Item 1.   Business

Overview

W e own and operate CAKE and getcake.com, a marketing technology company that provides a proprietary solution for advanced analytics, attribution and campaign optimization for digital marketers. Our powerful software-as-a service, or SaaS, is an enterprise solution that has been an industry standard for advertisers, agencies, networks and publishers to measurably analyze and improve digital advertising spend. We currently have over 500 customers driving billions of consumer actions monthly through the CAKE enterprise platform.

In late 2017, we introduced Journey by CAKE, a new product family created specifically for brand advertisers and digital agencies. Journey by CAKE is a cloud-based solution that collects and analyzes customer journey data using multi-touch attribution for marketing campaign optimization. Journey by CAKE delivers accurate and actionable insights about the previously missing steps of the anonymous customer journey. With this extended view into vital customer interactions, Journey provides the intelligence needed to move unknown consumers to known customers, boosting campaign performance and return on advertising spend (RoAS). The main features are: Insights, a centralized dashboard which provides valuable customer journey insights that drive real-time decisions; Attribution, campaign spend optimization based on positional and data-driven attribution of key steps in the customer journey; and Connections, seamless integrations with digital media and marketing tools which make collecting customer journey data easier than ever. Journey by CAKE enables brands to move beyond the confines of siloed data and provides customer journey analytics for marketers, in real time.

On January 12, 2017, we announced that the CAKE platform was significantly enhanced with a new unified technical architecture and platform to collect and support high-traffic volumes. Now our industry-leading technology not only gathers granular information about the customer path to conversion, but also leverages data science and machine learning to further understand and maximize RoAS. Additionally, our patent-pending algorithmic attribution for predictive analytics clearly and accurately show marketers how to optimize campaigns. These new capabilities enhance our existing rules-driven attribution to programmatically allow marketers to analyze complex customer journeys; arming advertisers with more actionable insights needed to effectively measure the true impact of each media channel and maximize revenue for any given level of spending. 

The CAKE SaaS proprietary marketing platform is used by some of the world ’s leading companies and largest customer-base of enterprise performance marketing networks and advertisers. CAKE’s platform is based on reliable, feature rich technology and is bolstered by the industry’s leading customer service and top-tier technology partners, assuring the highest level of uptime.

On February 14, 2017, Gartner, Inc. once again named us as a Vendor to Watch in its “Magic Quadrant for Digital Marketing Hubs” report. This research is intended for chief marketing officers (CMOs), chief marketing technologists and other digital marketing leaders involved in the selection of core systems to support digital marketing business requirements. According to Gartner, our solution enables hub-like multichannel data management and onboarding capabilities. CAKE is for enterprise performance marketers looking to track attribution and optimize data-driven lead generation and customer acquisition through affiliate and other digital marketing channels. 

Our revenue model is based on monthly recurring license fees, usually pursuant to an annual contract. The contracts typically include a prescribed volume of clicks, impressions, or other events, and are subject to overage charges for volumes in excess of the included amounts. We also charge training and implementation fees, and in certain cases, professional services fees and royalties. A majority of our revenue is derived from clients in the United States but we have seen a 13% year on year growth in our client base outside of the United States. During November 2012, we formed Cake Marketing UK Ltd, or the Subsidiary, a private limited company, which is our wholly-owned subsidiary located in the United Kingdom in order to better provide our services in the European market.

Our business is currently headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with operations in Santa Monica, California, London, England and New Delhi, India , allowing us to provide global support to our client base. The CAKE platform supports multiple languages and currencies so online marketers can track the performance of their marketing campaigns and better target their digital spend on a global scale.

Our training, support personnel, hosting and cloud-based infrastructure contribute to our cost of operating the business. We anticipate more spending in these areas while we continue to grow, and we can foresee some savings in infrastructure cost due to economies of scale. In addition, development resources were required to continue to enhance our products. Those resources were used to extend our software platform and to create deeper integrations to third-party technologies that include, but are not limited to, Google AdWords, Bing Ads, Facebook, DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM), Marketo and others.

We intend to continue to grow revenues by investing in sales, marketing, and product development and innovation. We allocated a portion of our marketing budget to being present at tradeshows, securing coverage in industry publications, and providing the support documentation required by sales initiatives. Additional efforts will be made to speak at industry events, write for media outlets and implement digital marketing campaigns, increasing awareness of the CAKE solutions and the thought leadership driving product development.

