
Anti-Portfolio - kjhughes
http://www.bvp.com/portfolio/antiportfolio?goback=%2Egde_1682587_member_192655139
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smilliken

      3 - too expensive (Apollo, Apple, Intel)
      3 - bad idea
         1 - small market (eBay)
         1 - no traction (Lotus)
         1 - big incumbent (Compaq)
      2 - rookie team (Google, Paypal)
      2 - no reason (FedEx, Intuit)
      1  didn't understand (StrataCom)
    
    

If the reasons are to be trusted (take them with a grain of salt), then they
may have learned to i) be more competitive on expensive deals, ii) give "bad
ideas" more thought, and iii) not dismiss rookie teams.

~~~
michaelt
If the rule that kept them from investing in Apple and Intel also kept them
from investing in Webvan and Pets.com (and a dozen other costly failures) they
might think on balance it's a good rule. You'll note there's no page on their
portfolio for "bad investments we didn't make".

~~~
smilliken
I entirely agree. From their perspective though, it's more important to pick
the hits than avoid the losers (within reason). An investment in Google while
they were in a garage could happily pay for a dozen Webvans.

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prostoalex
For those curious about eBay financing, check out the book "eBoys: The First
Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work" [http://www.amazon.com/eBoys-
Inside-Account-Venture-Capitalis...](http://www.amazon.com/eBoys-Inside-
Account-Venture-Capitalists/dp/0345428897) (the book is 10 years old, likely
to be available at your local library).

It was definitely not a slam-dunk idea, and even Benchmark partners felt
uneasy about financing an online classifieds site that would be easy to
replicate and invite large players to compete in case there was a valid market
(Yahoo! indeed made a move at eBay with Yahoo! Actions priced at $0 listing
fees, since Yahoo! had other sources of revenue).

While Meg Whitman was being recruited for the CEO role, she browsed the dinky
classifieds site and was not super-impressed - Benchmark guys basically bought
her and her family air+hotel to at least sell her on California prospects, if
not eBay's future.

~~~
sriramk
That book is a great read. Terrific look not just inside Benchmark but the
late 90s VC world and some of the big startups from back then.

One of my favorite bits is the aforementioned sell job to get Meg Whitman to
join (I believe Meg doesn't the credit she deserves for taking eBay from a
tiny startup to a huge business). I remember laughing out loud when the
Benchmark folks discuss Meg's kid having a crush on one of the VC's kids.
Every little bit counted and they pulled out all the stops.

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xal
I absolutely love that they publish and maintain this. When I pitched them on
Shopify I said that I'll show up on their website one way or another.
Thankfully they decided they wanted to keep us out of the Anti-Portfolio and
invested :-)

~~~
lionhearted
Hey, I love you guys and think you're going to take over the world. Signed up
Shopify to do fundraising for my nonprofit (your terms are generous with the
nonprofit discount), and was part of the team that recently did the
Auctionhouse App for the Shopify Fund.

Love what you guys are doing. If you ever want feedback from someone
using/viewing your service from many different fronts, drop me a line.

If anyone's considering Shopify, go for it -- amazing amounts of functionality
without any difficulty configuring it, super fast to hit the ground running on
a project that needs ecommerce, and tons of power under the hood if you want
to expand. One of my favorite services I use.

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muhuk
Is this supposed to be a sarcastic article? It seems to me they're just
documenting how stupid their decisions were. Is it inside joke? I feel like I
am missing something.

