Founders share VC horror stories, and some are naming names
Founders share VC horror stories, and some are naming names
创始人分享风投“恐怖故事”，甚至有人直接点名
Asking venture capitalists for investment is a rite of passage for tech founders. This has led to another universal experience: the VC pitching horror story. A massive conversation sharing such stories has taken place all week on X with the comments both funny and infuriating. We read through them all to find the most interesting ones so you don’t have to. 向风险投资人（VC）寻求投资是科技创业者的必经之路。这也催生了另一种普遍的经历：向风投路演时的“恐怖故事”。本周，X（原推特）上掀起了一场大规模的讨论，大家纷纷分享这些经历，评论区既好笑又令人愤怒。我们通读了所有内容，为你筛选出了最值得关注的故事。
Greg Isenberg, a startup podcaster, newsletter writer, and founder of Late Checkout Studio — a holding company whose previous ventures include a company acquired by WeWork — got the conversation started with a story about a VC falling asleep during a pitch meeting. Isenberg has a large following on X, and his post clearly struck a nerve. 创业播客主、通讯作者兼 Late Checkout Studio 创始人 Greg Isenberg 发起了这场讨论。他曾创办的公司曾被 WeWork 收购。他分享了一个风投在路演会议上睡着的故事。Isenberg 在 X 上拥有大量粉丝，他的帖子显然触动了许多人的神经。
“I was once pitching in a board room at a top 3 VC firm for a $15M Series A. 12 people in the meeting. One of the GPs fully fell asleep. Out cold for 30+ minutes. Nobody acknowledged it. Everyone just kept going,” he shared on X. “我曾经在一家顶级风投公司的会议室里进行 1500 万美元的 A 轮融资路演。会议室里有 12 个人。其中一位普通合伙人（GP）竟然完全睡着了，昏睡了 30 多分钟。没人提起这件事，大家只是继续开会，”他在 X 上写道。
VCs sleeping through pitch meetings was far and away the most common horror story shared. Not just drowsing, but full on zonked. Zynga founder Mark Pincus told his VC-asleep story. “I looked at my friend who set up the meeting and asked if i should keep presenting and she said yes. It was ‘weekend at bernies’ meets Silicon Valley,” he wrote. 风投在路演中睡觉是分享频率最高的“恐怖故事”。不仅仅是打瞌睡，而是彻底睡死过去。Zynga 创始人 Mark Pincus 也分享了他的经历：“我看向帮我安排会议的朋友，问我是否应该继续演示，她说继续。那场面简直是《老板度假去》（Weekend at Bernie’s）遇上了硅谷。”
Interestingly, falling asleep didn’t mean the VC wouldn’t invest. Multiple founders reported receiving term sheets from partners who’d dozed off during the pitch. “I once pitched a partnership in 2015 for our Series A where one partner (famous Midas lister) fell asleep & another couldn’t stop scowling. Got a call 2 hrs after the IC that they were sending a term sheet over,” wrote Liz Wessel. 有趣的是，睡着并不意味着风投不会投资。多位创始人表示，他们甚至收到了在路演中睡着的合伙人发来的投资意向书（Term Sheet）。“2015 年，我在为 A 轮融资路演时，一位合伙人（著名的福布斯 Midas 榜单成员）睡着了，另一位则不停地皱眉头。结果在投委会（IC）结束后两小时，我就接到电话说他们要发投资意向书，”Liz Wessel 写道。
Wessel, who co-founded and sold HR startup WayUp and is now a partner at First Round Capital, said her team didn’t take the money — and that the VC was shocked. There were so many stories about VCs sleeping that former a16z partner Arianna Simpson wrote, “Are VCs ok?? Narcolepsy appears to be running rampant.” Wessel 曾联合创办并出售了人力资源初创公司 WayUp，目前是 First Round Capital 的合伙人。她说她的团队最终拒绝了这笔钱，而那位风投对此感到非常震惊。关于风投睡觉的故事实在太多，以至于前 a16z 合伙人 Arianna Simpson 写道：“风投们还好吗？？嗜睡症似乎正在蔓延。”
There were, of course, more than a few stories about VCs signing term sheets then pulling out last minute, or ghosting, never wiring the money. The even more galling part? Some of these VCs apparently went on to treat the founders like portfolio companies anyway, asking for company updates or to serve as a reference. One founder said the VC even wanted a share of the post-acquisition proceeds. 当然，还有不少关于风投签署了投资意向书后临阵脱逃，或者直接“玩失踪”、拒绝打款的故事。更令人恼火的是，其中一些风投竟然还把这些创始人当作被投企业对待，要求他们提供公司进展报告或担任推荐人。一位创始人说，该风投甚至还想要他公司被收购后的收益分成。
Travis Kalanick, the Uber co-founder renowned for his determination, told a story about discovering that a VC was attempting to ghost the meeting and leave the building. Kalanick said he followed the VC to his car and pitched from the passenger’s seat. 以意志坚定著称的 Uber 联合创始人 Travis Kalanick 分享了一个故事：他发现一位风投试图在会议中途溜走。Kalanick 说他一路追到对方的车旁，直接坐在副驾驶座上完成了路演。
Not everyone had bad experiences to report. Some founders said they’ve never had anything but great experiences with VCs, with a few even sharing love stories about specific investors. Yes, most VCs are hardworking, genuinely try to be helpful, and don’t take naps during meetings. But poor experiences are so common that Pincus exclaimed, “I f*cking love this moment, when founders no longer have to be afraid to call out VCs for dumb behavior.” 并非所有人的经历都很糟糕。一些创始人表示，他们与风投的合作体验一直很好，甚至有人分享了与特定投资人之间的感人故事。确实，大多数风投都很勤奋，真心想提供帮助，也不会在会议中打盹。但糟糕的经历实在太普遍了，以至于 Pincus 感叹道：“我太喜欢这一刻了，创始人终于不再害怕公开批评风投的愚蠢行为了。”
