Precursor VenturesA classic pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm

Is shared optimism the secret sauce in venture investing?

13 Jun 2025 · 0 min

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Excerpt from a Precursor Ventures YouTube video arguing that shared optimism between investors and founders about the future is a central reason they invest. The speaker describes using due diligence to assess a company's vision of the future and notes they often avoid retail companies, which “look pretty terrible.”

Is going to go wrong. And I don't know. I always feel like when I'm doing due diligence or trying to get to know a company, I'm like, okay, what do they believe the world's going to look like in the future if they're right? Is this a big company? And most of the investments I end up making, it's because I have a shared optimism with them about what the future looks like. And look, as we say all the time, for retail companies, they all look pretty terrible.