When a VC Passes, And Is Wrong: Real Talk Between Me and Ethena’s CEO Roxanne Petraeus

The Four (!!!) Checks I’ve Written The Company Since Saying “No,” Never Bought Me As Much As Saying “YES!” Would Have In The First Place. An Investor and a Founder Postmortem a Mistake

The common VC passes are pretty cliche. “It’s a bit too early for us but we’ll be rooting for you from the sidelines,” “We were intrigued and impressed but just can’t get there at this time,” or just plain ghosting you without any feedback. I’m writing this knowing that despite trying to do better, I’m not absolutely innocent either. Which is why it was refreshing to be asked by Ethena’s CEO to do something publicly that investors normally aren’t interested in rehashing: discuss why we passed on leading the seed round for her startup.

Now, the situation here that enabled such a frank discussion is a bit atypical. Ethena is a SaaS startup building modern compliance training. Their customers include Netflix, Figma, Carta, Zendesk, Notion and lots (and lots) of other enterprises who want something that’s more than a checkbox CYA experience. Something which builds healthier, safer, lower risk workplaces in an enjoyable and effective format. They are now quite successful…