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RONALD S. TUCKER - TENSLEEP CORPORATION (TENS)
CEO Interview - published 12/18/2006
RONALD S. TUCKER, since 1997, has been the Chief Executive Officer, Chief
Financial Officer and Director, of Tensleep Corporation, and was the Founder of
and an officer and Director of Tensleep Technologies, Inc. from 2000 to 2005
when it acquired, in a reverse transaction, Yeahronimo Media Ventures, Inc., a
Delaware corporation, and is now Commodore International Corporation. From 1990
to present, Mr. Tucker was the Founder, has been and now is the President and a
Director of R Tucker & Associates, Inc., a financial and corporate development
consulting firm. Mr. Tucker is a graduate of the University of California at Los
Angeles where he received a Bachelor of Science degree while majoring in Finance
and Accounting. Mr. Tucker is also a graduate of the Loyola University School
of Law. Mr. Tucker is a member of the California and Texas Bar Associations.
SECTOR FINANCIAL SERVICES
TWST: What is Tensleep Corporation?
Mr. Tucker: Tensleep has evolved into a financial services company. Tensleep was
incorporated in October 1997 and started business as a fabless semiconductor
company. In September 1999, it became a fully reporting company under the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and we started trading on the Bulletin Board.
Then in December 2001, it voluntarily withdrew its registration under the
Exchange Act due to the cost of maintaining the registration.
Tensleep has survived the days of the new economy and the dot-com era, when its
price was as high as $7 per share in March 2000, but it descended to $0.01 more
than a year later. Within the last 12 months, the price per share has been as
high as $1.50 and as low as $0.08.
As I said, Tensleep started business as a fabless semiconductor company with
little cash and a lot of intellectual property that was looking for a product.
Because of some bad acquisitions and with little cash, Tensleep and affiliates
developed an Internet gateway usable as a general component product within
application specific products. Unfortunately, there wasn't sufficient time or
cash to develop a comprehensive marketing and sales force.
In spite of Tensleep's original lack of cash, its cash and working capital have
increased and Tensleep has a net worth of approximately $1 million, after
extraordinary write-offs, all without a source of stable or significant
revenues.
Basically, Tensleep believes that the value of its stock should be determined
not by the revenues that it generates but by the earnings of its shareholders.
Therefore, on that belief, Tensleep has actually declared and paid four stock
dividends.
There were three 10% dividends. One was in Tensleep common stock and one in the
common stock of a subsidiary, Tensleep Technologies (OTC:TNSP), which eventually
became Commodore International Corporation (OTC:CDRL). The third stock dividend
was in Tensleep Wireless Corporation, a subsidiary, and the fourth dividend was
a 50% dividend in the common stock of Tensleep Financial Corporation.
The stock dividends for Tensleep Wireless and Tensleep Financial Corporation
were within the last six months, and by distributing the stock of those
companies, we have formed the Tensleep Group, consisting of Tensleep
Corporation, Tensleep Wireless, and Tensleep Financial.
Tensleep Group is primarily the result of Tensleep's reorganization. The purpose
is to support international and domestic emerging growth companies and
development-stage companies in their business and corporate development by
providing capital, funding for product development, product acquisition, and
product distribution and management services.
The group's mission is to provide the emerging growth company or a development-
stage company with the foundation for growth (a venture capital investment) and
an exit strategy for those investors.
Tensleep Corporation as a financial services company specializes in the capital
and structural reorganization of the emerging growth companies and development-
stage companies through the use of publicly traded securities.
We provide the emerging growth companies, development stage consumer product
companies with financial and business services, and in addition, we fund the
joint ventures with emerging growth and development-stage companies.
Our primary objective for the Tensleep Corporation is to support the growth of
emerging growth companies through the establishment of publicly traded
companies. Tensleep receives revenues primarily from three sources: funds for
financial services, royalties from licensed technologies or products, and sales
of publicly traded securities of affiliated companies.
TWST: What's the agenda at this point? What's the priority for the next 12
months? What would make that time frame a success from your perspective?
Mr. Tucker: This is the result of a reorganization, so it's current. What we are
trying to do to provide the funding that's necessary, that's the purpose of
Tensleep Financial Corporation. We are looking to try to obtain private
placements in the amount of approximately $5 million. Then the Tensleep Group
will be in a position to provide various types of funding for the emerging
growth companies or development stage companies with which we have developed a
strategic partnership or relationship.
