Investor Stories 477: Why VCs Passed on Figma, ClickUp, Uber, Pinterest, Okta, DoorDash, and Anthropic: Lessons from Investor Anti Portfolios (Ulevitch, Saper, Patnam)
From The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified by Nick Moran
May 28, 2026 · 7 min
About this episode
Investors discuss their past decisions to pass on notable startups and the lessons learned from those experiences.
n this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: David Ulevitch of Andreessen Horowitz Jake Saper of Emergence Capital Sandesh Patnam of Premji Invest Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran of New Stack Ventures , a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. We're proud to partner with Ramp , the modern finance automation platform. Book a demo and get $150—no strings attached . Want to keep up to date with The Full Ratchet? Follow us on social . You can learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our LinkedIn and Twitter .
People in this episode
Host: Nick Moran
Guests: David Ulevitch, Jake Saper, Sandesh Patnam
Topics covered
- venture capital
- investment decisions
- startup failures
- anti portfolios
- lessons learned
Keywords
- Figma
- ClickUp
- Uber
- Okta
- DoorDash
- Anthropic
- investment
- venture capital
- startup
Sponsors
Ramp
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Andreessen Horowitz, Emergence Capital, Premji Invest, New Stack Ventures
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