The most stunning stories
最令人震惊的故事
Still, the stories that truly stunned were the ones posted by Cloudflare founder Matthew Prince. “A Sequoia partner passed on Cloudflare because he didn’t think a woman could lead a security infrastructure company,” Prince wrote. The woman in question is Cloudflare’s co-founder and COO Michelle Zatlyn. Given that Cloudflare is now an $87 billion market cap company, with expected annual revenue of $2.8 billion in 2026, the judgment hasn’t aged well. 然而，最令人震惊的还是 Cloudflare 创始人 Matthew Prince 分享的故事。“一位红杉资本的合伙人拒绝了 Cloudflare，因为他认为女性无法领导一家安全基础设施公司，”Prince 写道。这位女性正是 Cloudflare 的联合创始人兼首席运营官 Michelle Zatlyn。考虑到 Cloudflare 目前市值已达 870 亿美元，且预计 2026 年年收入将达到 28 亿美元，当初的判断显然大错特错。
Sequoia partner, Shaun Maguire, no stranger to controversy over his remarks himself, replied that he’s always admired Zatlyn, and asked Prince to spill the name of the partner who said that. Prince punted, “Maybe over a drink one day. But I bet you have a good guess already.” 红杉合伙人 Shaun Maguire（他本人也常因言论引发争议）回复称他一直很钦佩 Zatlyn，并要求 Prince 说出那位合伙人的名字。Prince 回避道：“也许哪天喝一杯的时候再说吧。但我敢打赌你心里已经有答案了。”
But wait, Prince dished more! He told a story about prominent investor Vinod Khosla, who offered to invest and then, according to Prince’s recollection, suggested that the founder “fire” his co-founders and take their stock. “I think the charitable read was it was a test of my character. But I was so offended that we never spoke again. Literally blocked his number.” 还没完，Prince 爆了更多料！他讲述了著名投资人 Vinod Khosla 的故事：Khosla 曾提出投资，但据 Prince 回忆，他建议 Prince “解雇”联合创始人并拿走他们的股份。“往好了想，这可能是在考验我的人品。但我感到非常被冒犯，从此再也没和他说过话。直接拉黑了他的号码。”
Prince was quick to add nuance about Khosla: “He’s extremely smart/clever. Has been an incredible investor — can’t argue with his track record. Just not the personality I’d choose to work with.” It’s worth noting that recollections of conversations tend to vary, and we don’t know what Khosla actually said, meant, or remembers. But eyes popped at such open talk about one of the Valley’s most successful, powerful VCs. Prince 很快补充了对 Khosla 的客观评价：“他非常聪明。他是一位了不起的投资人——他的业绩记录无可辩驳。只是他的性格不是我愿意共事的类型。”值得注意的是，人们对谈话的回忆往往存在偏差，我们不知道 Khosla 当时到底说了什么、意指什么或记得什么。但如此公开地谈论硅谷最成功、最有权势的风投之一，还是让人们大跌眼镜。
Many people called Prince’s candor an example of having “FU” money. Prince, of course, is a billionaire these days. Not all of Prince’s stories cast VCs as the villains. Specifically, he thought he had lined up a simple meet-and-greet on a Monday with Marc Andreessen, the cofounder of venture firm a16z. Instead, Andreessen showed up with his whole investment team, ready to be wowed. The ill-prepared Prince did not impress. “I framed the rejection letter they sent,” he said of the result. 许多人称 Prince 的坦率是拥有“去你的”（FU）资本的体现。当然，Prince 如今已是亿万富翁。并非 Prince 分享的所有故事都将风投描绘成反派。具体来说，他曾以为自己周一只是安排了一场简单的见面会，对象是 a16z 的联合创始人 Marc Andreessen。结果，Andreessen 带上了整个投资团队，准备好要被“惊艳”一番。准备不足的 Prince 没能打动他们。“我把他们寄来的拒信装裱了起来，”他谈到结果时说。
Others told similar stories of meetings with Andreessen and his firm. Perhaps the funniest story came from Julie Fredrickson, a founder-turned-investor, who received a call from a VC associate before arriving at a firm’s office — warning her about a rock formation visible outside the window that, apparently unbeknownst to the investors inside, was shaped like male genitalia. “The firm will forever in my mind be Dickrock Ventures,” she wrote. 其他人也分享了与 Andreessen 及其公司会面的类似经历。最搞笑的故事可能来自从创始人转型为投资人的 Julie Fredrickson。她在到达某家风投办公室前接到了一位投资经理的电话，提醒她窗外有一块岩石，形状看起来像男性生殖器，而办公室里的投资人们似乎对此一无所知。“在那之后，这家公司在我心中永远是‘丁丁岩石风投’（Dickrock Ventures），”她写道。
While the Valley’s VCs got roasted most heavily, founders shared incidents involving international VCs, too. Some VCs also dished about pitching to limited partner investors. The threads are worth reading not just for the laughs, but for what they reveal: the fundraising process is opaque, the power dynamic is real, and the experiences that founders whisper about privately are a lot more common than the industry tends to acknowledge. 虽然硅谷的风投被吐槽得最惨，但创始人也分享了涉及国际风投的事件。一些风投也爆料了他们向有限合伙人（LP）募资时的经历。这些讨论帖不仅值得一看以博君一笑，更揭示了一个事实：融资过程是不透明的，权力不对等是真实存在的，而那些创始人私下里窃窃私语的经历，远比行业倾向于承认的要普遍得多。