Our principal offices are located at 20411 SW Birch Street, Suite 250, Newport Beach, CA 92660. Our telephone number there is: (949) 548-2253. Our corporate website is: www.accelerize.com, the contents of which are not part of this annual report.

Our Common Stock is quoted on the OTCQB Marketplace under the symbol "ACLZ."

Industry and Market Opportunity

Additional Characteristics

The business environment for our SaaS platform is characterized as follows:

Our Solutions

We believe that our business depends upon the continuing increase of consumer and business use of the Internet and mobile devices as primary tools to facilitate research, communications and transactions.  

We own and operate CAKE, and getcake.com, a marketing technology that provides a comprehensive suite of innovative marketing intelligence tools. Our powerful SaaS is an enterprise solution that has been an industry standard for advertisers, agencies, networks and publishers to measurably analyze and improve digital marketing spend. We currently have over 500 customers driving billions of consumer actions monthly through the CAKE enterprise platform.

Our newest product, Journey by CAKE, unifies the tracking, attribution and optimization of digital marketing spend across search, display, email, video, social, affiliate and other marketing channels. Journey by CAKE enables brands to move beyond the confines of siloed data and provides customer journey analytics for marketers, in real-time. Our industry-leading technology not only gathers granular information about the customer path to conversion, but also leverages data science and machine learning to further understand and maximize RoAS. Additionally, our patent-pending algorithmic attribution for predictive analytics clearly and accurately show marketers how to optimize campaigns. These new capabilities enhance our existing rules-driven attribution to programmatically allow marketers to analyze complex customer journeys; arming advertisers with more actionable insights needed to effectively measure the true impact of each media channel and maximize revenue for any given level of spending.

We leverage the expertise of the following third-party companies in providing our services:

How we market our services

We use our internal sales force to market CAKE and Journey by CAKE to digital marketers.  Additionally, we market our software through www.getcake.com and www.marketingintelligence.com; attend industry trade shows and events; as well as implement public relations and content marketing campaigns.

Intellectual Property

Our employees are required to execute confidentiality and non-use agreements that transfer any rights they may have in copyrightable works or patentable technologies to us. In addition, prior to entering into discussions with potential business partners or customers regarding our business and technologies, we generally require that such parties enter into nondisclosure agreements with us. If these discussions result in a license or other business relationship, we also generally require that the agreement setting forth the parties ’ respective rights and obligations include provisions for the protection of our intellectual property rights. For example, the standard language in our agreements provides that we retain ownership of all patents and copyrights in our technologies and requires our customers to display our copyright and trademark notices.

On September 12, 2016, we filed a provisional patent application with the U.S Patent and Trademark Office covering technology of an algorithmic attribution analytics server and method. On July 26, 2017, we filed a provisional patent application with the U.S Patent and Trademark Office covering technology of a tuple-based method for data encoding and prediction for sequential data machine learning models. We also have a Service Mark (Reg. No. 4,225,522) issued on October 16, 2012 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office which consists of geometric shapes arranged to resemble a multi-layered slice of cake.

Competition

CAKE's products have specific  competitors in each of the channels that we track and support. Competitors in the affiliate tracking industry include TUNE/HasOffers and HitPath. Impact Radius and Performance Horizon are privately-held companies with a performance and direct response advertising platform focused on retail tracking. Competitors in the mobile tracking sector include TUNE/Mobile App Tracking and AppsFlyer.

Competitors for Journey by CAKE are specific to the product ’s functionality. For attribution, our competitors include Google/Adometry, AOL/Convertro and Neilsen/Visual IQ. For analytics and data visualization competitors include Oragami Logic and Beckon. For advertisers that advertise within an affiliate channel, but that want direct relationships with their publishers, ADS/Conversant and Rakuten/Linkshare offer service-based solutions, but do not provide software.

Many of our SaaS competitors have significantly greater capital, technology, resources and brand recognition than we do. We differentiate from our competition by providing an enterprise-level, proprietary, cloud-based tracking, attribution and analytics solution. Most competitors have single channel solutions or have a services model.  

