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Founders share VC horror stories, and some are naming names

Published

3 months ago

June 5, 2026

Preport

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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. 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.”

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.

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.

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.”

The most stunning stories

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.

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.”

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.”

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. 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. 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.

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 publicly.

Perhaps Isenberg explained the moral behind all of these stories best. “If you’re raising right now, just know: every founder has a story like this. The process is weird. The power dynamic is weird,” he wrote.

A second lesson may be: if Andreessen agrees to meet with you, he means business.

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Related Topics:founders horror Names naming share stories

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BREAKING: Ibrahim Gusau Announces Resignation As NFF President At World Press Conference

Published

1 hour ago

August 27, 2026

Preport

Nigeria Football Federation President Ibrahim Musa Gusau has announced his resignation from office, bringing his four-year tenure at the helm of Nigerian football to an end amid mounting pressure over the state of the country’s football.

Gusau made the announcement on Thursday during a World Press Conference in Abuja, where he addressed journalists amid weeks of speculation over the future of his administration.

The resignation marks a dramatic development in the crisis surrounding the NFF, coming barely a month before the federation’s scheduled elective congress in Lafia, Nasarawa State.

Gusau had been expected to use the press conference to address reports of his possible resignation, the future of the NFF Executive Committee and the growing pressure for a change in the administration of Nigerian football.

His announcement now confirms the reports that had dominated Nigerian football since the early hours of Thursday, with several members of the NFF Executive Committee also reported to have stepped down.

The development comes after weeks of intense criticism of the federation following a series of disappointing results involving Nigeria’s national teams.

The Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, while the Super Falcons suffered the even more damaging setback of missing the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time since the tournament began in 1991.

The Falcons’ failure followed their 2-1 defeat to South Africa in the decisive qualification play-off, further intensifying calls for accountability and major changes within Nigerian football.

Gusau’s administration had responded to the crisis by setting up a fact-finding committee to investigate the causes of Nigeria’s recent poor performances and recommend solutions to the problems confronting the country’s football.

The committee, chaired by former NFF General Secretary Fanny Amun, submitted its report before Amun resigned from the panel, saying he wanted to protect the independence and integrity of the committee’s findings.

Gusau’s resignation now adds another extraordinary twist to an already turbulent period for Nigerian football.

The former Zamfara State Football Association chairman was elected NFF president in September 2022 and had repeatedly defended the work of his administration, including its efforts to stabilise the federation and improve the domestic game.

But pressure mounted after the Super Eagles’ World Cup failure and reached another level following the historic Super Falcons setback.

Several former internationals and football stakeholders had openly called for the NFF board to resign, with former Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel, Richard Owubokiri and other prominent voices demanding a change of leadership.

The situation was further complicated by reports that security agencies were scrutinising the use of a Federal Government intervention fund released to settle outstanding obligations involving Nigeria’s national teams.

With Gusau now announcing his resignation publicly, attention will immediately turn to what happens next to the NFF and its scheduled electoral process.

The federation is expected to convene an emergency Congress to deliberate on the leadership vacuum and determine the next steps for Nigerian football.

After four years in charge, Gusau has now left the NFF at one of the most turbulent moments in its history.

And as the dust settles on his announcement in Abuja, one question dominates Nigerian football: what comes next after Gusau?

Business

Bolt resumes operations at Nigerian airports after Keyamo’s intervention

Published

2 hours ago

August 27, 2026

Preport

Bolt has been cleared to resume operations at airports managed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), following an intervention by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo.

Mr Keyamo, in a statement on Thursday, said he had directed FAAN to urgently address concerns over what passengers described as exorbitant increases in airport taxi fares following the disruption of e-hailing services.

After the minister’s intervention, FAAN announced that it had reached an “agreeable operational framework” with Bolt, clearing the company to resume its services at FAAN-managed airports immediately.

The development followed days of controversy over the operation of e-hailing platforms at Nigerian airports, with passengers complaining about higher transportation costs after they were unable to access services they had previously relied on.

FAAN also apologised to passengers for the inconvenience caused by the temporary interruption of e-hailing services.

How the dispute started

The controversy followed FAAN’s efforts to establish a new operational framework for commercial and e-hailing vehicles operating within airport premises.

