Those were the days, my friends: LaSorda, Wagoner, Mulally
Tom LaSorda, formerly CEO of Chrysler and before that a key man at GM, will lose a lot of money when Fisker goes down and/or bankrupt and/or is sold for pennies on the dollar. The man has a plan to recoup his losses: He started his own venture fund with racing and auto dealing magnate Roger Penske, as Reuters has it.
LaSorda left Chrysler after its 2009 bankruptcy. He later started a venture capital fund called Stage 2 Innovations with Manoj Bhargava of 5-Hour Energy drink fame. That deal brought LaSorda to Fisker. LaSorda invested in the startup, only to become CEO of Fisker, tasked with reorganizing the already teetering company. Six months later, LaSorda was out, and Tony Posawatz of Volt fame was in. That didn’t help either.
LaSorda’s new fund is called IncWell LP, and it “will provide initial investments ranging from $50,000 and $250,000. IncWell has “strong interests” in the areas of clean energy, medical, healthcare, transportation and information applications,” says Reuters.
In the VC biz, initial investments of $50,000 to $250,000 are seen as bupkis and barely cover the lawyers’ fees for the stockholder memo. A typical angel investment in a small garage-type technology startup is a few millions. Venture capital funds can be a great business. As my friend, who runs such a fund, and who invested a few million in a company which we then gloriously ran into the ground liked to tell me: “Don’t worry, Bertel, if it goes wrong. Typically, one out of 15 goes right. And that brings in a lot of money.”
Also, the trick seems to be to find other people who invest into your fund. Then, you can’t lose at all.
LaSorda has had some really tough breaks. I don’t really have a bad impression of him and those that I know who have met him personally have good things to say. Perhaps he just finds himself consistently in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hopefully this one works out.
Tom was my General Supervisor in the early eighties. Everybody liked, and respected the guy. He came from blue collar background. His Dad was the local UAW Windsor preident. The guy had the uncanny ability to get along with everybody, without resorting to a$$ kissing.
All of us knew,this kid was going somewhere.
I wish him all the best. That all being said, I’m not writing him any checks soon.
I love seeing the word bupkis in print and you’re correct, that’s pocket change unless we’re talking about lemonade stands or quick lubes.
Interesting that LaSorda would team up with Penseke, given that the Penseke owned dealerships have dropped Fisker and are refusing to service even the Karmas that they sold.
Just wow… I wish I could make his money (over and over and over again) with his pristine record of abject and total failure.
Wagoner looks like some pee-ed in his corn flakes.
Waggoner knew someone was about to pee in his corn flakes. His name is Steve Rattner.