POET Technologies Inc.

I'm not comparing the two companies, of their stories, but the initial VC investment in FB by Accel was just over $12M.

The point that stood out to me was that both FB and Accel agreed at that time that FB was worth about $98M as a company.

Surely Zuckerberg and team knew the real value, but they had to start somewhere, and they went with a high-risk VC firm, and an angel investor in that first round.

I just can't fathom that our management team would give away a piece of the company without a solid rationale, and I similarly can't believe that institutions would invest without having some confidence that POET is going to succeed and capture significant market share.

My belief is that the technology is further along than we might think. There will be a gap of time between successfully demonstrating a functional prototype and commercial revenue from volume production. Between these two milestones, additional product optimization, customer evaluation, customer qualification, and ultimately establishing distribution channels must also take place.

If we are selling an AOC in 2018, I'd say that we should have a clear picture of the roadmap by the end of 2016. Furthermore, the component products of the integrated technology will be sold prior to the AOC, according to the presentation. I can't seem to get an answer on the status of the detector, but I'm not worried since it has already been validated as best in class. POET wouldn't sit on those results. So, NRE or component sales will precede the AOC sales. All require customer validation prior to volume production.

Let's see what the offering news today brings along with it - I don't expect much but at least we can start preparing for the next quarterly update and get this mess behind us.

cheers

lebowski101

Accel Partners Status: Venture Capital Investor Founded: 1983 Location: Palo Alto, CA Facebook stake: 10% Value: $8.5 billion
Though too young to drink alcohol, it must have been the $400 bottle of wine Jim Breyer offered Mark Zuckerberg at a posh Silicon Valley restaurant that helped seal the deal for Accel Partners' $12.7 million investment in Facebook. Breyer, a managing partner at Accel, was hot for a big deal to impress Accel's less than enthusiastic limited partners. Then Associate, now Accel Partner, Kevin Efrusy, got the inside lead on an early stage financing of Facebook by walking up to the firm's Palo Alto offices, uninvited, on April Fool's Day, 2005. Efrusy's due diligence uncovered Stanford users of Facebook who not only used the website, but literally obsessed over it, even missing their classes to "poke" friends. After a week of back and forth that saw another Facebook suitor, the Washington Post, get the cold shoulder, Accel finally nailed a deal that valued Facebook at $98 million. The $12.7 million investment gave the firm a 15% stake, and also included million dollar bonuses for Zuckerberg, Parker and Moskovitz (unusual in a VC round). Accel's stake (less Breyer's personal one) represents 190 million class Bshares, valued at over $9.0 billion. Jim Breyer Status: Angel Investor Age: 50 Residence: Woodside, CA Education: BS, Stanford University; MBA, Harvard University Facebook stake: .6% Value: $510 million At the urging of an Associate (Kevin Efrusy), Jim Breyer aggressively pursued an early stage stake in Facebook in 2005. Breyer was looking to prove that his Palo Alto based Venture Capital firm, Accel, still had its mojo, and invested $12.7 million taking a 15% stake in Facebook, then valuing the firm at $98 million (less than 18 months after its Harvard dorm room birth). Breyer also put in $1 million of his own money, giving him a personal ownership position of around 1%. Breyer has been a lead or co-lead investor in over thirty consumer internet, media, and technology companies that have completed public offerings or successful mergers. In August, 2010, Fortune Magazine named him one of the 10 smartest people in technology, and "the smartest investor in technology." In addition to Accel, Breyer invests as an Angel through Breyer Capital. Breyer's personal holdings in Facebook are 11.7 million shares, now representing a trimmed down holding of approximately .6%.