SideChannel, Inc. 10-K

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS Outlined below are some of the risks that we believe could affect our business and financial statements. An investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following information about these risks, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before investing in our common stock. If any of the events anticipated by the risks described below occur, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected which could result in a decline in the market price of our common stock, causing you to lose all or part of your investment. A pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of an infectious disease, such as COVID-19, may materially and adversely affect our business and operations. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the United States and global economies and may affect our operations and those of third parties on which we rely. While the potential economic impact brought by, and the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to assess or predict, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global financial markets may reduce our ability to access capital, which could negatively impact our short-term and long-term liquidity. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, financing or the global economy as a whole. However, these effects could have a material impact on our liquidity, capital resources, operations and business and those of the third parties on which we rely. Because our common stock is quoted on the OTCQB instead of national exchange, our investors may have a difficulty selling their stock or may experience negative volatility on the market price of our common stock. Our common stock is traded on the OTCQB Venture Market (“OTCQB”) operated by the OTC Markets Group. The OTCQB is often highly illiquid, in part because it does not have a national quotation system by which potential investors can follow the market price of shares except through information received and generated by a limited number of broker-dealers that make markets in particular stocks. There is a greater chance of volatility for securities that trade on the OTCQB as compared to a national exchange or quotation system. This volatility may be caused by a variety of factors, including the lack of readily available price quotations, the absence of consistent administrative supervision of bid and ask quotations, lower trading volume, and market conditions. Investors in our common stock may experience high fluctuations in the market price and volume of the trading market for our securities. These fluctuations, when they occur, have a negative effect on the market price for our securities. Accordingly, our stockholders may not be able to realize a fair price from their shares when they determine to sell them or may have to hold them for a substantial period of time until the market for our common stock improves. We depend significantly upon the continued involvement of our present management. The Company’s success depends significantly upon the involvement of our present management, who are in charge of our strategic planning and operations. We may need to attract and retain additional talented individuals in order to carry out our business objectives. The competition for individuals with expertise in this industry could be intense and there are no assurances that these individuals will be available to us. Compliance with changing regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure will result in additional expenses and pose challenges for our management. Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the rules and regulations promulgated there under, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and SEC regulations, have created uncertainty for public companies and significantly increased the costs and risks associated with accessing the U.S. public markets. Our management team will need to devote significant time and financial resources to comply with both existing and evolving standards for public companies, which will lead to increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue generating activities to compliance activities. 4 Risks Related to Our Industry We face intense competition. We expect to experience intense competition across all markets for our products and services. Although we believe our business and product portfolio will be a competitive advantage, our competitors that are focused on narrower product lines may be more effective in devoting technical, marketing, and financial resources to compete with us. In addition, barriers to entry in our businesses generally are low, and products, once developed, can be distributed broadly and quickly at a relatively low cost. Open-source software vendors are devoting considerable efforts to developing software that mimics the features and functionality of our anticipated products. These competitive pressures may result in decreased sales volumes, price reductions, and/or increased operating costs, such as for marketing and sales incentives, resulting in lower revenue, gross margins, and operating income. Our business depends on our ability to attract and retain talented employees. Our business is based on successfully attracting and retaining talented employees. The market for highly skilled workers and leaders in our industry is extremely competitive. If we are less successful in our recruiting efforts, or if we are unable to retain key employees, our ability to develop and deliver successful products and services may be adversely affected. Effective succession planning is also important to our long-term success. Failure to ensure effective transfer of knowledge and smooth transitions involving key employees could hinder our strategic planning and execution. Delays in product development schedules may adversely affect our revenues. The development of software products is a complex and time-consuming process. New products can require long development and testing periods. Our increasing focus on innovative and new software presents new and complex development issues. Significant delays in new product releases or significant problems in creating new products could adversely affect our revenue. Acquisitions and joint ventures may have an adverse effect on our business. If we made acquisitions or entered into joint ventures as part of our long-term business strategy, these transactions would involve significant challenges and risks including that the transactions do not advance our business strategy, that we don’t realize a satisfactory return on our investment, or that we experience difficulty in the integration of new employees, business systems, and technology, or diversion of management’s attention from our other businesses. These events could harm our operating results or financial condition. Risks Related to Our Securities The market price for our common stock may be volatile, and you may not be able to sell our stock at a favorable price or at all. Many factors could cause the market price of our common stock to rise and fall, including: ● actual or anticipated variations in our quarterly results of operations; ● changes in market valuations of companies in our industry; ● changes in expectations of future financial performance; ● fluctuations in stock market prices and volumes; ● issuances of dilutive common stock or other securities in the future; ● the addition or departure of key personnel; 5 ● announcements by us or our competitors of acquisitions, investments or strategic alliances; and ● it is possible that the proceeds from sales of our common stock may not equal or exceed the prices you paid for the shares after including the costs and fees of making the sales Substantial sales of our common stock, or the perception that such sales might occur, could depress the market price of our common stock. We cannot predict whether future issuances of our common stock or resale in the open market will not decrease the market price of our common stock. The consequence of any such issuances or resale of our common stock on our market price may be increased as a result of the fact that our common stock is thinly, or infrequently, traded. The exercise of any options, or the vesting of any restricted stock that we may grant to directors, executive officers and other employees in the future, the issuance of common