Government Regulation

Although there are currently relatively few laws and regulations directly applicable to our software and the Internet, it is possible that new laws and regulations will be adopted in the United States and elsewhere. The adoption of restrictive laws or regulations could slow or otherwise affect Internet growth and the development or usage of our software. The application of existing laws and regulations governing Internet and software issues such as property ownership, libel and personal privacy is also subject to substantial uncertainty. There can be no assurance that current or new government laws and regulations, or the application of existing laws and regulations (including laws and regulations governing issues such as property ownership, taxation, defamation and personal injury) will not expose us to significant liabilities, slow Internet growth and the development or usage of our software or otherwise hurt us financially.

Employees

As of December 31, 201 7, we had 93 full-time employees, including all of our executive officers. None of our employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements, and we believe our relationships with our employees to be good.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Our business faces risks.   If any of the events or circumstances described in the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations could suffer, and the trading price of our common stock could decline. Our investors and prospective investors should consider the following risks and the information contained under the heading "Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward Looking Statements" before deciding to invest in our common stock.

Our resources are limited and it may impact how we implement our growth strategy which may impact our operations.

Our resources are limited. Our working capital deficiency at December 31, 201 7 amounts to approximately $3,601,000. As we implement our growth strategy, poor strategic design or execution could impact negatively our operations and our cash flows. We expect that our expenses will continue to increase as we continue to develop and implement our products and services. Our capital requirements may vary materially from those currently planned if, for example, we incur unforeseen capital expenditures, incur unforeseen operating expenses, or make investments to maintain our competitive position. If this is the case, we may have to delay or abandon some or all of our development plans or otherwise forego market opportunities. We will need to generate significant revenues to be profitable in the future, and we may not generate sufficient revenues to be profitable on either a quarterly or annual basis in the future.

We have a history of losses.

We have a history of losses and negative cash flows from operations. We had a net loss of approximately $ 2.4 million in 2017 and a net loss of approximately $3.9 million in 2016. Our operations have been financed primarily through proceeds from the issuance of equity and use of a credit facility. We may continue to incur losses in the future.

We have substantial indebtedness.

We currently have, and will likely continue to have, a substantial amount of indebtedness. Our indebtedness could, among other things, make it more difficult for us to satisfy our debt obligations, require us to use a large portion of our cash flow from operations to repay and service our debt or otherwise create liquidity problems, limit our flexibility to adjust to market conditions, place us at a competitive disadvantage and expose us to interest rate fluctuations. As of December 31, 201 7, we had total debt outstanding of approximately $9.3 million, of which $5.0 million is long term and $4.3 million is short term.

We expect to obtain the money to pay our expenses and pay the principal and interest on our indebtedness and tax liabilities from cash flow from our operations and potentially from securities offerings. Accordingly, our ability to meet our obligations depends on our future performance and capital raising activities, which will be affected by financial, business, economic and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. If our cash flow and capital resources prove inadequate to allow us to pay the principal and interest on our debt and meet our other obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and might be required to dispose of material assets or operations, restructure or refinance our debt, which we may be unable to do on acceptable terms, and forego attractive business opportunities. In addition, the terms of our existing or future debt agreements may restrict us from pursuing any of these alternatives.

Our quarterly financial results will fluctuate, making it difficult to forecast our results of operation.

Our revenues and operating results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter due to a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

Our current and future levels of expenditures are based primarily on our growth plans and estimates of expected future revenues. If our operating results fall below the expectation of investors, our stock price will likely decline significantly.

We face risks related to the macro economy.

Continued uncertainty in global economic conditions continues to pose a risk to the overall economy and has adversely affected the online advertising market, which is now highly competitive. These economic conditions have impacted consumer confidence and customer demand for our products, as well as our ability to borrow money to finance our operations, to maintain our key employees, and to manage normal commercial relationships with our customers, suppliers and creditors. For example, customers have spent less on online advertising and other services. Although the economic outlook has improved since the credit crisis, if a worsening of current conditions or another economic crisis were to occur, our business and results of operations will continue to be negatively impacted.

We face intense competition from other software providers.  

