
A list of deals one VC firm passed on -- Google, eBay, Apple, Intel, Fedex, Paypal, etc. - smoody
http://www.bvp.com/Portfolio/AntiPortfolio.aspx
======
pg
I've always liked this list. BVP is no different from most VC firms in this
respect. What's unusual about them is that they're so candid about it.

I was just talking to some founders about what terribly bad judges VCs are,
compared to how confident they seem. They're in the same position as
governments. All governments are horribly inefficient, but they don't realize
it because their only competitors are other governments.

Come to think of it, this may be changing. Now that startups are so cheap to
run, companies rejected by VCs are increasingly likely to survive to embarrass
them.

~~~
ivankirigin
Do you know of any companies you haven't accepted into YC that have been
particularly successful?

~~~
vegashacker
Here's one that was successful, though not in the traditional sense: Damien
Katz applied to YC with his Couch DB idea and got rejected
(<http://damienkatz.net/2006/11/how_not_to_pitc.html>), but now he works for
IBM and gets to do CouchDB full-time
(<http://damienkatz.net/2008/01/new_gig.html>).

~~~
plinkplonk
" Damien Katz applied to YC with his Couch DB idea and got rejected
(<http://damienkatz.net/2006/11/how_not_to_pitc.html>), "

His blog entry on the YC rejection is dated 11th January 2006. The one on the
IBM job is dated 1st january 2008.

So Damien essentially took the rejection in his stride, didn't bother whining,
and kept on hacking.

Very impressive.

------
smoody
an oldie but a goodie.

you gotta love this entry:

Cowan’s college friend rented her garage to Sergey and Larry for their first
year. In 1999 and 2000 she tried to introduce Cowan to “these two really smart
Stanford students writing a search engine”. Students? A new search engine? In
the most important moment ever for Bessemer’s anti-portfolio, Cowan asked her,
“How can I get out of this house without going anywhere near your garage?”

------
ciscoriordan
Article about other missed VC opportunities:
[http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/11/08/nothing_v...](http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/11/08/nothing_ventured_nothing_at_all_gained/)

The VC arm of Allstate Insurance passed up 20% of Microsoft for $8 million.
Ouch.

~~~
brk
The funny thing is that with 20% investments come board seats (usually). With
board seats come influence. Influence affects outcome.

It is completely possible that had any of these VCs actually put money into
these missed investments, that the "investments" could have taken an entirely
different (where different == bad) path.

The end outcome of a startup is often the result of several key variables.
Change any one variable, and so changes the outcome.

~~~
aswanson
Allstate Insurance had/has a VC arm? What on earth.....

------
kleevr
Struck me as a bit of the tactics mentioned in No Logo. (anti-portfolio=anti-
marketing) But I'm young, and still a tad too stupid I'm certain... :)

It's all very nuts though, and I agree the world is starved for honesty.
Honesty, how do we become more honest when we might even be lying to
ourselves?...

~~~
kleevr
transparency

------
goodgoblin
Makes me wonder - is it all luck at some level? After the fact one can look
and see - what made all the successes successful? What attributes do they all
share? Is it only that they succeeded?

~~~
jrockway
I don't think it's 100% luck. Larry and Sergey liked working on search engines
and said "hey, let's make a company". It turned out that other people liked
their search engine too, so they made money.

If you have the same passion for something else, that's only half the battle.
The other half is making sure your passion aligns with the passion of people
willing to give you money. I've come up with a few good ideas in my life that
I'd love to do as my "real job", but I know nobody else would be interested.
That is why I am not a millionaire :)

Of course, the luck is being able to predict what people will want.

~~~
mixmax
They were lucky they happened upon an algorithm as smart as they did.

They were lucky to get initial funding.

They were lucky to find a great income model.

They were lucky that nobody else took search serious.

~~~
huherto
Luck is when opportunity meets preparation

------
pxlpshr
I think we're all hoping one day we'll have a similar story. I know I am... :)

------
simianstyle
Is it me, or is the site down?

~~~
dmpayton
<http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/www.bvp.com>

