I wrote:

Frankly, a stellar board of directors or $60 million do not impress me much
> either. If I had to guess, I suppose it would mean that many of Mills
> experiments and claims are well supported. That's true for bulk Pd-D cold
> fusion as well, but I have never thought that technique has any commercial
> prospects.


> I certainly take Mills 100% seriously, and I have since Mills and
> Thermocore described Ni-H experiments at MIT in 1992, and in the 1993 Final
> Report.


Let me hasten to add that even though bulk Pd-D and Mills Ni-H circa 1992
did not seem to have commercial prospects, they both merited a $60 million
investment and a stellar board of directors. I am sure that was a wise
investment.

I don't mean to denigrate Mills or his investors, or belittle their
expertise. I just mean that it was a long shot venture.

If I had billions, I would certainly allocate $60 million to Mills, based on
what I saw in 1992. I would be puzzled and disappointed that he did not
subsequently improve the heat generating experiments much. He seems to be
going in many directions at once. That is a mistake for a start-up venture.
I cannot judge, but many of his efforts seem overly theoretical to me, with
no near term profit potential.

Rossi seems like a much better commercial prospect. Probably the best in
history. If I were an investor with billions I would give Rossi $200 million
with practically no strings attached, for a small fraction of the company. I
wouldn't worry that he might be a con-man. Nowadays it is easy to ensure
that a person cannot abscond with much money. A little oversight would be
enough. You need someone to visit the lab periodically, and you need
electronic oversight access to the bank accounts. A con-man could only steal
a little before you catch him.

- Jed

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