We compete with many software providers for consumers' attention and spending. Our competitors may have substantially greater capital, longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, larger customer bases and significantly greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we do. Our competitors may also engage in more extensive development of their technologies and may adopt more comprehensive marketing and advertising campaigns than we can. Our competitors may develop products and service offerings that we do not offer or that are more sophisticated or more cost effective than our own. For these and other reasons, our competitors' products and services may achieve greater acceptance in the marketplace than our own, limiting our ability to gain market share and customer loyalty and to generate sufficient revenues to achieve a profitable level of operations. Our failure to adequately address any of the above factors could harm our business and operating results.

In addition, as the barriers to entry in our market segment are not substantial, an unlimited number of new competitors could emerge, thereby making our goal of establishing a market presence even more difficult. Because our management expects competition in our market segment to continue to intensify, there can be no assurances we will ever establish a competitive position in our market segment.

Our software may not be successful in gaining market acceptance.

We have invested a substantial amount of time and money in developing and launching our proprietary platform which has resulted in annual revenues of approximately $2 4.1 million in 2017. We may have difficulties in reaching market acceptance due to potential technical delays and malfunctions which may result in additional expenses and our continual increase in market acceptance will require additional sales, marketing and other customer-acquisition support expenses.

If we are unable to attract new customers or sell additional services and functionality to our existing customers, our revenue growth will be adversely affected.

To increase our revenues, we must add new customers, encourage existing customers to renew their  license agreements on terms favorable to us, increase their usage of our solutions, and sell additional functionality to existing customers. As our industry matures, as interactive channels develop further, or as competitors introduce lower cost and/or differentiated products or services that are perceived to compete with ours, our ability to sell and renew based on pricing, technology and functionality could be impaired. As a result, we may be unable to renew our agreements with existing customers or attract new customers or new business from existing customers on terms that would be favorable or comparable to prior periods, which could have an adverse effect on our revenue and growth, as well as our profitability and financial condition.

We may not be successful in increasing our brand awareness.

We believe that developing and maintaining awareness of the CAKE brand is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our existing and future services and is an important element in attracting new customers. In order to build brand awareness, we must succeed in our marketing efforts and provide high quality services. Our efforts to build our brand will involve significant expense. Brand promotion activities may not yield increased revenue, and even if they do, any increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incurred in building our brand. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand, or incur substantial expenses in an unsuccessful attempt to promote and maintain our brand, we may fail to attract enough new customers or retain our existing customers to the extent necessary to realize a sufficient return on our brand-building efforts, and our business could suffer.

We may not be successful in improving our existing products or in developing new products.

We are continuously developing and testing new products and proposed enhancements to our  SaaS platform, some of which are still in the planning stage or in relatively early stages of development. Our success will depend in part on our ability to timely introduce new products into the marketplace. We must commit considerable time, effort and resources to complete development of our proposed products, service tools and product enhancements. Our product development efforts are subject to all of the risks inherent in the development of new products and technology, including unanticipated delays, expenses and difficulties, as well as the possible insufficiency of funding to complete development.

Our product development efforts may not be successfully completed. In addition, proposed products may not satisfactorily perform the functions for which they are designed, they may not meet applicable price or performance objectives and unanticipated technical or other problems may occur which result in increased costs or material delays in development. Despite testing by us and by potential end users, problems may be found in new products, tools and services after the commencement of commercial delivery, resulting in loss of, or delay in, market acceptance and other potential damages.

We may not be successful in developing new and enhanced services and features for our software.

Our market is characterized by rapidly changing technologies, evolving industry standards, frequent new product and service introductions and changing customer demands. To be successful, we must adapt to the rapidly changing market by continually enhancing our existing services and adding new services to address customers' changing demands. We could incur substantial costs if we need to modify our services or infrastructure to adapt to these changes. Our business could be adversely affected if we were to incur significant costs without generating related revenues or if we cannot adapt rapidly to these changes. Our business could also be adversely affected if we experience difficulties in introducing new or enhanced services or if these services are not favorably received by users. We may experience technical or other difficulties that could delay or prevent us from introducing new or enhanced services.

We depend on receipt of timely feeds from our content providers.  

We depend on Web browsers, ISPs and online service providers to provide access over the Internet to our product and service offerings. Many of these providers have experienced significant outages or interruptions in the past, and could experience outages, delays and other difficulties due to system failures unrelated to our systems. These types of interruptions could continue or increase in the future.

We rely on third-party computer hardware and software that may be difficult to replace or which could cause errors or failures of our service.

