least positive cash flow.
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  For. Over a year with maybe 1/4 that
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  didn't quite make it. But with this type of new
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  achievement, how long do you think that takes to filter into
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  the market? Is is there any kind of history
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  that your team has? It says OK, every time we get a
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  new technological success, the industry starts to pick it up in
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  X time frame. Is that a fair thing to ask, or
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  is that not really the way it works?
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  No, it's, it's certainly a fair question.
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  So the, the, the constellation of AST satellites is in the
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  midst of being rolled out and and I believe they have plans
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  moving into 2026 to fill out that constellation.
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  One of the reason AST gets evaluations they do is because
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  as soon as that constellations filled out and they turn on the
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  commercial service, the revenues going to start flowing in
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  immediately. And, and, and, and that's the
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  point where we're going to see the opportunity hit.
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  Beware from a financial perspective when the
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  constellation's fully deployed commercialized, we'll have
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  product that's already in the field that will leverage it that
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  we'll be able to make a little extra money on.
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  But more importantly than that, it's going to open up a variety
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  of industries for us that we haven't played in the past.
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  That could be industries in remote areas such as natural
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  resources, mining, fisheries, you know, industries that
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  typically operate at least a segment of the time outside of
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  traditional cellular coverage. Ocean going straight.
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  Third world is another one. Third world is another one.
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  Exactly. I interrupted you there.
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  You, you said one other thing, OK, not Terry.
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  So Owen, just OK. So that's amazing.
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  Thank you. I guess just before we sign off,
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  I'd ask you a couple quick questions here, if I could.
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  You have been a little more vocal the last two or three
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  quarters about being able to give away the product and charge
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  a higher monthly recurring revenue.
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  How's that going? How is that working?
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  How does that show up in your financials?
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  OK. So, yeah, we, we have started,
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  we started a process as of January of this year to allow
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  people to purchase a product under a finance model very
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  similar to what you would see with, you know, when you're,
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  when you're financing a car. So the current structure, the
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  the current method that it takes place is that, you know, we sign
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  a client up for a term, they pay us monthly.
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  A portion of that monthly is assigned to the hardware because
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  it's a finance and because we transfer ownership, we are
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  recognizing today the, the hardware out front.
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  And then we have a long term receivable showing up in our
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  financial statements that you'll see going up as we do more and
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  more of this type of solution. That's one model that's that's
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  one way that we've started with. I think what you discussed is,
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  you know, how do you use a, a, a new model to drive your
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  recurring revenue? And the way you do that is by
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  renting the, the product to people and, and not transferring
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  ownership. And when you do that, you're
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  pushing all of the recurring revenue into a, a, a monthly
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  recognizable fee. And, and that's something that
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  we're contemplating going forward, but it's been going
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  great. We do about 8000 units 1/4 under
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  the finance model. It's, it's, it's received a, a
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  lot of attention and, and then you know, it's because some,
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  some companies, some end users and clients and won't have
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  capital budget. And so if you can provide them
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  the solution under, under an operational budget, it, it, it,
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  it makes it easier for them to procure.
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  And, and that's something we like.
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  It is been something that we've leveraged our our balance sheet
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  that we've grown over the years organically and and we think
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  it's a good use of proceeds. Right, because at one point in
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  time you had over $8 million on the balance sheet and then the
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  last quarter you had last week was?
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  That wasn't, that wasn't us, Keith.
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  We've, we have about 4.5 million on the balance sheet today.
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  I think it's been as high as 5.5 and we've started to deploy a
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  little bit. But I think what you're talking
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  about is our working cap is positive to the tune of about 7
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  to $8 million. And so giving it away for free
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  with a higher MRR that's meeting good demand is what I'm hearing.
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  That's right, that's right. It's and it's, it's, you know,
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  more importantly than that, if it's pirates don't have capital
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  budget, they just might not have an opportunity to buy from us
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  and we may lose that to a competitor just because they're
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  they're offering it under an operational budget.
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  Got it. And first step that was a big
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  contract back in August. Has has that been completely
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  rolled out or? Yeah, I, I believe by the end of
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  September we did deployed 7000 of the 8000 unit order from AT&T
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  and the other thousand have gone out the door since.
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  So it was a quick hit It it was, you know, typically we're
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  dealing with longer sales cycles.
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  This sale cycle was only about six weeks from the time it was
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  brought up, negotiated to to sign and closed.
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  Why? Do you think that was?
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  I think we're seeing demand in the marketplace from first
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  responders for Firstnet type solution.
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  I mean Firstnet is a unique offering.
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  It's ensuring first responders connectivity when congestion
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  builds up during a disaster. And, and so there's a, a
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  compelling value proposition for first responders to, to
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  leverage, you know, the Firstnet network and, and devices and
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  phones that, that are certified on Firstnet.
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  I think you're going to see more expansion in Firstnet from us.
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  And there's a nice correlation between Firstnet and AST.
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  You know, if, if the disaster is so severe that cell sites are
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  getting knocked down, prioritized service on cellular
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  won't provide anything to you. AST is that secondary level of
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  backup in that you know, there's there's no restrictions on
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  coverage and if cell sites are getting knocked out, AST can
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  provide dot connectivity through through the satellites.
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  It, it all these technologies are converging to provide a more
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  compelling solution to to users today than we've ever seen in
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  the past. Got it.
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  You know, you're going to report your quarterly, you know, almost
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  exactly a month, it's the end of the month here in October and
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  you're going to be announcing at the end of November.
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  But I don't want to ask anything inappropriate, but one thing I'd
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  be curious about is, is there any particular sector, vertical
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  industry that you've seen a greater pick up of the product
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  and service this year versus other years?
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  1st that being an obvious example I guess, but.
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  Yeah. Listen, transportation and
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  logistics has always been our bread and butter.
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  A smart, ITS that's continuing to be a, a, a market that is
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  growing for us and, and a market that we're going to continue to
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  focus on. But, you know, these solutions
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  around Firstnet are, are opening up markets that, that we haven't
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  been as involved with as we have with transportation.
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  So, you know, monitoring things like defibrillators, like
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  equipment bags, like medical bags, like stretchers, it's,
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  it's a massive market. There's a, a real need for it
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  and, and, and, and our solutions perform well.
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  The other area that we're starting to see some uptake and
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  you know in the most recent death we talked a little bit
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  about Boeing, but we are seeing attraction coming in the airline
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  industry, not just Boeing, the airline operators as well.
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  So tracking air side equipment like baggage carts, like
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  elevators, you know, golf carts in the terminals, construction
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  equipment in the terminals, wheelchairs, those types of
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  assets. So, you know, we're, we're, we
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  think the IoT market is really just hitting its stride.
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  I, I know it was popular, you know, almost eight years ago.
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  That's when the, the capital markets got behind it.
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  But you know, we're seeing the growth in, in IoT happened today
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  And, and sometimes that happens, right.
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  You, you've seen a big push on AI lately in machine learning
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  and, and, or, or supercomputing and, and sometimes, you know,
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  the, the, the investor market is the end of the market of the
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  product. And, and I think we're, we're
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  seeing AIIOT catch up really quickly.
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  And we're, we're excited. It's it's a, it's a good time to
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  be in the IO team. Owen, thank you so much for your
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  time today. Very grateful.
• 14:23
  Thank you, Sir.