Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Aurora Spine Financial Results conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press Star and then one using a touchtone telephone. To withdraw your questions, you may press Star and two. Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Chad Clouse, CFO. Sir, please go ahead. Thank you, operator. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. A review of the financials of Aurora Spine for the fourth quarter and fiscal year, ending December 31, 2023, and the first quarter, 2024. With us on the call representing the company today are Trent Northcutt, President and CEO of Aurora Spine, and myself, Chad Clouse, Chief Financial Officer of Aurora Spine. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that the statements made during the course of this call may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Acts of 1934. These statements reflect current expectations concerning future events and results. Words such as expect and tend, believe, may, will, should, could, anticipate and similar expressions are words that are used to identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean a statement is not forward-looking. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to the risks and uncertainties and other important factors that could cause performance or achievements to be materially different from those projected. For a full discussion of the risks and uncertainties and factors, you're encouraged to read Aurora Spine's documents on file with SEDAR+, including those set forth in the periodic reports filed under the Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors section. Aurora Spine does not intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. On this call, management may refer to EBITDAC, adjusted EBITDAC, adjusted net income, and adjusted EPS, which are not measures of financial performance under the generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. Management believes that these non-GAAP figures, in addition to the GAAP measures, provide meaningful supplemental information regarding the company's operational performance. Investors should recognize these non-GAAP figures might not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. These measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute or superior to any measure of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of non-GAAP measures and the most directly comparable GAAP measures in accordance with FCC Regulation G can be found in the company's earnings release. With that, I'd like now to turn the call over to Mr. Trent Northcutt, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aurora Spine. Trent, please proceed. Thank you, Chad. I'd like to welcome everyone to Aurora Spine's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023 and the first quarter 2024 financial results conference call. Yesterday, we issued a press release detailing our financial results for the first quarter of 2024. Hopefully, you've had a chance to review this news release, but if not, a copy can be found on our website at aurora-spine.com. That's www.aurora-spine.com, under the investor section of our and other financial websites. To lay out the agenda for today, today's call, let me first summarize a few key events of the last two quarters. For the fiscal year 2023, we talked about status of each of our key initiatives, products like ZIP and SiLO. Chad will give you a recap of the financial results, and then we'll continue with Q&A sessions at the end. As the tide of momentum continues to surge, we find ourselves at the forefront of riding the wave of innovation with Aurora products, including a revolutionary ZIP and a transfemoral ZIP, SiLO product, tailoring our minimally invasive procedures to successfully their ability to offer alternative treatments, paths steering clear of excessive path of medications in the midst of an opioid epidemic. The launch of the SiLO TFX marked a pivotal moment in our journey, unlocking a vast realm of possibilities in the SI joint pain market. The release of the SiLO TFX was a tremendous event for our company, and the SiLO franchise immediately accepted by the pain market, orthopedic market, and neuro market. The SiLO sales were strong at $1.33 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, and we exceeded that by $1.41 million in Q1 of 2024. Let's not forget the resounding success of our ZIP series. The interim results of this clinical study, published by the Pain and Therapy, speaks volumes, with 82% of our patients reporting improvement and 65% clinically meaningful pain reduction. It's clear that the ZIP device is not just an effective product, but it's also safe, ushering a new era of lumbar spinal stenosis treatment. ZIP sales continue to be strong, with $6 million in sales in 2023 compared to $4.7 million in 2022. That's a $1.3 million increase. Increased marketing for the ZIP-51 implant paid off, sales surging from $185,000 in Q1 in 2023 to $624,000 in Q4 of 2023. Overall, ZIP sales increased $1.53 million in Q4 of 2023 to $1.63 million in Q1 2024. As we turn our gaze to DEXA, the company is making efforts to revive our clinical business, cervical business through hiring some new spine-focused sales staff to increase the marketing of our ortho neurosurgeons. With our IRB approval in hand and the steadfast sales team, we're poised to place the DEXA-C kits in capable hands of doctors who will be ushering in new standards of care. Looking into 2024, we believe that we are on proper track to continue revenue growth with the second consecutive quarter of $4 million plus in sales. We continue to expand our sales force in the new year into new regions in the country, allowing the company to cover more surgeries, internal staff, which will lower our commission costs across the board. To summarize, I'm extremely proud of our team's performance and staying focused on building this company. We are well positioned to take advantage of the growing spine and pain markets with proprietary products. We remain focused on penetrating these markets further this year through continued training, sessions and clinical trials. I will now turn over the call to Chad Clouse, CFO, our Spine CFO, who will continue the financial results. Chad, please proceed. Thank you, Trent. The numbers highlighted in detail in the press release, let me focus on a few areas. During the three months ended December 31st, 2023, we generated revenues in the amount of $4.04 million, compared to $3.61 million in the same period the previous year, an increase of $434,000 or 12%. Quarter saw increased activity in the pain market with an increased SiLO joint sales- SiLO joint implant sales due to SiLO TFX release and the continued growth in ZIP implant. For Q4 2023, cost of sales was $1.75 million, and gross profit was $2.3 million, as compared to $1.78 million and $1.83 million, respectively, in the comparable period. Gross margins in the current period were 46.7% of revenue, compared to 50.6% of revenue in the comparable period. Higher margin was due to increased sales of higher margin implants and lower distributor costs, offset by higher shipping and royalty costs. Operating expenses during the quarter, Q4 quarter were $2.58 million compared to $2.67 million during the same period previous year, a decrease of $85,000. Operating expenses were lower during the current period quarter, primarily due to decrease in research and development, marketing costs and software costs, offset by higher salary costs. Salary costs increased as the company hired more salespeople. As a result of the above, EBITDA during the three months ending December 31, 2023, was $109,734, compared