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Ritter: Emergence passed on early Figma because its revenue was too low

Gordon Ritter · How Emergence Capital Bet Early on Zoom, Salesforce, Veeva—& Now Together.ai · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea · Jan 30, 2025 · at 1:17:23

Gordon Ritter, Founding General Partner at Emergence Capital, discusses deals the firm passed on and regrets missing.

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“Figma was one that we all, back to we work as a team, we all looked at Figma back when their revenue was low, but their engagement was incredibly high and spreading within organizations, and we just couldn't get comfortable. We were a little biased on if we're going to pay that much money, we've got to have some reasonable revenue traction and growth”

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