#4 Bessmer VC David Cowan avoided meeting Google's cofounders

A few years ago, tech investor Bessemer Venture Partners published what it called its "anti-portfolio." That's a list of companies it could have invested in, but didn't. It was a fresh and entertaining look at the VC world.

One of the best stories is how partner David Cowan missed his chance to seed Google. Cowan’s college friend, Susan Wojcicki, had rented her garage to Sergey Brin and Larry Page as the first office for Google. She tried to get Cowan to meet with them.

Instead, Cowan painstakingly avoided the garage and the two cofounders at work there.

#3 Battery Ventures balked at funding Facebook

Facebook got its start in Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room. And it might have stayed in the Boston area if Battery Ventures, a venture-capital firm based there, hadn't walked away from negotiations with Zuckerberg back in 2004.

Battery Ventures partner Scott Tobin, who was involved in that meeting, later called Facebook "the biggest fish that ever got away.”

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