to a negative $358,311 during the same period the previous year, an improvement of $468,000. During the year ended December 31, 2023, we generated revenues of $14.5 million compared to $14.8 million during the previous year. This is a decrease of about $356,000, or a 2.4% decrease. The decrease is primarily due to coding issues with the SiLO Allograft product and decreased cervical implant sales. The year saw medical coding changes for the SiLO Allograft implant that led to decreased sales. However, the company released a SiLO TFX implant that was sold under the existing medical coding. The SiLO Allograft implant was given a permanent code in 2024. During the year ended December 31, 2023, cost of goods sold was $6.3 million, and gross profit was $8.2 million, or 56.5% of revenues. During the year ended 2022, cost of goods sold was $7.1 million, and gross profits were $7.8 million, or 52.5% of revenue. Change in margin is due in part to changing product mix, particularly an increase in ZIP and SiLO TFX sales. Operating expenses during the year of 2023 were $9.9 million, compared to $9.4 million the same period the previous year. Increased operating expenses primarily due to increased payroll, restructured commissions and insurance. The company hired more salespeople for direct sales. As a result of the above, EBITDA during the year ended December 31, 2023, was -$311,000, compared to -$265,000 the previous year, a decrease of $46,000. Q1 2024, during the three months ended March 31, 2024, the company generated revenues in the amount of $4,013,801, compared to $2,958,088 for the same period the previous year, an increase of approximately $1 million or a 35.7% increase. Current quarter saw increased activity in the pain market and increased SI joint implant sales related to the SiLO TFX and continued growth in ZIP implant. Company has been targeting the pain market with increased marketing, training, and new product releases, and an increase in sales force has resulted in a changing product mix, with large increases in our ZIP 51 and SiLO TFX sales. During the quarter, cost of sales were $1.53 million, and gross profit was $2.48 million, as compared to $1.43 million and $1.53 million, respectively, in the comparable period last year. Gross margin in the current period was 61.9% of revenue, compared to 51.7% of revenue in the comparable period. ... Gross margin was higher due to increased sales of high margin implants and large distributor commissions, offset by higher shipping costs and royalty costs. Operating expenses in the current quarter were $2.75 million, compared to $2.19 million in the same period previously, an increase of $560,000. Operating expenses were higher during the current quarter, primarily due to increased sales staff, offset by a decrease in research and development and professional fees. Salary costs and travel costs increased as the company hired more salespeople. As a result of the above, EBITDAC during the three months ended March 31, 2024, was +$117,000, compared to -$377,000 during the same period the previous year, an improvement of $495,000. That concludes my comments. I'll now turn the conversation back to Trent. Trent? Mr. Northcutt, this is the conference operator. Is it possible your phone is on mute? Ah, thank you. Thank you, Chad. Operator, we are ready for any questions. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin that question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on your touchtone telephones. If you are using a speaker phone, we do ask that you please pick up the handset prior to pressing the keys to ensure the best sound quality. To withdraw your questions, you may press star and two. Again, that is star and then one to join the question queue. We'll pause momentarily to assemble a roster. Our first question today comes from Tom Faddishin from MicroCap Connection. Please go ahead with your question. Hey, good morning, guys. Thank you for taking my call. I'm curious, Q1, we saw sales, there were actually... They declined over Q4. I know in Q4 we had the Dubai conference, which affected the sales. Can you speak to, you know, Q1, just in general, the revenues? If it's traditionally it's a bit of a weaker quarter, but more importantly, I guess, really the outlook moving forward, will we see a ramp-up of sales into Q2? It just seems that sales were quite flat in Q1. Actually, I disagree, Tom. I think Q1 sales from a historic standpoint were way ahead of where we were in the previous years. You know, January 2023, we did $849,000. February, we did $960,000. In March, we did $1 million. So in 2024, we were able to average nearly almost 1.4 as an average per month in the Q1. And we had on the books, scheduled wise, we had over $5 million scheduled, but due to weather, and we also had one of our top surgeons in our group had a hand infection, so he lost a couple weeks of surgery, which affected some of the numbers. And then we had another major, one of our contributor doctors, leave their practice to join another practice. So only in the last couple of weeks of the first quarter did we have a slight change in it. But momentum wise, we had on the books, like I said, $5 million recorded in on the books on the calendar. So we were heading in the right direction. Okay. Okay. No, just, just looking at the last three quarters, they're all right around $4 million, and that's why I ask. When, when do we, when do we expect to see the, the hockey stick kind of growth? I know, I know we've, seen the tweets and whatnot of, of $24 million in 2024, and at some point we, we have to see the, the, the ramp-up of sales. Which, which does lead into kind of a, a secondary question, and that is the, with the ramp-up of sales and accounts receivables increasing, are you able to- are you able to achieve both, keeping AR down, but at the same time ramping up sales? It's, it seems to be a tight, it's a, it's a balancing act right now. It's always a balancing act, but let me address the first part of the question. The goals that we set out last year and going into this year, which is what I was really clear on when I was... I kept talking with everyone, and- Mm-hmm. The number one goal of the company was to move towards a profitability mark. That was goal number one, and that's where we were striving towards. We certainly would love to get into a mode of hockey stick performance, but we got to be profitable first, and that was the key goal for us. And that's what we did, you know, showing positive EBITDAC in Q1, and we were able to extend that up and over the growth of the company, Q3, Q4, going into Q1, and we see that trend continuing going into Q2. I think if we continue to stay focused on those type of revenue goals, being profitable, executing on those sales, we'll hit some, we'll miss some, but we're certainly in the game, and we're constantly pushing forward. Now, to address the second question, which was, AR collections, we're addressing that head on. We're, we're, have a stack of, of new interview people that we're bringing in to help us collect faster on the, on the AR collections. We're in constant communication with some of the, accounts that have the highest AR debt with us, and we, and we feel very confident in, most of those, that they're able to get their, their finances on track, to be able to get their payment back to us on track. So I, I, I feel good about, most of it, which is the bigger pieces of that AR, revenue number. ... Mm-hmm. Can you speak to the concentration of the accounts receivables? Like what the sizes of some of the largest debtors and maybe at the same time talk about the collectibility of the AR. How much is in 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days? Is, you