An internal FAAN memo dated 30 July directed airport managers to ensure that Bolt and Uber ceased commercial operations at FAAN-managed airports pending the finalisation of licence agreements with the e-hailing companies.

However, on 20 August, FAAN said it had not imposed a blanket ban on Uber, Bolt or other e-hailing platforms, but said discussions were ongoing with operators to establish a workable framework for their operations.

The clarification followed reports of restrictions affecting e-hailing services at some FAAN-managed airports, including the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

FAAN said its concern was not to limit passengers’ transportation choices but to ensure that commercial transport services operating within airport premises complied with safety, security and accountability requirements.

The authority said airports were highly regulated environments and that it needed adequate visibility of vehicles, drivers and operators working within them.

FAAN said it had been dealing with problems associated with commercial and e-hailing vehicles at airports for nearly a decade, including passenger solicitation, touting, unregulated operations and random pick-ups.

It said the challenges had made it necessary to strengthen the management of commercial transportation within airport premises.

Fare controversy

The dispute became more contentious after passengers began raising concerns about the cost of airport taxis.

A recent video by travel content creator Chris Joondeph, popularly known as Authentic Travelling, showed an airport taxi operator quoting N30,000 for a journey from the Lagos airport to Ikeja.

The fare generated widespread criticism, particularly after comparisons showed significantly lower prices on e-hailing platforms for the same journey. Bolt listed the trip at about N6,900, while Uber quoted N4,200 for UberX and N5,800 for its Priority option.

The controversy heightened concerns among passengers who had become accustomed to using e-hailing platforms for relatively cheaper airport transportation.

FAAN, however, said the fares that attracted public criticism were not newly imposed by the authority or introduced through its Airport Car Hire Rank Management System (ACHRAMS).

According to the authority, the rates existed before ACHRAMS and were not substantially different from those previously applicable.

FAAN said ACHRAMS only brought greater visibility to the prevailing airport taxi rates.

ACHRAMS, which stands for Airport Car Hire Rank Management System, was introduced by FAAN as a system for managing airport car-hire ranks and authorised transportation operations.

The authority stressed that ACHRAMS was not an e-hailing application and was not created to compete with Bolt, Uber or other mobility platforms.

Keyamo orders urgent action

Amid the controversy over fares and the disruption of e-hailing services, Keyamo directed FAAN to urgently resolve the issue.

The minister’s intervention came as complaints from passengers continued to draw attention to the difficulties faced by travellers seeking affordable transportation from airports.

Following the directive, FAAN said it had engaged Bolt and reached an operational agreement that would allow the platform to resume services immediately.

The authority said the agreement showed that airport regulation and security could coexist with passengers’ access to e-hailing services.

“The resolution demonstrates that it is possible to protect the integrity and security of the airport environment while preserving the convenience and freedom of choice that e-hailing services provide to passengers,” FAAN said.

FAAN also apologised for the disruption.

“We sincerely apologise for the difficulties this caused our passengers,” the authority said.

The authority acknowledged that although its actions were driven by regulatory, safety and security considerations, the immediate impact on passengers had been significant.

Bolt resumes, others still in talks

With the agreement reached, Bolt has been cleared to resume operations at all FAAN-managed airports.

FAAN said it was also engaging other e-hailing operators and expected the outstanding discussions to be concluded in the coming days.

READ ALSO: Keyamo directs airlines, unions to agree repayment plans over TSC debt

However, the authority did not give details of the specific operational terms agreed with Bolt.

It said passengers remained free to choose from available transportation options that best met their needs, provided the services were authorised to operate within the airport environment.

The authority noted that its responsibility was to ensure that whichever transportation service passengers chose operated in a safe, secure, orderly and accountable manner.

The resolution comes after FAAN had initially maintained that its engagement with e-hailing operators was aimed at establishing an appropriate framework rather than eliminating the services.

The latest development restores Bolt as an option for passengers using FAAN-managed airports, while the authority continues discussions with other operators.

For passengers, the immediate significance is the return of a familiar alternative to airport taxi services at a time when transportation costs have become a major part of the airport travel experience.