We rely on computer hardware purchased or leased and software licensed from third parties in order to offer our services, including database software from Microsoft Corporation, and servers hosted at Rackspace Hosting, Inc. and Amazon Web Services. This hardware and software may not continue to be available to us at reasonable prices, or on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any loss of the right to use any of this hardware or software could significantly increase our expenses and otherwise result in delays in the provisioning of our service until equivalent technology is either developed by us, or, if available, is identified, obtained and integrated, which could harm our business. Any errors or defects in third-party hardware or software could result in errors or a failure of our service which could harm our business.  

If our security measures are breached and unauthorized access is obtained to a customer ’s data or our data or our information technology systems, our service may be perceived as not being secure, customers may curtail or stop using our service and we may incur significant legal and financial exposure and liabilities.

Our service involves the storage and transmission of customers ’ proprietary information, and security breaches could expose us to a risk of loss of this information, and to litigation and possible liability. These security measures may be breached as a result of third-party action, including intentional misconduct by computer hackers, by employee error, malfeasance or otherwise, during the transfer of data to additional data centers or at any time, and may result in someone obtaining unauthorized access to our customers’ data or our data, including our intellectual property and other confidential business information, or our information technology systems. Additionally, third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as user names, passwords or other information in order to gain access to our customers’ data or our data, including our intellectual property and other confidential business information, or our information technology systems. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, or to sabotage systems, change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. In addition, our customers may authorize third party technology providers, via our various Application Programming Interfaces, to access their customer data. Because we do not control the transmissions between our customers and third-party technology providers, or the processing of such data by third-party technology providers, we cannot ensure the complete integrity or security of such transmissions or processing. Any security breach could result in a loss of confidence in the security of our service, damage our reputation, disrupt our business, lead to legal liability and negatively impact our future sales.

Interruptions or delays in service from our third-party data center hosting facilities could impair the delivery of our service and harm our business.

We currently serve our customers from third-party data center hosting facilities located in the United States, London, Tokyo, Ireland, Germany, Brazil and Singapore. Any damage to, or failure of, our systems generally could result in interruptions in our service. As we continue to add data centers and add capacity in our existing data centers, we may move or transfer our data and our customers ’ data. Despite precautions taken during this process, any unsuccessful data transfers may impair the delivery of our service. Further, any damage to, or failure of, our systems generally could result in interruptions in our service. Interruptions in our service may reduce our revenue, cause us to issue credits or pay penalties, cause customers to terminate their subscriptions and may adversely affect our renewal rates and our ability to attract new customers. Our business will also be harmed if our customers and potential customers believe our service is unreliable.

As part of our current disaster recovery arrangements, our production environment and all of our customers ’ data is currently backed up and mirrored in near real-time to offsite storage. We do not control the operation of any of these facilities, and they are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures and similar events. They may also be subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism and similar misconduct. Despite precautions taken at these facilities, the occurrence of a natural disaster or an act of terrorism, a decision to close the facilities without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in our service. Even with the disaster recovery arrangements, our service could be interrupted.

Defects or disruptions in our service could diminish demand for our service and subject us to substantial liability.

Our service is complex and we have incorporated a variety of new computer hardware and software, both developed in-house and acquired from third party vendors.   As a result, our service may have errors or defects that users identify after they begin using it that could result in unanticipated downtime for our subscribers and harm our reputation and our business. Internet-based services frequently contain undetected errors when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released. We have from time to time found defects in our service and new errors in our existing service may be detected in the future. In addition, our customers may use our service in unanticipated ways that may cause a disruption in service for other customers attempting to access their data. Since our customers use our service for important aspects of their business, any errors, defects, disruptions in service or other performance problems with our service could hurt our reputation and may damage our customers’ businesses. If that occurs, customers could elect not to renew, or delay or withhold payment to us, we could lose future sales or customers may make warranty or other claims against us, which could result in an increase in our provision for doubtful accounts, an increase in collection cycles for accounts receivable or the expense and risk of litigation.

Our future performance and success depends on our ability to retain our key personnel.

Our future performance and success is heavily dependent upon the continued active participation of our current senior management team, including our President and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Ross, our Chief Financial Officer, Anthony Mazzarella, our Chief Operating Officer and President of our CAKE division, Santi Pierini, our Senior Vice President of Product Development, Paul Dumais, and our General Counsel and Secretary, Damon Stein. The loss of any of their services could have a material adverse effect on our business development and our ability to execute our growth strategy, resulting in loss of sales and a slower rate of growth. We do not maintain any "key person" life insurance for any of our employees.

