Even the biggest names in VC investing have a failure rate of 75% or more. As an individual investor, you don't really have the resources to play the VC game, which is less about investing in successful companies and more about artificially increasing company valuations so that your value increases through multiple funding rounds until an IPO. That hype train doesn't build itself, and is largely the work of VC firms themselves rather than the companies they're working with. As the VC firm, they create goals, pressure for increased growth, pitch to other VC friends for the next funding round, tip off the media about the hot new thing, and this cycle repeats until you can create a frothing public demand for an IPO and multiply your holdings.