Don’t get discouraged if they pass.  Even the best Venture Capital firms miss on good ideas every once in awhile.  

With more than $2 billion of venture capital invested in over 130 startups around the world, Bessemer Venture Partners is one of the leading and most well-known firms in the venture capital industry.  BVP has invested in such notable companies as Staples, Ciena and Skype.  But, just like all other venture capital firms they’ve missed on a few.  They list their misses in an anti-portfolio on their website: http://www.bvp.com/Portfolio/AntiPortfolio.aspx.  This is a list of successful companies they had a chance to invest in, but passed on for one reason or another.  This list includes names, such as Apple, Google and ebay.  When you have the longest running record of success in the venture capital industry, you can list some of the big companies that had a chance to invest in, but passed on.  But, what this tells entrepreneurs is that even if some of the best and brightest pass on funding your idea, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not a good one.