Why Does David Tisch Ban Negativity in Seed Decisions?

David Tisch bars negativity when his firm decides on early stage deals. A partner who has not spent time with the founders is not allowed to be negative about the company, and nobody is allowed to throw a grenade on someone else's deal. The job is to get to yes.

Anyone can name an early stage company and list why it will fail. He can name five risk conditions for any company. After about a year in the work, an investor can guess the failure, and the memos firms write already make the miss obvious. On a probability basis the company will not work, because 70 or 90 percent of early stage companies do not work. Spelling out the failure is obvious and irrelevant. The magic is squinting until the reason it will work shows up, lining up with what the founder sees, and saying yes. The job is to say yes to the right things, not to fear a yes on the ones that do not work.

Nobody really knows markets at the early stage, because markets evolve. Ethical or reputational problems with a founder still matter and should be shared, and the firm usually checks the issues before it takes the meeting and leans in.