know, if you can kind of just give investors an idea as to what sort of payment schedule are we looking at, and if it's spread out equally over the course of 30, 60, and 90. Chad, I'm gonna let you jump into more of the- Yeah, I can do that one. Questions. Concentration isn't too bad. I think we've got two accounts that are in the $400,000-$450,000 range. One of them had been at $1.4 million at one point, and they've paid it down to $400,000 over the last year and a half. Another account, it's $400,000. They're getting refunded this month, and they've promised to pay that all off. They've had a good track record with us, we're not really concerned there. As for, you know, the stuff over 60 days, I'm sure is what stands out in the financial statements, and I'd like to say that we've collected a large portion of that already. So our DSO is historically anywhere between 75 and 90 days. While it looks extended in the financial statements, I think that people are paying in within that window. We've got some people that pay within 30 days, we've got some people who pay within 60 days, but majority will pay within the 75-90-day window. Perfect. Okay, thank you. And on a go-forward basis with the ramp-up of sales, you brought on, of course, new sales directors, and you're anticipating increased volumes of surgeries. Do you have the wherewithal to continue on without the need to do another financing? Yeah. We believe we don't have... We're not in any conversations of refinancing. Two of the major people that have the debt into us, one of them we're super close with. It's one of our top accounts, and- Mm-hmm ... they're, they're moments away, in their words, from closing some financing that they're doing in their organization. They've been- Mm-hmm ... very communicative with us, and we believe what they're telling us. The second one that Chad mentioned, we've been constantly in contact with them, and they're, you know, they're paying chunks of $50,000 and constantly pushing towards paying us back. And yeah, so we're not, we're not in the market of, of raising any capital. We're heads down, full focus, and that's being, you know, being profitable and keeping that positive EBITDA going forward, keeps us in a position of strength. And we'll get this AR down. It's gonna, it's one of our top goals for this, you know, first half of this year, is get the AR paid down, way down. Okay, good. Good, good, good. How many new sales directors do you have on right now, and as we move into 2024, and are you noticing a ramp-up of revenues as a result of these new directors? Any standouts? Yeah, we certainly have some good standouts in the organization. The key areas that have really helped out were, you know, last year, we added somebody really strong in the west. They constantly run, you know, way over 100% to forecast every single month. They helped bring in one of our largest newest accounts, which was last year, and that particular account last year was, like, number three on the list, and this year they're gonna be number one on the list as far as, like, total revenue for the company. And just that person alone is out helping us talk to other colleagues and telling them what success he's having in his clinic and in his specialty, and we really appreciate that. So he's been at the forefront of helping us lead the charge. He's helping us make introductions with people. We've been actively involved in their congresses, meeting with more and more of those colleagues. And we're showing it with not just, you know, sales moxie, but we're showing them with the multicenter study that we completed and is still ongoing with the ZIP device, which is why ZIP sales are continuing to charge upward. We started a campaign last year as part of that conversation with that account, that we would work on the promotion on the ZIP 51, and the ZIP 51, as you probably saw in the press release, grew 193%. It was real revenue, like it was a real revenue increase compared to $185,000, all the way to over $500,000 in sales. That's, you know, that's our product, it's our IP. We- Mm-hmm ... we machine the majority of those implants here in-house. There's a lot of those implants now implanted across the country with really great clinical results, and helping the company grow and helping patients get better. Wonderful. And so we have over 10- How many new sales directors do you have? You've got- We have over 10- Okay ... over 10 people in the field. The regions, let me just step away from my computer here, but we are looking at the map. We've got the Northwest is now, just as of 45 days, 60 days tops, is now we have a really strong regional sales director up in the Northwest, which we've never had one in the history of the company. We've added a person in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, Great Lakes area, a strong person with a spine and a pain background. Steve, you know, in the Arizona area, we never had a regional manager in that area. That was added. He came in last year, and he is now regularly growing that to over 100% forecast. We added personnel in the Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee area, the Georgia, Florida area, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and a new RSC up in the Northeast. We're gonna fill in a new RSC in kind of the upper four corners, so that Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and we're close to getting somebody on track in right up the belt of the Midwest, say in the St. Louis area. We have a VP of Sales who lives in Chicago, who's VP of the East, and we have a VP of the West who's in Nevada. But we're about to add two new people up there in the Midwest, which we think will be really key to us. We're ahead one headcount down on our goal, but we think we'll take two steps forward with adding on the two new people here in the coming weeks. Nice. Can you speak about the margin, the increase in margins and the direct, the results of bringing on these new sales directors, having an impact with the margins, given it's a more of a direct sales approach versus the distributor model that you were doing before? So maybe you could break that down a little bit and speak to the margins that you've currently got and if there's ability to even improve the margins going forward. Yes, like, margins, the increase in margins is going to continue to push forward. And a lot of that becomes down to what we did historically. One, we did all these trainings. We didn't have regional coverage, and that was our, that was our problem. We did a lot of trainings with doctors over the last couple years, and there was doctors in certain areas that we just didn't have the right, or have anybody for that matter, in those areas to be able to give them that corporate touch, to be able to give them that surgical support. And what we... What that has translated to is that those doctors that did get trained on those products, now that they're starting to come around to use our products because there's somebody there in their backyard who can support them, we didn't need a distributor in that area because we were able to cover those cases directly ourselves, which is obviously a big increase in revenue for us and an increase in profit margin because we're not having to pay as much out to the commission to an independent distributor. Now, we love our distributor network, and in pockets of the country that we just don't have access to, that's where distributorship is really, really strong, and we really commend those people who help us out there in those areas. But as I mentioned to you on the map, we've got areas that we're going into, and we're able to get more and more penetration