Lara Banks of Mechanic Capital passed on a successful fund because she couldn't verbalize the repeatable 'intangibles' driving their returns. LPs must be able to understand and explain a VC's process for generating returns, not just see past luck, before committing capital to a fund.
David Cohen missed investing in Lyft (then Zimride) because he was already an investor in Uber and thought Zimride's initial idea was flawed. He now advises early-stage investors to prioritize a strong team and their market belief over the specific initial product, as pivots are very common.
Jim Tannenbaum of Foresight Capital regrets passing on Bridge Bio partly because his team wasn't aggressive enough in tracking the company to invest in a subsequent round. A 'no for now' decision should trigger a process for re-evaluating the opportunity later, not be a final dismissal.