We may be subject to infringement claims on proprietary rights of third parties for software and other content that we distribute or make available to our customers.

We may be liable or alleged to be liable to third parties for software and other content that we distribute or make available to our customers:

Any alleged liability could harm our business by damaging our reputation.   Any alleged liability could also require us to incur legal expenses in defense and could expose us to awards of damages and costs including, but not limited to, treble damages for willful infringement, and would likely divert management's attention which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We cannot assure you that third parties will not claim infringement by us with respect to past, current, or future technologies. Participants in our markets  may be increasingly subject to infringement claims as the number of services and competitors in our industry segment grows. In addition, these risks are difficult to quantify in light of the continuously evolving nature of laws and regulations governing the Internet. Any claim relating to proprietary rights, whether meritorious or not, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, cause service upgrade delays or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, and we cannot assure you that we will have adequate insurance coverage or that royalty or licensing agreements will be available on terms acceptable to us or at all. Further, we plan to offer our services and applications to customers worldwide, including to customers in foreign countries that may offer less protection for our intellectual property than the United States. Our failure to protect against misappropriation of our intellectual property and claims against us that we are infringing the intellectual property of third parties could have a negative effect on our business, revenues, financial condition and results of operations.

Evolving government regulation could adversely affect our business prospects.

We do not know with certainty how existing laws governing issues such as property ownership copyright and other intellectual property issues, taxation, illegal or obscene content, retransmission of media, personal privacy and data protection will apply to the Internet or to the distribution of multimedia and other proprietary content over the Internet. Most of these laws were adopted before the advent of the Internet and related technologies and therefore do not address the unique issues associated with the Internet and related technologies. Depending on how these laws developed and are interpreted by the judicial system, they could have the effect of:

Because of this rapidly evolving and uncertain regulatory environment, both domestically and internationally, we cannot predict how existing or proposed laws and regulations might affect our business.

In addition, as Internet commerce continues to evolve, increasing regulation by federal, state or foreign agencies becomes more likely. For example, we believe increased regulation is likely in the area of data privacy, and laws and regulations applying to the solicitation, collection, processing or use of personal or consumer information could affect our customers ’ ability to use and share data, potentially reducing demand for our software solutions and restricting our ability to store, process and share data with our customers. In addition, taxation of services provided over the Internet or other charges imposed by government agencies or by private organizations for accessing the Internet may also be imposed. Any regulation imposing greater fees for Internet use or restricting information exchange over the Internet could result in a decline in the use of the Internet and the viability of Internet-based services, which could harm our business.

Dilutive securities may adversely impact our stock price.

As of March 27, 2018, the following securities exercisable into shares of our Common Stock were outstanding: 

These securities represent, as of March 27, 2017, approximately 23% of our Common Stock on a fully diluted, as exercised basis. 6,750,000 of the shares of Common Stock issuable pursuant to the exercise of warrants are beneficially owned by our management. The exercise of any of these options or warrants, both of which have fixed prices, may materially adversely affect the market price of our Common Stock and will have a dilutive effect on our existing stockholders.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, current and potential stockholders could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which would harm the value of our stock.

Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports, effectively prevent fraud and operate as a public company. We have, in the past, discovered and may, in the future, discover areas of our internal control over financial reporting that needs improvement. If we are unable to adequately maintain or improve our internal control over financial reporting, we may report that our internal controls are ineffective. If we cannot provide reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, our reputation and operating results would be negatively impacted. Ineffective internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information which could have a negative effect on the market price of our Common Stock and which could result in regulatory proceedings against us by, among others, the SEC.

We have not voluntarily implemented various corporate governance measures, in the absence of which stockholders may have more limited protections against interested director transactions, conflicts of interest and similar matters.