in those areas with our regional sales directors. And then part of our strategy going into the second half of the year is, after the region's been more managed in a more appropriate way, then we'll start to drop in what we call territory managers, which is essentially your direct sales reps. So we'll actually have. We... And we have two of those right now. One of them, as example, is in Utah, where she is. That's her job, is just to manage those, that area, and she only stays within that, you know, by driving within a two-mile radius in every direction to manage those accounts in that area. That's her job, and she does a really good job in that area. And we're gonna continue to add those type of TMs in the country where we don't necessarily need a distributor, but we'll be able to have our direct sales. And that should show an increase, if I'm right. I think it'll happen as early as this quarter and going into next quarter, we'll see an increase quarter-over-quarter, you know, by percentages each quarter going forward. Yep. And speaking of percentage increases, with all these new sales directors coming on, it takes three-four months, I understand, to train a new sales director. When do you see sales, you know, really, really ratcheting up? I know the last three quarters have been around $4 million, and, you know, can we expect to see a $4.5 million quarter here soon? Is that something that you see, you know, if, as you look forward, what sort of growth do you anticipate we should see, in 2024? So in 2024, we're still eyeing to, to achieve over $20 million in sales is our goal. That's what we have internally. We, you know, we started the year off in December, we said: Well, let's make it a goal to try to get 24 in 2024. And then as we got into the year to kind of get our feet underneath us, we said, "Okay, we still feel confident that we can get over $20 million in revenue." And I'm, I'm not giving any guidance, but I'm just telling you what the internal goal is and what we're trying to achieve. Mm-hmm. In our model, we didn't build a model to be, you know, at $24 million. We wrote it down as that, and we put it into where we thought we could get those milestones to hit. Mm-hmm. But we stayed true to our, to what we said we're gonna do: Be profitable and get into this first-- get into this first quarter and be able to have that positive hit. And we had over $5 million in booked revenue on the calendar in surgery. So we know if we can book $5 million, we can achieve $5 million. So if we can achieve $5 million, we're gonna be able to achieve the $4.5 million that you're talking about. So we know that that's our next goal, is to get up and over the consistent of over $1.5 million a month, is what, which is what you hear me talk about all the time. Mm-hmm. We saw that consistency of over $1.4 million, which was nice, because last year, we had August was $1.4 million, September was $1.4 million, October was $1.4 million, November was $1.5 million. December was down. We knew about the Dubai conference, and then we started the month off and hit the quarter off on the right step. If it wasn't for a couple changes and a hand infection, we would have hit an average of $1.5 million in the first quarter. So it was all right there, right in front of us. It wasn't a reach. It was literally on our table. We just had to continue to keep our heads down and stay focused on that. So I'm super encouraged with what the sales team is doing. Yeah. That's good. What is your break even right now per month? 14. 14? Okay. And, last question for me, and it's more maybe a little bit of a comment than a question, is that you're, you're very good on LinkedIn, so investors should look on, look on LinkedIn and Twitter. But there seems to be a little bit of a lack of news, putting press releases out. Are you guys going to put more of a concerted effort moving forward out, to, you know, to try to get the word out to shareholders? For example, Veterans Affairs could be... the news could be posted, of working with them, and I'm sure there's other things like DEXA, DEXA-L, the rollout of that as well. You know, maybe, maybe you can talk about, and also conferences. I, for one, never mentioned that Planet Microcap could be attended or LD Micro. Is there anything that you're gonna do as the CEO to just make the company more, you know, bring more attention to the company moving forward to give investors kind of a feeling of, "Hey, you're with us, and you know, we're in this together. We want the best for the company, and we're gonna do everything possible? Well, I think it's a really good comment, Tom, and number one, I am absolutely with all the investors. I, you know, I fight this fight every day, as you know, and it's still a great fight to fight because I know what we're doing is working. I know that what we're, you know, we're getting such great results with the way the products are being used in the patients, how much relief the patients are getting. We have people coming to us wanting to work at Aurora versus us trying to beg for people to come to Aurora. So I hear you loud and clear. I absolutely will start to put more press releases out there, but I only want to put out press releases that are meaningful. I don't want to put out fluff into the market. I'm trying to promote our products because we know our products like the back of our hand, but I want to get more people aware of our products. So we're having a much bigger social media presence because the youthfulness of a lot of these new surgeons and pain surgeons that are out there coming on the scene, they're very social media savvy, way beyond my years, right? I mean, they're really good at it. We're trying to get more information out there. We started off in the first quarter. There was a lot of information that came out, and we're about to come up. We have some more, a series of information that's gonna be released in press releases. We have a very strong calendar full of events through the rest of the year. It slows down a little bit during the summer, but we were just in a conference up in the northwest this week. We haven't put out any press release on that, but we will. We're gonna be part of a big meeting in Chicago in June, and I'm looking at my calendar here. And then in July, we're at the ASPN conference, A-S-P-N, which is in Miami every year. And we plan on making a big splash there because we have lots to talk about. Because one year ago, we released the data on the ZIP and we released the SiLO TFX system, because the SiLO TFX is essentially one year, full year in now, and we have lots to talk about at that conference. So more press releases will be issued, I assure you. Perfect. And as I apologize, I skipped over one question actually, and that is the DEXA-C. You had mentioned on the call about putting a renewed effort into the, you know, the DEXA line, DEXA-C. I believe you had mentioned that you've hired a couple of these new regional sales directors to focus more on that. Can you speak about DEXA-C? And can you also speak about DEXA-L and when you expect that to roll out? And that'll be it for me for the questions, and I'll leave it for others. No problem. Yeah, DEXA in the, in the overall orthopedic neurospine market for Aurora is a one. I wanted to hit the year where I wanted to hit the year and be fast tracking to grow the company. But how we're gonna grow this company is it has to be a blend of the pain side, of course, and it has to be a blend of the orthopedic and the spine market. So, the newer hires that we've brought in, we've made a conscious, you know, effort to, during that interview process with different candidates, to find out do they have a spine background? We