Venture capital performance may be measured in ten-year chunks, but only an elite club of firms can claim to have stayed consistent—let alone functional—for anywhere close to that timeframe. David Tisch’s BoxGroup, which boasts 16 years of operation and just closed $550 million in new funding, can claim a spot among those ranks.
And though around 30% of BoxGroup’s investments are typically in New York companies, and eight of its ten investors are here, Tisch says he views the city as his home—not as the thesis of his firm. The Bay Area is still the predominant ecosystem for value creation in tech, he notes. But regardless, competition between the regions is not part of the BoxGroup calculus. “We don’t view geography as an important feature in startup creation,” he tells me.
That agnostic view toward sector and location has allowed BoxGroup to build a bench of companies that is only rivaled by incubators like Y Combinator. Tisch expects to make between 120 and 180 deals out of its newest core fund, and between 20 and 40 out of its opportunity fund. “Our job is to see companies,” he says. “Our job is to wake up and meet founders, wherever they are.”
Tisch admits that as competition for LP dollars intensifies, it’s increasingly obvious that all venture investors, at the end of the day, are offering a similar service. And for a firm with a track record like BoxGroup’s, it would be easy for it to rest on its reputation alone. But Tisch says that he has to prove out of every new fund that he can stay relevant.