The key for the future is to be able to raise that money in the sense of making
the group work correctly for them and as we planned; if we don't raise the
money, Tensleep Corporation will still survive, it will continue, as will the
other companies, but at a slower pace.
TWST: Introduce us to some of your key individuals, both the management team and
perhaps advisors.
Mr. Tucker: I am the primary person and I can give you a little bit of my
background and then there is one other person, Dennis Kaliher. He is primarily
an engineer and he develops various products. We do have products that we
develop, but we just never had a sales force to effectively sell them and they
were component products that would have to be sold within other products, which
is always hard selling without a salesman - it takes some period of time. But
let me give you a little bit about my background.
I have a Bachelor of Science Degree from UCLA, with a major in Finance and
Accounting. I graduated from Loyola University School of Law with an LLB degree.
Although I have my Law degree, my interest has always been more in business and
particularly relating to manufacturing, with a strong interest in cost
accounting. In financing, I have always had an interest in various securities
that could be used by a business to obtain capital.
I have worked for a CPA firm, prior to going to law school, and I have worked
with my stepfather, who was in the garment business. Basically, what I did for
him was work for his CPA firm, priced his garments, as well as many other
things.
In my law practice, I started out as a sole practitioner in California. I am a
member of the California Bar and later went to Texas for a period of time and I
became a member of the Texas Bar; then I moved back to California.
Early in my practice, my clients were small business owners and real estate
developers and builders. Early in my career, I arranged the merger of three
title insurance companies in Southern California, which became the largest
underwritten title company in Los Angeles and Orange County. They eventually
sold out and it is now known as Commonwealth Title.
But, as I said, my interest has been primarily in law with regard to business
and I've been involved in a lot of different businesses personally. Some have
been successful and some not so successful. Because of my experience and
education, I have come to certain conclusions. Basically, in addition to lacking
sufficient capital, an emerging growth company lacks sufficient funding to be
able to finance both the purchase of product, inventory and/or their accounts
receivable; they don't necessarily have a commercialized product; and they
really don't know what the cost of their product is or how to cost it. These are
significant issues that I feel we can be a benefit to them and aid and support
them in raising money. But we are not a money raiser.
TWST: What historically has been the shareholder base with the company? Has that
base undergone any recent changes?
Mr. Tucker: The shareholder base of the company has been fairly stable. At one
time we probably had 1,500 shareholders, but at the current time it's probably
800 or something like that.
TWST: In your discussions with investors are there any misperceptions? Do they
understand the Tensleep story?
Mr. Tucker: Frankly, they don't; and it's been my fault, and that's because it's
been an evolving thing and has never been totally coherent. I understand what it
is, but it's hard to explain it to someone else, but I think it will be easier
in the future.
TWST: What would compel investors to include Tensleep as part of their current
portfolios and as part of their longer-term investment strategies?
Mr. Tucker: That's where part of my problem is also - to convey exactly the true
benefits of an investment in Tensleep. I believe the profile of an investor in
our company is a conservative speculator. What I mean is, an investor in a
micro-cap company is a real speculator, a gambler. Fundamentally it's a matter
of whether it seems like the company will grow and how much its GAAP revenues in
fact grow. Usually the investor is a short-term investor.
Tensleep isn't that kind of an investment. What I try to emphasize is the return
on investment the investor will receive by investing in us, in the short-term,
and the long term. The investor should be investing in Tensleep with a vision
of the long term, because by holding an investment in Tensleep in the long term
they will maximize their return on investment through stock dividends, possibly
cash dividends, growth in value of Tensleep common stock and stock received in
subsidiaries and affiliates, and the opportunity to purchase tradable securities
of subsidiaries and affiliates at discount prices. That is where I see the
value, and it's a matter of convincing conservative speculators by showing them
the opportunities they have in investing in Tensleep and in our subsidiary or
affiliated companies.
So it's a different type of investor, and it's a matter of reaching them and
convincing them by demonstration that by having a long-term investment in
Tensleep Corporation, they can have short-term profits too.
TWST: Thank you. (DWA)
Ronald S. Tucker
CEO & CFO
Tensleep Corporation
79860 Tangelo
La Quinta, CA 92253
(888) 443-2656
www.tensleep.com
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