are actively looking to put on more true spine representation across the country, even if we have to add you know a higher management person, say, like a VP of spine, to be brought in. We're making those decisions, and we are interviewing those types of people. DEXA-L is still in the sterilization validation. We are in the sterilization validation. It's already FDA approved, as you guys know, but there's a process where the product has to be validated with the FDA that indeed it is sterile inside the packaging, and we're waiting for those results to come back. It's not a matter of we don't think it's not going to be. It's just a time thing. It just takes time. So the second half of the year is scheduled, the front end of the second half of the year, where we'll be able to run an alpha phase of the DEXA-L product, and we already have those surgeons selected to use the, that product. Once it comes right off the shelf, it'll be ready to go for them, and they're- they'll have their patients ready to go for us, and they'll consistently use that product. And also we are, before the second quarter is over, we are doing, releasing and trialing our HYDRA system, which you've heard me talk about over the last two years. The HYDRA system will be out on an alpha phase, and the use of that device, which has been part of the model for the last couple of years, is going into new surgeons. The surgeons have been with us, but don't use that style of product, with our third-party product, which is the last third-party product we have, which is the German system. We have our own system now that is being put into their hands here by June of this year, they'll be able to start to implant that, and that'll be count towards the new revenue for the company, and we expect that revenue to be an additional over $100,000 a month in new revenue. Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate it there, guys, and continued success. Thank you, Tom. This is gonna be the year that we remember. I assure you. Awesome. Our next question comes from Lindsay Leeds. Please go ahead with your question. Hi, Trent and Chad. I wanna congratulate you on three consecutive quarters of positive EBITDA, and thank you for doing the call today. I wanted to ask, you just talked about HYDRAs. Is that just a brand name for the lumbar kit, or are those two different things? That is a brand name for the lumbar kit. Okay. You have a high degree of confidence that's gonna launch in Q2? Oh, yes. Yeah, I do. In fact, we have the most of the buildouts of the kits is here, actually in the building, and our manufacturing partner in that device was in our office last week, and we're just now putting the kits together. The accounts, the surgeons that will be using the device are ready when it's ready to be put in their hands. So we're highly confident in that release this quarter. Okay, awesome. I wanted to ask about your product lines. Which of your product lines is the easiest to sell to a physician who's never used an Aurora product? A good question. I like the question. I think if you're, if you're an orthopedic spine surgeon, it's easy for... If you have spine background or if you have spine relationships, it's easy to talk to them about DEXA-C. DEXA-C is a cervical device, and the DEXA-C is something that is new to the market. It's relevant to Aurora because of the patent that we were able to achieve on it. We are in a multicenter study with that device right now as we're speaking. It's collecting data, so we're able to not just show features and benefits of that device, but it allows us to show actual clinical data that comes out of that. If you're an orthopedic surgeon, because not a lot of neurosurgeons use SI joint products, I think another product that's really great for the orthopedic market is our SiLO TFX system, because of the superior biomechanics that we were able to produce on that device. We have a paper that's about to be published. It's coming out within two weeks, I assume. We signed off on everything on that biomechanical data last week, and it allows the doctor to effectively fuse the SI joint segment of the patient efficiently with lower time in the operating room, less blood loss, and superior biomechanics. And I'm talking about superior biomechanics against the, you know, the leading SI joint products that are out there on the market. So we're very confident in our biomechanics, and we think that's a great door-opening product, those two devices. If you're in the pain market, we've been able to do two things effectively, which was get involved with the pain interventional market from an SI joint fusion standpoint. We started with the SiLO device, which was the allograft, and it had gone up and down with some headwinds of coding reimbursement, but it seems like it's settled down. And now we are able to introduce the SiLO TFX to the interventional pain market, and it has continued to grow. I mean, it's growing tremendously as a product, also efficient in the hospital and the surgery center. And then the second thing that allowed us to really get involved with the interventional market was the need for them to use the ZIP device and the ZIP 51, which really stood out, as I mentioned in our release. We had a campaign of all of last year, which was, you know, 51, 51 reasons in 52 seasons to use the ZIP 51. Now, it sounds like a corny marketing plan, but my marketing plan grew the product 193%. So it worked, you know, and we're gonna continue to promote on ZIP 51 because it's a really great door-opening device to be able to go to an interventional doctor and say: "What do you currently use to treat L5-S1 pain and fusion, and what do you use?" And usually they don't have an option because there's not a lot of options out there. We call ourselves the gold standard in L5-S1 because we have a great product with a multicenter study that proves that it's effective. Okay. Thank you. With regarding the SiLO TFX, and, you know, the first couple of quarters, the product was out, sales were just rocketing forward at a very high percentage, and it, it feels like it's slowed down a bit. Have you hit a wall where you've kind of saturated your early adopters and now the additional growth is harder won, or can you shed any light on that? Was that... You broke up right in the beginning. Was that the SiLO, you said, SiLO TFX? Yeah, the TFX, SiLO TFX. Yeah. So one year ago, 'cause it was, we released it in April of last year, and when we released it, we had seven kits for the whole country. So we were able to get fast-tracked, you know, get everyone going on the product. We now built out, I think we have 30 kits now available, and we had already had many targets out there for our users that had used our SiLO system, the SiLO Allograft system. So yeah, we were in the queue with them to be able to get more of those usage to, as you put it, you know, saturate that market. More just to get that quick adoption of people who already adopted the technology, the approach, and the surgical technique to be able to apply it to the DEXA -- I'm sorry, the SiLO TFX. So now, we're really out grooming new candidates. Our training program from the beginning of the year has been full, and they're really interested in learning about the ZIP-51 and the SiLO TFX. So, we didn't get to our 100 units of SiLO TFX this last year. We thought we'd get there by December, but we're already over 60 units a month of the SiLO TFX, and we will, before the end of the year, we'll be over 100 units a month in the SiLO TFX, without a doubt. We already have it in the budget to build additional SiLO TFX sets as this continues to increase and grow. Okay, excellent. Thank you. You're welcome. I think this is