I am not saying nor denying that sentiment has an impact on new investors. Especially not on institutional investors.

However, POET is >90% retail owned.

When I started investing in POET and actually before investing, I tried to get some information on the company.

By that time Social media and investment boards did exist, but still it was less significant than it is now.

I started to read, mainly good things.

1) ABOUT the management (Copetti),

2) FROM the management,

3) ABOUT key investors (Sheldon, IBK)

4) FROM the investors in the investment boards

5) ABOUT the company

6) ABOUT the product

7) you name it

If I would hear off POET today, I would hear negative things for items 1-5 at least. Number 6 is certainly good, but I would read that people speak about being fooled, contracts not announced, promises not met, milestones not delivered, etc.

Would I invest in POET now, if I just hear about the company now? Hell no, the negativity from current shareholders and message boards would scare me away immediately. And most likely I would have never come back and check if it changed.

So, from the above, I can at least tell, that one potential investor on the company would have gone lost. How, often does this apply? No clue, but I would assume that negativity never changes anything for the better. Optimism, maybe not as well, but it may not scare people away for good.

Just saying. Still 100% invested and waiting (even though patience is a hard thing these days, but don't blame POET for the macro economics in the world. 
Bad timing, certainly. Could be done better, certainly. But I still believe that the majority of the management and POET staff are working their butts off. 

Try looking at it from the bright side. Without Suresh, my investment would have been 100% lost. Now, thanks to him and many others, I still have a chance for early retirement. Thanks Suresh. Keep up the good work and review with a potential new BOD how the company structure needs to be adjusted to a producing and NASDAQ listed company. The company is growing and so, may be maturity of the manegment. The BOD might be a good start. 

Good luck to the company and all shareholders.