stock in connection with acquisitions and other issuances of our common stock, may decrease the market price of our common stock. Holders of our common stock have a risk of potential dilution if we issue additional shares of common stock in the future. The exercise of options and warrants and/or the conversion of preferred stock will dilute the shareholder’s ownership percentage. We may issue options to purchase or grant up to an aggregate of 3,000,000 shares of common stock under our 2019 Stock Grant/Option Plan. We also have outstanding warrants to purchase 24,290,866 shares of our common stock. In the future, we may grant additional stock options, warrants, or convertible securities. The exercise or conversion of stock options, warrants, preferred stock, or convertible securities will dilute the ownership percentage of our other stockholders. The dilutive effect of the exercise or conversion of these securities may adversely affect our ability to obtain additional capital. The holders of these securities may be expected to exercise or convert their securities when we are able to obtain additional equity capital on terms more favorable than these securities. We do not intend to pay cash dividends to our stockholders, so you will not receive any return on your investment in our Company prior to selling your interest in the Company. The Company has never paid any cash dividends to our stockholders. We currently intend to retain any future earnings for funding growth and, therefore, do not expect to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, you will not receive any return on your investment prior to selling your shares in our Company, and for the other reasons discussed in this “Risk Factors” section, you may not receive any return on your investment even when you sell your shares in our Company. Our common stock is subject to restrictions on sales by broker-dealers and penny stock rules, which may be detrimental to investors. Our common stock is subject to Rules 15g-1 through 15g-9 under the Exchange Act, which imposes certain sales practice requirements on broker-dealers who sell our common stock to persons other than established customers and “accredited investors” (as defined in Rule 501(a) of the Securities Act). For transactions covered by this rule, a broker-dealer must make a special suitability determination for the purchaser and have received the purchaser’s written consent to the transaction prior to the sale. This rule adversely affects the ability of broker-dealers to sell our common stock and purchasers of our common stock to sell their shares of our common stock. 6 Additionally, our common stock is subject to SEC regulations applicable to “penny stocks.” Penny stocks include any non-Nasdaq equity security that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions. The regulations require that prior to any non-exempt buy/sell transaction in a penny stock; a disclosure schedule proscribed by the SEC relating to the penny stock market must be delivered by a broker-dealer to the purchaser of such penny stock. This disclosure must include the amount of commissions payable to both the broker-dealer and the registered representative and current price quotations for our common stock. The regulations also require that monthly statements be sent to holders of a penny stock that disclose recent price information for the penny stock and information of the limited market for penny stocks. These requirements adversely affect the market liquidity of our common stock. Our Articles of Incorporation allow us to issue preferred stock without shareholder approval. Our board of directors has “blank check” authority to issue up to 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock and to determine the price, rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions, including voting rights, of those shares without any additional vote or action by our shareholders. The rights of the holders of the common stock will be subject to, and could be materially adversely affected by, the rights of the holders of any preferred stock that may be issued in the future. For example, we could issue preferred stock that has superior rights to dividends or is convertible into shares of common stock. This might adversely affect the market price of the common stock. If we experience delays and/or defaults in customer payments, we could be unable to recover all expenditures. Because of the nature of our contracts, at times we commit resources to projects prior to receiving payments from the customer in amounts sufficient to cover expenditures on projects as they are incurred. Delays in customer payments may require us to make a working capital investment. If a customer defaults in making their payments on a project in which we have devoted resources, it could have a material negative effect on our working capital and results of operations. If we do not effectively manage our growth, our existing infrastructure may become strained, and we may be unable to increase revenue growth. Our past growth that we have experienced, and in the future may experience, may provide challenges to our organization, requiring us to expand our personnel and our operations. Future growth may strain our infrastructure, operations and other managerial and operating resources. If our business resources become strained, our earnings may be adversely affected, and we may be unable to increase revenue growth. Further, we may undertake contractual commitments that exceed our labor resources, which could also adversely affect our earnings and our ability to increase revenue growth. The future issuance of equity or of other securities that are convertible into equity may dilute your investment and reduce your equity interest. We may choose to raise additional capital in the future, depending on market conditions, strategic considerations and operational requirements. To the extent that additional capital is raised through the issuance of shares of our common stock or other securities convertible into shares of our common stock, our stockholders’ ownership interests in our Company will be diluted. Future issuances of our common stock, other equity securities or other securities convertible into shares of our common stock or other equity securities, the exercise of currently outstanding or future options or warrants for our common stock, or the perception that such sales or exercises may occur, could adversely affect the prevailing market price of our common stock and impair our ability to raise capital through future offerings of equity or equity-linked securities. Our auditor indicated that certain factors raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. The financial statements included with this report are presented under the assumption that we will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business over a reasonable length of time. We had a net loss of approximately $7.0 million for the year ended September 30, 2020 and an accumulated deficit in aggregate of approximately $68.4 million at year end. We are not generating sufficient operating cash flows to support continuing operations and expect to incur further losses in the development of our business. In our financial statements for the year ended September 30, 2020, our auditor indicated that certain factors raised substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. These factors included our accumulated deficit, as well as the fact that we were not generating sufficient cash flows to meet our regular working capital requirements. Our ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon our ability to generate future profitable operations and/or to obtain the necessary financing to meet our obligations and repay our liabilities arising from normal business operations when they come due. Management’s plan to address our ability to continue as a going concern includes: (1) obtaining debt or equity funding from private placement or institutional sources; and (2) generating cash flow from operations. Although management believes that it will be able to obtain the necessary funding to allow us to remain a going concern through the methods discussed above, there can be no assurances that such methods will prove successful. The accompanying financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty. ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS Not applicable.