The initial story from Mr. Bordynuik was that he was mining data from old tape drives and he stumbled across a recipe for a catalyst which somehow made plastic pyrolysis better. The story initially wasn't that PTOI invented a better processor. The story was that when the catalyst was developed, oil was cheap so the catalyst wasn't valuable. The story was that the recipe for the catalyst was forgotten until Mr. Bordynuik found it. That catalyst was supposed to be the 'unfair advantage' which PTOI had in its pocket.

After that the story morphed to saying that the catalyst was improved and that best-in-breed pyrolysis processors were developed. It's a little hard for me to swallow that Mr. Bordynuik can come up with so many disruptive technologies. I'm obviously skeptical that Mr. Bordynuik came up with anything of value.

But either way, the company has to show value and the processor has to somehow add value, otherwise the company derives no value. Typically when a company has value, that company will clearly communicate that value to investors.

It's not strange that a company would be clear about their value proposition. I worked with a number of entrepreneurs and start up companies in the past and entrepreneurs immediately and innately recognize the need to do a proof of concept and to communicate that value to stakeholders. A proof of concept proves the value to investors, to business partners, to customers and, most importantly of all, to the entrepreneur himself. Communicating that value will get everyone on board and on the same page, making everything go much more smoothly.

When, instead, a company is reluctant to clearly communicate the value proposition, it's worth being suspicious.