Federal legislation, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and The Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, has resulted in the adoption of various corporate governance measures designed to promote the integrity of the corporate management and the securities markets. Some of these measures have been adopted in response to legal requirements. Others have been adopted by companies in response to the requirements of national securities exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq Stock Market. Among the corporate governance measures that are required under the rules of national securities exchanges are those that address the board of directors' independence, audit committee oversight, and the adoption of a code of ethics. We have not yet adopted some of these corporate governance measures and, since our securities are not listed on a national securities exchange, we are not required to do so. We have not adopted corporate governance measures such as an audit committee or other independent committees of our Board of Directors.   In the absence of audit, nominating and compensation committees comprised of at least a majority of independent directors, decisions concerning matters such as compensation packages to our senior officers and recommendations for director nominees may be made by a majority of directors who have an interest in the outcome of the matters being decided. Prospective investors should bear in mind our current lack of corporate governance measures in formulating their investment decisions.

The limited market for our Common Stock will make our stock price more volatile.   Therefore, you may have difficulty selling your shares.

The market for our Common Stock is limited and we cannot assure you that a larger market will ever be developed or maintained. Currently, our Common Stock is quoted on the OTCQB Marketplace. Securities quoted on the OTCQB Marketplace typically have low trading volumes.   Market fluctuations and volatility, as well as general economic, market and political conditions, could reduce our market price. As a result, this may make it difficult or impossible for our shareholders to sell our Common Stock.

There are generally no restrictions on the re sale of our outstanding Common Stock.  Sales by existing shareholders may depress the share price of our Common Stock and may impair our ability to raise additional capital through the sale of equity securities when needed.

The possibility that substantial amounts of outstanding Common Stock may be sold in the public market may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our Common Stock.   This could negatively affect the market price of our Common Stock and could impair our ability to raise additional capital through the sale of equity securities.

Sales of shares of our Common Stock to the public may adversely impact our stock price.

Sales of shares of our Common Stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our Common Stock and may make it more difficult for our stockholders to sell their common stock at desirable prices. We are unable to predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing market price of our Common Stock.

Some of the shares issued and options granted under our stock plan may have been issued in transactions that were not exempt from registration under certain state securities laws, the result of which is that the holders of these shares and/or options may have rescission rights that could require us to reacquire the shares and/or options.

Some of the shares issued and options granted under our equity compensation plan may not have been exempt from registration or qualification under the securities laws of certain states. We recently became aware that we may not have had a valid exemption for the issuance of these options and shares exercised upon exercise of these options under certain state laws. Because of the lack of registration and, potentially, the lack of a valid exemption from registration, the options we granted and the shares issued upon exercise of these options may have been issued in violation of certain state securities laws and may be subject to rescission.

If such shares and options are subject to rescission, we could be required to make payments to the holders of these shares and options in an amount not yet determinable by us. If any or all of the offerees reject the rescission offer, we may continue to be liable under state securities laws for payments to the offerees. If it is determined that we offered securities without properly registering them under state law, or securing an exemption from registration, regulators could impose monetary fines or other sanctions as provided under these laws.  

Our Common Stock is subject to the “penny stock” rules of the SEC, and the trading market in our Common Stock is limited.   This makes transactions in our Common Stock cumbersome and may reduce the value of your shares.

The SEC has adopted Rule 3a51-1 which establishes the definition of a "penny stock," for the purposes relevant to us, as any equity security that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share or with an exercise price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions.   For any transaction involving a penny stock, unless exempt, Rule 15g-9 requires:

In order to approve a person's account for transactions in penny stocks, the broker or dealer must:

The broker or dealer must also deliver, prior to any transaction in a penny stock, a disclosure schedule prescribed by the SEC relating to the penny stock market, which, in highlight form:

Generally, brokers may be less willing to execute transactions in securities subject to the "penny stock" rules. This may make it more difficult for investors to dispose of our Common Stock and cause a decline in its market value.

Disclosure also has to be made about the risks of investing in penny stocks in both public offerings and in secondary trading and about the commissions payable to both the broker-dealer and the registered representative, current quotations for the securities and the rights and remedies available to an investor in cases of fraud in penny stock transactions. Finally, monthly statements have to be sent disclosing recent price information for the penny stock held in the account and information on the limited market in penny stocks.

We could become subject to litigation that could be costly, result in the diversion of management ’s attention and require us to pay damages.

From time to time, we may become involved in legal proceedings. Though we are not currently subject to any such proceedings, adverse outcomes in such proceedings may result in significant monetary damages or injunctive relief that could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business and could divert management ’s attention.