Candor & Confidentiality
Fountainhead News: May 10, 2017
We have been getting an outsized number of requests to demo and show our Biologic Intelligence software and robotics systems in public. I suppose the reason is curiosity. And also because some people probably don’t believe our claims.
A few points to address that, here within the Fountainhead community, but we will open this up at large so we can refer others back to it. It comes down to 3 basic things:
- We don’t need to show anything publicly.
- Our customers get to implement it first hand specific to their use case.
- Our customers are incredibly private. Defense, aerospace, automotive, energy, industrial manufacturing, smart cities.
First, we don’t need to show anything publicly. That’s very important to understand. We are not a consumer-focused business. In fact, you could argue we’re not even a traditional enterprise business. We’re not attempting to solve HR issues with AI, or close customer support tickets when some user responds with “Ok, thanks” and it automatically re-opens a ticket. So, showing something publicly would actually hurt us. Competitors, copycats, detractors.
Second, when we work with customers we sign mutual NDAs. That covers confidential conversations with Tier 1 companies who are investing heavily in their own private R&D, but also our own proprietary software, algorithms, and approach. There is a lot of value on both sides of the table. Both sides have a fiduciary and ethical responsibility to protect that. We have already been in a situation where we believe one potential investor was taking our knowledge to another competitor. An elephant never forgets.
Third, and most importantly, the customers that we talk to and work with, today and into the future, are operating at the highest levels of industry. They don’t spend a lot of time promoting themselves individually on Snapchat or Instagram. They don’t let very many people into the Board room for trusted conversations. They don’t make decisions lightly. And they darn sure value privacy far more than the technology of the day. You can’t be a threat to their confidentiality nor national security. Personally, I’ve gotten to the point where I want to delete all social media, but haven’t because that makes me look more suspect, not less. Because people need to ask the question, “Who are these people?” and be allowed to do their own research.
Finally, telling the truth is an important aspect of any business. In response to whether or not our claims are real, I would point would-be detractors to our reputations. Our years of work, our writing, everything we’ve put out publicly, our resumes, and the fact that we don’t much tend to overinflate things. We tell you the truth, our belief, and what that means in the future. We have a long history of being “right” in terms of technology trends and many years studying and working with mathematic AI and biological neurons across various industries. We have degrees in the things we’ve done.
And at no point in our entire working career have we lied or pushed a falsehood. In fact, I would argue we’ve done the opposite. And been more open than most about our successes and failures. There’s nothing to hide because there’s nothing to hide.
There’s an important lesson in here for would-be entrepreneurs as well as managers in massive companies. Control your brand. Control your narrative. Don’t get baited into something that isn’t right just because people want you to. You are the boss. You set the rules.
We operate with Candor & Confidentiality at the core. That’s because these two things, taken together, form the basis of the most important aspect of any company or relationship we’re involved with.
Trust.
— Sean
