Excitement > Data

If I were to say that all my investment decisions are data driven, I would be lying. As someone who considers them entrepreneurial, I feel that my emotions towards a founder, market and opportunity sometimes trump the data by a factor of 2-3x. My brother Andy, a prolific healthcare investor, states that his excitement and optimism are one of the reasons that led to his career success.

I wouldn’t say that I have had the same experience following optimism over data. I know only scenarios where my excitement has hurt more than helped me. I am not saying this will be forever, but this has been my truth from my less than a decade of experience.

It has helped me write down all the data points that are significant risks or unknowns for an opportunity. After continually looking at these risks over the due diligence process, I can come to a more realistic appraisal of an opportunity. If I do not do this, I throw dirt over these issues and listen for what I want to hear from a founder or industry experts in the field.

To summarize - if I am not constantly aware of my level of excitement and how it can have me overlook detrimental pieces of actual data, it can lead to me making terrible decisions.