David Tisch: Why No Manager Wants to Stay Small & Why Competing with Mega Platforms is a Losing Game
Oct 31, 2026 · 1:20:42
David Tisch, founder of Box Group, argues today's frothy seed market is a standalone condition unlike 2021, and that $10–20M seed rounds are rational because outcome sizes have expanded ($10B companies are now plausible) and later rounds dilute founders at 3–8% instead of 12–20%. He calls concentrated managers' claimed 90% win rate 'total BS'—more like 20%—explains why Box Group invests without ownership requirements (checks from 1% to 10%), and says getting to deals late is his firm's biggest cause of losses. He declares the Lean Startup 'a total fake,' details how Cursor returned the fund multiple times, how Rogo was passed on by 39 of 40 Series A investors before Keith Rabois, Sequoia and Kleiner funded it, why pro rata rights are earned not contractual, why he won't sell positions early, and why venture is consolidating around 10 outlier firms, with Y Combinator the industry's only differentiated product.
