"The Gift"

Venture investors think a lot about how we make decisions. We are often faced with incomplete data. The earlier the company, the harder it is to objectively weigh an opportunity.

We've been asking our peers how they do it. One idea we heard, which I love, is "The Gift". The firm that shared this idea has quite a large investment team. In their case, every team member shares one thing with the lead who is presenting the deal: why they would NOT invest in this company.

The lead does not respond or argue against these positions, unless they need to make a factual correction. They take all of the negative feedback as a positive contribution to the decision.

This is "The Gift".

The lead takes the gift away overnight and returns the next day with a decision on how they would like to proceed.

When we encourage the negatives to rise, and the deal team / lead thinks of the comments as data points for their own process and not a vote - not a storm of headwinds to kill the deal - we can make a better decision.

Disagreement is data.

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I'm a Partner at Main Sequence, a VC purpose-built to create global companies from scientific ideas with the inventors who imagine them. I build-out-loud here: https://philmorle.substack.com

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