Founders Air $15 Million Pitch Horror Stories as Vinod Khosla Fires Back in 12-Plus Posts
Updated
Updated · Business Insider · Jun 7
Founders Air $15 Million Pitch Horror Stories as Vinod Khosla Fires Back in 12-Plus Posts
3 articles · Updated · Business Insider · Jun 7
Summary
$15 million Series A fundraising became the spark after Greg Isenberg said a general partner fell asleep for more than 30 minutes during his pitch, touching off a viral wave of founders' complaints about venture capitalists.
Vinod Khosla became the main target after Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said Khosla once suggested firing his co-founders for their stock; other founders added stories, including sexist and demeaning pitch-room remarks.
More than a dozen X posts from Khosla on Saturday denied some accounts and defended his style as "brutal honesty," arguing blunt feedback helps founders more than "hypocritical politeness."
Cloudflare's nearly $90 billion valuation gave Prince's criticism extra weight, while some investors defended Khosla as a pioneering Sun Microsystems founder and one of Silicon Valley's most influential VCs.
The online pile-on exposed a broader shift in startup culture, with founders publicly challenging the power and behavior of the investors who finance early-stage tech companies.