Founders tell bad stories about VCs
Founders tell stories about venture capitalists. They call them VCs. Greg Isenberg is a founder. He is on X. He starts a talk about VCs. He says a VC falls asleep. The VC is in a meeting. The meeting is for a $15M Series A. There are 12 people in the meeting. The VC sleeps for 30 minutes. Nobody says anything. Everyone keeps going. This is a common story. Mark Pincus is a founder of Zynga. He has a similar story. A VC sleeps in his meeting too. But some VCs still give money. Liz Wessel has a story. A VC falls asleep. Another VC scowls at her. They send a term sheet. She does not take the money. The VC is surprised. Travis Kalanick is an Uber founder. A VC tries to leave a meeting. Travis follows the VC to his car. He pitches in the passenger seat. Matthew Prince is a Cloudflare founder. He tells stories too. A Sequoia partner says a woman cannot lead a security company. The woman is Michelle Zatlyn. Cloudflare is a big company now. The partner is wrong. Vinod Khosla is a famous VC. He says to fire co-founders. Prince is offended. He stops talking to Khosla. Many founders share stories. But some founders say they have good experiences with VCs. Poor experiences are common. Pincus likes this moment. Founders can now call out VCs. Not all VCs are bad. But these stories are funny and infuriating.
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What does Greg Isenberg say about a VC?
Present Simple for facts and stories
We use present simple to tell stories about things that happen regularly or are true.
“Founders tell stories about venture capitalists.”
What to know · A1
Try saying this aloud
Scenario: Tell a friend about a funny or strange experience at work or school.
- 01“a person falls asleep”
- 02“nobody says anything”
- 03“everyone keeps going”
Register tip · informal
🔑Key Phrases
This sentence introduces the main topic (founders and VCs) using present simple, which is the core tense at A1.
present simple→Students tell stories about teachers.
This uses present simple to describe an action, which is a key pattern for telling simple stories.
present simple→She says the dog runs fast.
This uses 'is' (present simple) to state a fact about the company, a basic A1 structure.
present simple 'to be'→The cat is small now.
🎙️ Article Audio — Kokoro TTS
Founders tell bad stories about VCs
Adapted from TechCrunch · Read the original. LinguaPress rewrites the facts as original graded-reader text for language learners.
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