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Uncapped #10 | David Tisch from BoxGroup

Overview

Shownote

Highlights

Transcript

Chapters

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Uncapped #10 | David Tisch from BoxGroup

Uncapped with Jack Altman

2025/05/22
Uncapped with Jack Altman

Uncapped with Jack Altman

2025/05/22
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

This week I enjoyed riffing with David Tisch, Managing Partner of BoxGroup. BoxGroup is an NYC-based seed stage venture capital firm that has invested in over 500 seed-stage startups over the last 15 years, including Plaid, Ro, Ramp, Clay, Scopely, Warp, Cursor, PillPack, Amplitude, Flatiron Health, Stripe, Warby Parker, Harry’s, Oscar, Flexport, Classpass, Vine, GroupMe, Airtable and more. David is the Chairman of GoodDog, a marketplace to find pets online. He is the co-founder of TechStars NYC and serves on the board of Friends of Hudson River Park. We covered: Scaling something deemed unscalable Art of being collaborative Taste not being teachable VC help being overrated Building a NYC brand --- Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (0:27) Scaling a collaborative fund (8:23) Stack ranking portfolios (11:29) Investing at seed (17:29) Hiring for taste (22:30) The art of being collaborative (29:03) VC help is overrated (41:38) Why VCs pass on companies (48:11) Building a brand in NYC (55:02) North Stars in early-stage investing --- Linktree: https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod Twitter: https://x.com/jaltma Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Highlights

In this episode, David Tisch, Managing Partner at BoxGroup, shares insights from his extensive experience in seed-stage venture capital. With a portfolio spanning over 500 startups, including major success stories like Stripe and Plaid, Tisch offers a unique perspective on what drives value at the earliest stages of company building.
00:33
Seed investing is an art form allowing deep founder relationships
08:31
VCs invest in a basket of companies and highlight only the successful ones.
11:29
Investing in people despite bad ideas is a core challenge in seed-stage investing.
17:29
Taste in venture capital is formed through life experience and cannot be taught.
25:20
YC remains a generational firm due to its ability to consistently out-execute competitors in early-stage startup acceleration.
37:28
Top-tier venture capital brands positively influence fundraising and partnerships
46:57
VCs prioritize outlier investments and recognize the compounding value in later growth stages.
50:39
Great companies open secondary offices faster due to talent availability.
58:05
The ideal investment is a company that could become one of the most important in the world or its industry.

Chapters

Intro
00:00
Scaling a collaborative fund
00:27
Stack ranking portfolios
08:23
Investing at seed
11:29
Hiring for taste
17:29
The art of being collaborative
22:30
VC help is overrated
29:03
Why VCs pass on companies
41:38
Building a brand in NYC
48:11
North Stars in early-stage investing
55:02

Transcript

David Tisch: We don't want to be your best investor, We want to be your favorite investor. And favorite investor means you like us because we talk to you like humans and we don't mislead you. We ideally under-promise and over-deliver. So we would like to h...