Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Re: Venture Capitalist Investment
Date: Sep 11, 7:51 am
Poster: Hector

On Sep 11, 7:51 am, Hector wrote:

Since no one else seems to want to respond to this issue on the board I'll give it a try.

The field of venture capital must not be confused with the word risk capital. Venture capitalist are not risk takers and to my knowledge there is no real venture capital groups that fund pure research efforts.

When you here of private research efforts getting venture capital funding you are only getting one side of the story, because the research is usually part of a product development effort. This simply means that the technology has come far enough so that if funded properly it can be brought to market in some form.

A serious problem facing all IEC professional efforts is that they are run by non MBA types and to a venture capitalist that means that you have no management.
That is actually OK as long as you have a presentation and a business plan that says that given proper funding, you would bring in a proper and experience management team.

Lets take Dr. Bussard's effort for example. He is getting government funding and to tell you the truth until he has a marketable device that is patent protected he probably could never hope to get any serious private funding, because when the time of do diligence comes the lawyers and the accountants will find that he had failed for whatever reason at a similar research and development effort in the past.

You are not allowed this level of failure in the private sector. When you go for venture capital, you better be at a product development stage not a pure speculative research stage.

So, before any effort can get venture capital, you must know what I call the rules to the game.


Hector