Felicis Ventures Blog

Top 20 Worst Venture Capital Investments of All Times

$1.7B is the total investment lost in just the first 4 of top 20 Worst Venture Capital Investments of All Times as compiled by InsideCRM. The common theme in all of these companies from what I can tell is that the majority of them burned through more than $100 million each in venture funding before closing the doors, being sold at a major loss or losing significant chunk of their market value in a short time. I think it should serve as a great reminder to all founders and investors, that throwing good money after bad, chasing "boil the ocean" kind of ideas, does not make a recipe for success.

First Blog: Inspired by Anousheh Ansari

After much pondering, I decided to base my first blogpost on Anousheh Ansari whom I met with my wife last Thursday. She's had an amazing story: an immigrant turned successful entrepreneur, her family created the Ansari X Prize to accelerate efforts for private space exploration. Anousheh then became the first private female space explorer in September of 2006. She's now a space ambassador and continues to be an inspiration for numerous people around the world (her blog had 25 million hits during the time she was blogging from space).

Anousheh's a great example for tech entrepreneurs not just because she's had such an inspiring story but because she also embodies and exemplifies the great qualities investors looks for in entrepreneurs: big vision, excellent track record of execution and thinking outside the box.