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, 11:32 am
Poster: Jim Lux

On Sep 11, 11:32 am, Jim Lux wrote:

>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.


Basic rule on venture capital (or, really, any sort of investment): You have to have a plan to get money out of your investment. The venture capitalist puts up the cash, the guy with the idea puts up the knowledge, together they work on it and sell it, as a going concern, selling something that customers want, then they split the resulting cash.

Rarely does a VC get their profits from the actual operating income of the company, rather, they take the company from good idea with no assets to an actual running company that has an income stream, then sell it, either privately, or via the IPO route.

Fusors don't strike me has having great near term profit potential. For instance, I don't see any real future in a company making fusors as a product, except perhaps as a neutron source (where there is already significant competition).

A large company can fund a substantial R&D effort into something like fusors, if only because it might give them a capability to seek gov't research funding to keep their engineers and scientists employed. They're not looking for equity growth (like a VC is), but merely to increase the gross sales of the company, on which they make their nominal 10-15% profit. More sales, more work, more profit.


What you really want to find is a philanthropist.. someone who is willing to put up some amount of cash for "the betterment of mankind", without any expectation of a profit return.