John

One of the single most important things that I look for in anyone is the ability to admit that they were wrong. Reflect on it and improve. I admit that I was wrong in previous discussions with @davidtisch at @BoxGroup. I did not think that you could produce outsized returns from hugely diversified portfolios (150+ companies) with still quite large fund sizes ($200M+). I was wrong. With Cursor, Baseten, Clay, and many more incredible companies in his portfolio, he has proved his thesis without shadow of doubt. This was an incredible discussion analyzing Box's returns over the years. (Link in comments) -- 1. I Don't Want to Compete With the Best VCs, That Is a Trap Owning 10% to 20% of a true outlier in the seed round means beating the rest of the market head-to-head and convincing the founder to pick you. That takes too many steps to believe, so do not compete directly against the best VCs in the world. I would love to hear how you think about your position as a "lead" seed investor and if that has changed with the expansion of rounds @dafrankel @Bandrew @chadbyers? 2. What Concentrated Funds Know but Do Not Admit To Concentrated managers claim they win 90% of the deals they want, but David puts the real figure at around 20%. A fund backing 30 high-conviction companies at 10% ownership likely offers that deal to 120 to 150 companies to land its 30. He calls this adverse selection that people do not admit to. 3. Why the Lean Startup Was a Total Fake The Lean Startup is a brainwash that ran for 10 years through professors, books, tweets and blog posts. It sent people the wrong message. Do you think this is fair and is capital a moat today unlike in prior cycles @rabois @alanchanguk 4. The Marketing Message That Pro Rata Is Not a Right Is BS Early-stage VCs saying they do not need pro rata is marketing garbage. The right to invest in subsequent rounds is earned, whether or not it is in the documents, and having it written down helps the founder more than the firm. A firm that refuses a founder's request to step back is getting into a fight it will likely lose. How do you think about this @apartovi @honam 5. We Do Not Allow Negativity in the Investment Decision-Making Process Partners who have not spent time with the founders are not allowed to be negative about a deal. With 70% to 90% of early-stage companies failing, explaining why one will not work is "incredibly obvious and incredibly irrelevant." The job is to say yes to the right things without fear of the ones that fail. What is the single best advice to optimise investment decision making discussions @shaunmmaguire @AnnieDuke? 6. Why We Have Less Dilution Now Than Ever Before In companies that scale quickly, Series B, C and D rounds are now raised at 3% to 8% dilution instead of 12% to 20%. Across multiple rounds, early-stage investments get diluted less, this is a real economic factor for early investors. Love to hear your thoughts on this @jasonlk... 7. Why Funding Consumer Brands at Seed No Longer Makes Sense for Venture BoxGroup has stopped funding brands because the data that proves a brand works, such as whether people buy it and whether CAC to LTV ratios make sense, does not exist at seed. Brand investing at Series A is an interesting product for a subset of investors, but not one that fits traditional venture firms today. How has your thinking on this changed over the years @eurie_kim @kirstenagreen @fcourt?