Shares in Blue Sky Alternative Investments began last week at $5.24 and ended it at $3.46, veritably crumpling 34 per cent. Not a single substantial shareholder doubled down, not even founder (and, no kidding, Queensland's first ever Chief Entrepreneur!) Mark Sowerby. And not a single director bought a single share in the company, their appetite for incinerating their own money in token gestures of confidence seemingly exhausted. The last to buy, on April 6, was Dr Elaine Stead, the Brick Tamland of Queensland's fledgling Venture Capital scene and tireless Tweeter of fridge magnet banalities, like "that feeling when your first coffee is bad. Real bad" and "so much lingerie…" and "I don't think I ever realised Comey was so tall" – the equivalents of the simpleton weatherman's immortal admission that "a black man follows me everywhere when it's sunny."

It's been 20 months since Sowerby stepped back, cashed out $27 million in stock, and installed his golden boy Rob Shand as successor. Shand was nicknamed "The Benchmark" because in Sowerby's eyes his performance was exactly that for everyone else to aspire to. Fair to say that shoe no longer fits.