X-Message-Number: 6522
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 11:46:49 -0400
From: Mark Mugler <>
Subject: Comments on Postings re: Prometheus

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SUBJECT:  Comments on Postings re: Prometheus.


1.  I find all this brouhaha about royalties a bit distressing.  KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Prometheus should be just like any other profit-making company.  OF COURSE 
Prometheus should make everyone pay royalties.  The alternative is to have the 
prospective investors (and I'm thinking particularly of CryoCare and Alcor) at 
each other's throats trying to gain a business advantage.  At the same time, I 
like Brian Wowk's idea of "technology credits," which I simply undertand as an 
agreement by Prometheus to accept shares at par as payment toward royalties.  
This idea will reduce a disincentive to investment by non-profits.  If an 
organization's shares do not appreciate, but it wants the technology, it can 
turn the shares in as payment toward a royalty.  If the shares appreciate, it 
can hang onto them, or sell them, and pay the royalty in cash.  The prospect of 
receiving a portion of royalty income should be an incentive comparable to the 
prospect of receiving technology free of royalties.


2.  Apparently the plan is to have each pledger make tax-deductible donations to
his or her cryonics membership organization or to a friendly organization such 
as the Life Extension Society, thereby gaining a tax deduction for the 
contribution.  I share Steve Bridge's concern that if the organization that 
receives a pledger's donation enters into a proxy arrangement whereby the donor 
gains a voting right in a profit-making company, that IRS will get in their 
knickers at the least and maybe take away the deductibility of the donation or 
even the 501c3 exemption.  KEEP IT SIMPLE.  Forget proxies and proxy-like games 
-- you will get burned.  Instead, Prometheus should offer shares to INDIVIDUALS 
as well as friendly 501c3 organizations.  If you as a pledger expect to never 
see your money again, then take the tax deduction, give money to an organization
that will benefit you (like the cryonics organization of which you are a 
member), and forget about it.  If you expect to realize a!
!
 gai

n or are a risk-seeker, invest in Prometheus directly, be a voting shareholder, 
and take your gains and or losses but forego the tax deduction.


3.  My personal opinion is that to start the company you don't need 10 years of 
$1M pledges.  First, costs ramp up and ramp down.  Second, additional 
investors/pledgers will step forward over time.  Say you will spend $500K the 
first year.  If you start the company with pledges of $750K per year for ten 
years, you already have enough for the first two years ($1.5M) and you're 75 
percent of the way for the out-years.  Would you let the idea die if you were 
that close?  I wouldn't.


4.  I need clarification on the point about "all" the pledgers having to approve
the business plan.  I assume that means that the business plan will be designed
to please as many pledgers as possible, but a pledger who doesn't like the 
business plan is not bound by his pledge.
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