my last question for now. What kind of milestones might we see in 2024 from your IRB studies? The IRB studies, we will—you're gonna see biomechanical testing data that's gonna come out this year, here in the first quarter on the SiLO TFX. So that's gonna be out in a press release. You're gonna see, in July, so the kickoff of 2023, we're gonna release more clinical data on the ZIP device, and then we're gonna release the biomechanics again out in the third quarter of the SiLO TFX because we're at one of the largest pain conferences in the country, so we'll be promoting it there. And then by the time we get to September, we'll start to release the data in anticipation for the North American Spine Society on the DEXA-C cervical data that we have collected on, and how the clinical results of that are faring so far, which they're doing great. We have no adverse complications. We're able to reduce subsidence, we're able to reduce even pain scores. You know, we're bullish on a faster fusion using DEXA technology in the cervical. So the data is supporting everything that we set out to accomplish. We just have to keep building off that data and following those patients, because it's still early innings, but we couldn't be happier with how the technology is performing. What we have to improve on, and we will this year, is we're focused on increasing revenues of that device, and that'll be our part of our big goal is the revenues that come off the DEXA-C. If it's that good of a product, we need to sell more of it, and we will. Okay, thank you. Our next question comes from Sergio Heiber, from Heiber Research. Please go ahead with your question. Hi, Trent and Chad. Thank you for taking my questions. Can you talk about the sales staff and how they're paid? Is it tied to? Is there an incentive based on the amount of sales? Yeah, they're paid a... So every person that works for Aurora is an employee of the company. So they're, they're not contractors, they're all employees of the company, and they're paid commissions and they're paid on growth. So they have to grow. If they're not growing, they don't get paid any extra commission. And with the increase in sales staff, you should be able to hit that 100 per month goal for TFX very soon. And you talked about having a budget for having more kits. Do you have a timeline for when more kits will be ordered? I don't have it here in front of me, but yeah, we - our operations director, she manages those timelines and those buildouts. We make a majority of that product in-house, meaning from the instruments all the way through the implants. The only thing that is outsourced of that device is the trays themselves, the actual holding trays that hold the instruments and the flex tip screwdrivers, which are machined in Switzerland, and the screws, which are made by Microcision, which is a manufacturing company that makes a lot of screws for a lot of companies, such as Alphatec, Medtronic, you know, you name it. They make a lot of screws for a lot of companies. And they make the screws, the green and the gold screws. But the cones are actually made in our facility, which is the transfixing bridge that goes down the center of the SI joint. So yes, we have that in the queue. I just don't have the date here in front of me. Excuse me. And can you talk about the inventory, the amount of inventory? How much is that, inventory of DEXA kits? DEXA kits are 30 kits on the tray. We have enough, we have enough implants on the shelf for the next, you know, over a year, you know, close to two years worth of inventory. Certainly, it's a, it's a subject that we're, we're addressing. We're gonna hit the, you know, the ground running really hard, every month. We're, we're goal oriented on getting more DEXA sales out there, and I think the things that we're putting in place right now will start to show that benefit here very soon. So I'm wondering why you want to come out with a second DEXA product when the first DEXA product sales are kind of stalled out? Well, DEXA-C is just for cervical, and that product it was already in a, you know, we started a multicenter study. That's to help sell more of the Apollo plate and the DEXA-C. It's, it's just made for cervical. Historically, we had originally had a third-party product for lumbar fusion, which was an anterior lumbar cage. It was a standalone device that went in through the abdominal area, and they fixated it. We, we third-partied that product from a company, and, you know, had over $2 million in annual sales in it. And we saw an increase in that, and we were able to acquire our own 510(k) on that device. It's a 3D printed device. It's called, it's called SOLO. It's on our website. But we are getting away, now that we know that DEXA-C, at least early stages of the DEXA-C study, show that the treatment of using the bone density implant, showing how we 3D print that implant, is working and working effectively. So what we're doing is we're converting the Solo system, that's the products on our website. We're converting that into a DEXA manufacturing phase of the company. So essentially, we're just eliminating the Solo, and the Solo product will become DEXA-L. So it's a method, and what we're trying to do is prove the method of DEXA density, bone-driven technology, as a platform. So it's gonna go through our entire... Everything we make that interfaces in between bone will eventually have a dexified capability to the implant. Including TFX? including TFX. Do you still see DEXA being the flagship product for Aurora? I see it as a platform that absolutely has the ability to be the flagship. The early innings on it are what we started in cervical. We're getting great clinical results from that. It's working. We need to sell more of it, but at least the early stages of it, like we rolled out with it, we wanted to make sure it was gonna work, and it did. And it continues to work, and then we're gonna start to integrate it. So one of the first easiest integration, the lowest cost integration to the company, was to stop manufacturing old 3D printed technology, which was the Solo style of 3D printing, to change it to the DEXA style of 3D printing, which you can do, which you can order à la carte, right? You don't have to build as much inventory. You can order à la carte on the densities and the sizes and feather those into your inventory without major impact on your cost center of producing parts. Excuse me. So- Bless you. It looks like... Thank you. It looks like a really exciting time right now, and, and really, the, the proof will be in the sales, and you're all geared up with the extra, with the additional sales staff that you added. So it... I'm really excited about, the coming year as you, as you presented. And I wanna piggyback on what Tom said. You know, the, I haven't written articles on Seeking Alpha. I have a lot of people complaining about, the lack of up-to-date investor deck and the lack of news put out, that there's more news on social media than there is, coming out to, directly to investors. And, and, when the stock price declines, everybody's looking for a reason why, and they'll pick on anything in that, that can be criticized. The only thing I can criticize, Aurora, is on the lack of investor engagement other than social media. I take the criticism to heart. I hear you loud and clear, and I hear other, you know, investors. It doesn't go unnoticed. We'll do a better job. We're gonna do a better job, this year and immediately. We're already making strides. I think, obviously there's a lot of social media, but that was part of a campaign that we, that we chose internally, that we wanted to have more of a presence out there across the board. You know, we, we can