Fortune’s Primack offers 4 lessons from Schilling’s RI ‘fiasco’
June 15th, 2012 at 1:21 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Dan Primack, the plugged-in M&A reporter who writes Fortune magazine’s Term Sheet newsletter, offers four takeaways from the spectacular flameout of 38 Studios and Rhode Island’s $75 million loan guarantee in the new edition:
- Stop letting politicians play venture capitalist.
- If they insist on playing VC, they should share the risk.
- Dogma mixed with dollars can be toxic.
- Successful pivots are rare.
Primack also draws an interesting distinction between 38 Studios and Solyndra, the bankrupt Obama-backed solar firm it’s been compared with by Republicans John Robitaille and Barry Hinckley. “Say what you will about Solyndra,” Primack writes, “but at least the company was required to raise private matching funds before getting federal dollars” – which 38 Studios never did.
At least one person who saw it all up close agrees with Primack. “Smart analysis,” former 38 Studios CEO Jen MacLean wrote on Twitter alongside a link to the piece. Read the whole article here.
• Related: Fortune’s Primack: No VCs said they’ve heard from Schilling (May 29)
Tags: 38 studios, curt schilling, dan primack, jen maclean, solyndra
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
38 studios was lucky they found a sucker in the EDC and the Rhode Island General Assembly. The real criminals are the elected members of the House and Senate starting with the Speaker of the House Gordon Fox and Senate President Theresa Paiva-Weed. All members who voted to give 38 Studios money should have to pay the $100 million. This works out to about $1 million for each of them, then do jail time, and never be allowed to get any government money again.