I’ve gotten a few questions from readers after they saw this in The New York Times (emphasis mine):

The move was the most striking evidence yet of the friction between Microsoft and its partners on the hardware side of the PC business. …

“You’ve got this sclerotic partnership structure where the partners don’t have any oxygen to be innovative,” said Lou Mazzucchelli, an entrepreneur in residence for a venture capital fund backed by the state of Rhode Island and a former technology analyst. “I believe Microsoft was painted into a corner. If they’ve didn’t move soon, Apple would have so much of a lead, it would be almost impossible to catch them.”

Mazzucchelli is indeed entrepreneur in residence at the Slater Technology Fund, the state-backed venture capital firm created in 1997. According to his LinkedIn profile, he’s also director of the Rhode Island EPSCoR/Slater Entrepreneurial Fellows Program, which was created back in 2009. And he’s on Twitter.

If you don’t know much about the Slater Fund, here’s a 2010 PBN story I wrote about it:

… Slater differs from a regular venture capital firm. Unlike its private sector peers, Slater has other goals, such as creating high-value jobs in Rhode Island and helping the state build a knowledge economy, apart from securing a return on capital.

Slater has received $37.2 million from the state since its founding in 1997, according to the House Fiscal Office. That money has been used to invest about $20 million in 100 companies, which at their various peaks employed a combined 862 workers. Horan says about 495 of those jobs still exist.

Update: Slater passed along this chart showing its current tally of jobs and follow-on capital (click to enlarge):