certainly measure it now. We can show that what we did last year, we took one device in particular, which was the 51, and measured it, and it, you know, the results spoke for themselves. And as part of that, is that we saw sales growth, we saw higher margins, we saw the increase of the ZIP 51, which was the targeted product. And we're gonna continue to target that product because we're only scratching the surface of its potential. And then we'll be able to continue that type of momentum and with SiLO TFX sales growth and sales success. And then behind the scenes, because you're, you know, you're a shareholder, you follow the story, you know that we're working on the DEXA technology because that's something that we can still build off a platform on it. But to your point, we got to get more press releases out there. That was one of Tom's point. We're gonna get more press releases out there, so it's more of a broader approach and not just a social media approach. We'll make sure that we're better communicators on our website. Chad has taken that one to heart. In particular, we are gonna update our financial page on our website, and it's gonna be much better. We'll get through that through this quarter, but by July, you're gonna see major improvements on the financial section of our website, and you will absolutely feel a stronger presence in the press releases going forward, I assure you. ... Thank you, Chad. And my last question is about getting a brand recognition for DEXA so that in the future, you can license it and spread to other types of devices beyond spine. And you had talked about working with hospitals. So, as you were aware, because I texted you a question that I got a crazy result from AI showing that you already had DEXA pain centers, but is that still in the plan? And I apologize for that. No, no, it's great. It's really great. I, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, I know. I was like, wow, I wish, I wish it was true, but it was not. Yeah. Yeah, so one of the things that we did early on with DEXA, if you remember, if you look, go look at old press releases. There was a group out of Italy that was attempting to come into the U.S. market called Echolight. And what's unique about it is that, you know, the aging population is for sure taking, you know, they're, they're, a lot of them are healthier than ever. Some are less healthy than, than they were. But, you know, my dad's in his seventies and rides his bike and, and walks around. My mom, you know, gets around. Everyone's trying to stay, you know, longevity of life, and your bone density and your bone health is one of those important factors. And all these implants that are made by everyone else but Aurora is one density driven only. It's only meant for really one density of implant, which is whatever the density of that patient has. And so that implant is one rigid piece of material, either a polymer or a piece of metal. And in our opinion, it's just simply too hard. It's just way too hard of a material. You're making the body work extra hard when you have the ability, the technology is here with us today. We are premiering that and studying that, so we have some data to prove it. It won't just be a marketing piece, it'll actually be a scientific piece, a clinical piece. But the point was, is that Echolight, which is trying to expand into the market, and other companies like Butterfly and, of course, big companies like GE Imaging, they're all very driven towards bone density. There's just never been an implant for it until now. There's medications, there's pharmaceuticals, but that's not the market we're in. We're into the market of implants that interacting between the patient's bone, and we want to have an implant that best suits their bone density. And Echolight recently got their funding back. They're back in the U.S. We had a conference call with them about a month ago, maybe a month and a half ago. Our Chief Technology Officer is meeting with them in Dallas, I think, next week. We're gonna start to expand this because what we think is gonna happen is Echolight will get a code for their own reimbursements into doctor's offices, where they can expand on the, on their own billing. So when a patient walks in, they can get a bone scan, which exists currently, but they're expanding on it. They can go in there, and then now the doctor can go, "You know, you're at a, you know, you know, minus 2.5. I think we got to consider using that, that DEXA cage from Aurora Spine, because I can't use the one from, you know, Medtronic or Stryker because they don't have anything like that." And that'll start to penetrate. They're doing their own market penetration, Echolight, and we have a national agreement with them in the U.S. Then, of course, Aurora's got a clinical study going, showing the DEXA-C. As that data starts to come out, we'll be able to release it, because you can't release it until it's actual data. We'll be able to put it out into the market, and then those surgeons can actually analyze that data, critique it, and know that they actually have an option for the product. So it's gonna come down to marketing, branding it, and of course, getting the real clinical data to support it, because it has to be real and not just a marketing piece. That's very exciting. That's something to look forward to. And is there other products that you are planning to introduce in 2024? There's some things that we've identified. You know, we do have a device that's, you know, with the FDA for approval. We're not talking about it at this point in time, but it's-- we're in the queue with the FDA on a device. We have a lot of the R&D stuff, but it's all stuff that we're just building around for patent submissions. We have some other patents that are submitted that we're waiting for approval back to the company that we can't talk about it yet, it's not approved yet from a patent standpoint. The devices with the FDA is not 510(k) yet. But, the device that is 510(k) that we're gonna come out with here in Q2, which Lindsay asked a question about was the Hydra system, which is coming out here by June, and we'll start to implant that. That's a long story for you, because you've been carrying the story for a while, that when is the Hydra going to come out? Well, it's coming out in June. Thank you. That's all my questions. Thank you, Trent and Chad. Thank you, Sergio. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press Star and one. Our next question is a follow-up from Tom Fedishin from MicroCap Connection. Please go ahead with your follow-up. Hey, guys. A follow-up question on the SiLO TFX. How many kits do you have out there today? And, I know in the past, we spoke about you guys wanting to get doctors to the point of maybe doing two-2.5 surgeries, you know, per month. What are we looking at today? And, what is it gonna take to kind of get it to those levels? Yeah, turn rates are, I think, if I have it right, running about 1.6 turn rate, so we're getting close to that 2.0 turn rate, which was that first... you know, obviously you pass 1, you know, and then it gets the number much higher. Mm-hmm. Chad, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we have what, 30 kits now of SiLO TFX, is that right? Yeah, approximately 30. Yeah, approximately 30. And then we put in the budget for... You know, last year when we were building the 2024 budget, we put in there- Mm-hmm ... triggers, if we started to see, you know, the continued growth, what would it look like, and then how many more kits would we build out? And again, we control a lot of that. It's not a matter of- Mm-hmm - we gotta outsource all this to some other vendor and wait, you know, 24 weeks- Mm-hmm