The anti-portfolio
August 14th, 2005
Do you ever wonder about the firms that venture capitalist turn down? Not the firms that fail (the VC was right), but the ones that do spectacularly well? I can’t say I thought much about it until I saw Bessemer Venture Partner’s anti-portfolio , a list of some of the most spectacular missed opportunities since Decca turned down The Beatles . Hell, they turned down Google!
A college friend [of Bessemer’s David Cowan] 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?”
Pointing out one’s own flaws would probably cause a traditional marketer’s head to explode, but for me this is the most powerful piece of B2B marketing I have seen in ages. Setting aside the buzz words like “transparency” and “authenticity,” what is so great about the anti-portfolio?
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It’s a compelling read, it taps into the traffic accident watcher in all of us, but it works for Bessemer not against them, because
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You can’t help but click through to Bessemer’s real portfolio . If these guys can turn down Google, who will they back? It turns out they made the right decision about Gartner , Staples , Skype ; the list goes on. Not so shabby, right?
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Self-deprecating humour - I get the sense that the guys at Bessemer would be fun to work with; confident, but not arrogant
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It forces you to look at the VC business in a new light. I will never think about VC again without wondering “who did they turn down?”
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I trust these guys. I won’t think “what are Bessemer hiding?” But I probably will wonder now about all their competitors (see 4.)
We all make mistakes. It’s what you do with your mistakes that counts.
Via Jeff Clavier and PhotoMatt
Entry Filed under: New perspectives , Marketing
2 Comments Add your own
1. Psybertron Asks » A… | August 16th, 2005 at 5:02 am
[…]
Bessemer Venture Partners list some of their more notable goofs. [via Johnnie Moore] [via Adrian Trenholm]. The opposite of hype says Johnnie; It’s a compelling read says Adrian (and it is, t […]
2. Adrian Trenholm » M… | August 18th, 2005 at 11:22 am
[…] ti-portfolio August 17th, 2005 AdPulp picked up my previous post about Bessemer Venture Partner’s anti-portfolio, via Johnnie Moore. It’s hard to imagine s […]
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