20VC: David Tisch on Why Ownership in Venture Does Not Matter, His Biggest Investing Misses and Hits and How His Investing Style Changed as a Result & 3 Core Reasons VCs Pass That Do Not Make Sense

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David Tisch is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Box Group, one of the leading seed focused firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Airtable, Glossier, PillPack, Plaid and many more. Prior to founding Box, David was Managing Director of Techstars New York and was a prolific angel investor making early angel investments in the likes of Vine and Warby Parker to name a few.

In Today’s Episode with David Tisch You Will Learn:

1.) How David made his way into the world of tech and startups and came to change the state of seed funding in NYC with the founding of Box Group?

2.) Why does David believe that ownership requirements are "VCs projecting their problems on founders"? Why does David believe that ownership today fundamentally does not matter? How does David feel about his own relationship to price? Why is it important to be price aware across the portfolio, not on a per deal basis?

3.) What does David make of the rise of pre-emptive rounds? How does David advise portfolio founders who have them on the table? What other arguments does David use to founders contemplating taking seed rounds from multi-stage funds? How does David believe founders should assess their importance to the fund investing in them?

4.) How does David feel about his relationship to FOMO today? What have been some of his biggest misses in recent years? How have some of his biggest misses changed how he acts as an investor today? How have some of his biggest successes changed his investing lens? What changes did David and Box make to their decision-making process as a result?

5.) What does David believe are the biggest mistakes to turn down a company? Why is "too early" never a reason to turn down a company? How does David assess and think about market size today? Through what framework does David evaluate and assess competition today? What does David believe are some core concerns that are reasonable to turn down an opportunity?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with David Tisch

David’s Most Recent Investment: Ramp

As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbingson. If there's one element where the podcast is criticised for
0:04.7	often, it's that I agree with the guest too much, and that I do not push back enough on some
0:09.2	ideas shared. Today, we completely tear that apart. The guest on the show is brilliant, but we have
0:14.2	some very different opinions around portfolio construction. And so this is an awesome and very rare
0:19.1	debate on 20 VC. And so with that, I want to welcome an old friend of 20 VC's to the show, David Tish, found and managing partner at Box Group, one of the leading seed-focused firms of the last decade, with a portfolio including the likes of air table, glossier, pill, pack, plaid, and many more incredible companies. Prior to smashing the world of seed with box,
0:38.0	David was managing director of Techstars New York and was a prolific angel investor alongside it,
0:42.7	making early angel investments in the lights of Vine and Warby Parker, to name a few.
0:46.7	But before we dive into the show state, did you know that more than 80% of US public stock
0:50.9	is owned by just 10% of Americans? This divide is even greater in the private markets.
0:55.6	Carter makes it as easy to issue equity to your employees as it is to issue payroll. And for
1:00.3	employees, as easy to accept it too. More than 16,000 companies issue equity to their employees
1:06.1	through Carter, whether you're just getting started or getting ready to go public, the team at
1:10.1	Carter can help.
1:11.0	Check them out at carter.com.
1:12.9	And then another incredible product you have to introduce is Secureframe.
1:16.6	Secureframe helps companies get enterprise ready by streamlining SOC2 and ISO-27,1 compliance.
1:23.6	Secureframe allows companies to get compliant within weeks rather than the painful months that is today.
1:28.7	Join companies like Stream, Hussura, Benapos, and unlock more sales with Secureframe.
1:33.5	And 20 VC listeners get 10% off at secureframe.com forward slash 20VC.
1:39.1	And finally, I've always been a big history fan, and so I want to talk about Cooney,
1:42.7	the global law firm built around
1:44.2	startups and venture capital. Since forming the very first venture fund in Silicon Valley,
	...

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