For the product to be released. It's something we can make quickly, if you will, something we could make in eight weeks, or better. We have in the budget 20 more kits that are, that's in the budget, but it's not... We haven't started making those kits yet. It's just in the budget. Okay. The last question is more about the pace that you're getting back for reimbursement for SiLO TFX, and even for that matter, for the ZIP. I believe when the new code came in, of course, there was a lot of confusion, and I think our price, I'm going back on memory, was somewhere around $13,000 for the TFX, but was increased, or you guys decided to increase it thereafter. Have the prices remained, you know, stable, or have you increased prices across the board? You know, how does that look from that perspective? So it's in pockets. Certain areas are higher than others. You know, as you know, we got on the DOD contract. We're not allowed to make a press release on that. They don't allow you to do press releases on that, but we're on the DOD contract now. Their pricing is much different than the national average. We saw the price softening in certain areas, but still very strong, and we're talking about, you know, over $9,000, you know, $10,000 a unit from, say, $12,000-$13,000. But we're not- Mm-hmm ... we're not irked by that. We don't love it, but we're not irked by it. Mm-hmm ... we're always looking for volume. One of the things that is, we'll see where it lands. It softened on the SiLO because in the first half of last year, you know, we did $472,000 in the SiLO allograft, but only up because we only released at the end of March, the SiLO TFX, which we did a little over $128,000 in that device, so it was a $600,000 quarter. But that leaked fast, you know, quickly, to the next quarter, which was Q2, which the units went up, where we did over, you know, over 400,000 again in the allograft, but then we did 380,000 in the TFX. Now, the headwinds got really crazy with the SiLO, allograft system, again, with all companies, not just, not just Aurora. So the sales really tapered off, in the allograft market across the board for everyone, in allograft, so it went down to, a much lower level. But we were able, you know, to, to just, just below $200,000 from $400,000. But we were able to pick all that back up because in Q3 we did well over $1 million in TFX, and we increased in that in Q- in Q4. So we did, you know, we did $1.2 million in Q3 in total in the, in the SI joint space. And then in Q4, we did one point three, $1.3 million in the SI joint space. Then we saw an increase in the beginning of Q1 of this year that the allograft went over 200,000, you know, went up and over $200,000. So it allowed us... So if you look at the quarters, Q1, we did $600,000 in SI. Q2, we did almost $800,000 in SI. In Q3 of 2023, we did over $1.2 million. In Q4, we did over $1.3 million. And in Q1 of this year, we did over $1.4 million. So we have- Mm-hmm ... five consecutive quarters of the SI joint market increasing for us. As far as the average goes, we're already ahead of that average in Q2 2024. Wonderful. So- As for the VA surgeries, are you performing surgeries with Veterans Affairs right now? We've done a couple. Yeah, we've done a couple. I can't tell you what the price is, but it's, it's impressive. Mm-hmm. Um- Okay. We're working with a national, just have an agreement with a national, distribution network that works within the military system. They actually distribute—they only distribute products in the military. That's what they do. So- Mm-hmm ... there's two different groups, but one of them in particular, we're close with, and we think the second half of the year, that could be really good for us. We don't know what those numbers will look like, but we know what the potential is. And then there's another group that we actually have a real close relationship with that their CEO is military-based, so the whole company is military-based, and we're trying to work that angle as well. So these are things that we're- Mm-hmm ... focused on in-house. We have to get across the finish line, but, but we could do it. You know, if we did it, then it's a big, it's a big mark for us. Mm-hmm. We've already done some cases in the military, and they've gone really, really well. I think I put a post out just recently. We did a full training at Navy Balboa, San Diego. We had 12 military doctors in there, ortho and pain, and they all put in ZIP and SiLO TFX, and it went perfectly. The whole lab was perfect. Wonderful. Wonderful. Last question I have is, what sort of metrics should we follow or ask moving forward, as we go through 2024? Are there any... is there anything that really you think we should be focusing on, this year? ... Yeah, it's the core three products. You got to keep asking me questions on DEXA. I'm not steering away from that. You guys can keep coming at me on that. We have to do a better job improving those DEXA sales, and we will. SiLO TFX, you know, we're, the momentum is there, the results are there, again. I mean, these patients are getting better. The ZIP, we're gonna continue to push on that. And if we do, if we get more spine people involved, we think we can get... Because we have clinical data now that was collaborative with ortho, neuro, and pain, now we can look an orthopedist in the eye and say, "Look, I know you've been an anti, you know, interlaminar fusion doctor because you use screws all the time, but you can't argue this data. It's got less blood loss, shorter operating room time, and a pain reduction score that's way better than traditional lumbar fusion. And you know, this is good. You get paid the same. So why don't you take a closer look at it, and why don't you take a look at ZIP 51? You know, orthopedic one, orthopedic two, neurosurgeon three, four." That, that'll be part of this conversation as we add more regional coverage of people who have a spine background. I do think that we'll continue to see success in the ZIP device, and in the coming years. And then the DEXA-C, back to that real quick. The DEXA-C will be supported because we'll see, we'll have more of the kits coming out for Apollo. Apollo only has nine kits, which is our cervical plate, and you got to use a plate with the DEXA-C cage. So more of those Apollo trays are being built up, and I don't have the timeline on that in front of me, but it'll help support those sales and that sales activity. Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, thank you again, guys. Much appreciated today, and continued success. The last one, you can also hold the metrics of, did you add more salespeople, as you said you're going to? Like I said, we are one headcount down, but we already think we're going to get two steps ahead of that. So you can, you can come back to me again. You guys can call me anytime, you know that. Mm-hmm. We're working on all the corners of the U.S., and we're going to get more people in those areas. That's going to increase the revenues and continue to beat our quarters every year. Wonderful. Thank you, guys. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any closing remarks. Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your time and interest in Aurora Spine, and we are very excited about what's ahead of us in 2024 and beyond. We look forward to speaking with many of you in the weeks ahead. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at Aurora Spine. Many of you know how to get a hold of me, so continue to do that. Thanks again, everyone. Have a great rest of your day. Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll conclude today's conference call and presentation. We thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.