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Florida's economic development officials would love to attract a bunch of high profile, high wage, “high-tech jobs” to the state.
But oftentimes, their effort to do so ends up more laughable than laudable.
Take, for example, the state-run Florida Opportunity Fund. Created in 2007, funded in 2008 and first disbursed in 2009 (at the speed of government), the fund is supposed to represent Florida's effort at sparking venture capital activity within the state.
The plan was to take $29.5 million in state money and seed it among some of Florida's venture capital firms, creating a so-called “fund of funds.” So far, $23 million of the $29.5 million has been invested, with the most recent transaction putting $4 million into the Tampa-based Stonehenge Growth Equity Fund.
That all might seem fine, until you get to the bottom of the release at Stonehenge's website, where the scale of the company's investment operations are detailed:
“Stonehenge Growth Capital manages over $677 million in venture capital, private equity and mezzanine debt funds...”
So, right, Coffee Talk is sure that the folks at Stonehenge are grateful to the state for their investment — which constitutes approximately 0.59% of their total VC activity.
Leave it to government to take $29.5 million in tax dollars, delay it, divide it and spread it around so much that its impact will be invisible.
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