I will just re-iterate that the letter of the round is not as important as the valuation, and the amount invested, in determining what "stage" the investment is

I will just re-iterate that the letter of the round is not as important as the valuation, and the amount invested, in determining what "stage" the investment is. I accept that they passed on the two different Series A rounds for two different reasons, although I am not sure what lesson I can draw from that. In terms of your last comment, yes they absolutely cannot beat the returns of the early stage investors (whatever Series that may be), but presumably they're compensated by lower risk, which is the main point I was trying to make.