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Is there a curated list anywhere of YC rejects that made it? That'd be neat.

VCs often call this their "anti-portfolio", some publish their lists. Bessemer's is super impressive:

https://www.bvp.com/portfolio/anti-portfolio

They were pitched & passed on: AirBnb, Apple, Ebay, Facebook, Google, Intel, Intuit, Paypal, Snapchat, Tesla..

This is a phenomenal list, and quite inspiring if you look at it in the right light. Hindsight is 20/20 and VCs make plenty of mistakes.

> BVP had the opportunity to invest in pre-IPO secondary stock in Apple at a $60M valuation. BVP's Neill Brownstein called it "outrageously expensive."

Wow, that has got to be hard to swallow now.

There was a HN thread about this. Might be outdated by now but here it is: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11229700

Yes. I'm surprised this isn't on here with the headline "YC-reject company Sendgrid acquired by Twilio for $2B." Maybe that will be the TechCrunch writeup.

Don't know whether they were rejected by YC, but I do know they are often cited as one of TechStars' standout companies.

"Spam company"