David Tisch is a collector, and always has been.
The first time I met Tisch, I was floored and delighted walking into his New York office: An entire wall-and-more of bears—they’re Bearbricks, to be exact, vinyl bear-like Japanese art-toys. They’re whimsical and unexpected; they can be monochrome, translucent, camo, patchwork, and all together a bit alien. Tisch, who started early-stage venture firm BoxGroup in 2008, has around 600 Bearbricks.
This led to a conversation about how Tisch has been a collector since he was a kid, and when he was 11, in the early days of the internet, it was all about sports cards—hockey, baseball, basketball, you name it. And in some sense, his instincts as a collector then remain true to his career today, investing early in startups. And Tisch and BoxGroup just hit a home run. As I wrote in the profile I just published:
The crown jewel of Tisch’s collection, however, isn’t so easily displayed on a shelf: Tisch and BoxGroup were among the very first investors in AI coding startup Cursor, which this month was acquired by Elon Musk’s SpaceX for $60 billion, the largest VC-backed acquisition of all-time.
The returns are staggering: BoxGroup first wrote a $750,000 check to Cursor CEO Michael Truell, plus two follow-on checks, ultimately proffering a return that should shake out to around $1 billion, a source familiar with the matter told Fortune.
