Alejandro Cremades’ Post

Big shoutout to Bessemer Venture Partners for featuring their missed deals in the Anti-Portfolio. Bessemer is one of the oldest and most prestigious venture capital firms, having invested in companies such as Twitch, Pinterest, Shopify, LinkedIn, Skype, DocuSign and many more! I love the reflection and transparency they show as an investor, being a role model for the industry. The Anti-Portfolio highlights companies they had the opportunity to invest in but chose not to, which later blossomed into tremendously successful companies. The background stories on why they decided not to invest are very much worth a read. See below. Learn more about their thesis via the link in the comments.

something to think about as investors

Are you a founder losing hope due to too many rejections from investors? Remember that investors are wrong all the time. Not all investors will get your vision. You just need to find investors who will understand your mission and believe in it. Dear founders, don’t let investors’ harsh rejections demotivate you from building your dream startup. Remember, even Facebook and Airbnb founders were harshly rejected by VCs. Read the post below to learn more ⬇️

Kudos to Bessemer Partners for sharing this. This list is a good reminder that when VCs give feedback to founders who they’ve turned down, its valuable insight for the founder into that particular firm’s investment thesis, but there’s a good chance that feedback has very little to do with your actual prospects. Just keep building. Also reading these is a good reminder that quality ideas by quality founders who can execute is often more important than entry price as long as you can see a path to significant multiples of the entry price. Has to be extra painful to miss on companies you knew were good ideas with good founders just because the valuation seemed a bit high.

For those no's and missed opportunities that turned out to be anti-portfolio, startup founders should not feel defeated when an ideal investor refuses to invest in their venture. These are remarkable examples of how missed investment opportunities turned into large valuable companies, if only the investing partner had not dismissed them too early or easily. #startupinvestment #venturefunding #missedopportunities

Big shoutout to Bessemer Venture Partners for their transparency in the Anti-Portfolio! Bessemer, one of the oldest and top venture capital firms with roots in the Carnegie Steel empire, puts together its biggest missed investment opportunities. Despite its successes with companies like Twitch, Pinterest, and Shopify, it passed on giants like Google, Airbnb, and Apple. For example, David Cowan passed on Google when it was just starting out, dismissing it as "two smart Stanford students writing a search engine." Jeremy Levine missed out on Airbnb, thinking the $40M valuation was "crazy." Neill Brownstein called Apple’s $60M pre-IPO valuation "outrageously expensive." Their website details these stories and more. There, they reflect on these missed opportunities with humor and insight. Their willingness to share these stories demonstrates a commitment to learning and growth, setting a high bar for the industry 🌟 Check my free newsletter for more insights: https://lnkd.in/dCpgAYjt

Seven Seven Six is a tech company that deploys venture capital. Yes, you heard that right. While most VC firms leverage capital as their primary product, our team operates from a fundamentally different approach. A typical VC's site mostly focuses on how much $$$ they've raised, AUM, or how many portcos they have. Our team goes further, publishing the raw data about how we actually help our portfolio founders. We believe in transparency – that's why we decided to build in public. In the last 365 days, here's a glimpse into what we've done: 💬 691 meetings with founders & their teams 💼 178 sales & fundraising meetings for founders 🛠️ 153 workshops for founders 🤝 109 intros made for founders 🙏 67 favors called in for founders Learn more about our approach ↓ https://sevensevensix.com/

So here it turns out that Investors miss more opportunities then Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs eventually raise one way or the other. So how to be a smart Investor? I would like the opinion of seasoned Investors.

VC talent & platform leaders are the unsung heroes of venture capital. They are often the differentiated "product" that investors pitch founders to win deals. So I don't understand why VC funds would reduce their platform teams right now. If this article is actually true, it seems like a GREAT time to be contrarian and grow your portfolio support function when others are reducing. Founders need more support now than ever before. https://lnkd.in/gS3xJ99r

Venture capitalists aren’t throwing money around like they used to. The funding environment in 2023 was rough, as investors buttoned up their pocketbooks to steel themselves for a recession. Well, now that we’re in recovery mode, there are new rules to play by when it comes to identifying, pitching and partnering with the right investor. LPs are being more selective, and the bar for deals is higher now, writes Paul Hsu, founder and CEO of Decasonic, a venture and digital assets fund. He shares 12 tips on how to find the right venture partner in this new environment.