David Tisch has always been a collector. His firm’s biggest prize is a $1 billion return on Cursor

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 .

It’s the kind of home run most VCs dream about their whole career and, for Tisch, there are all sorts of throughlines.

For one, investing is a form of collecting—from portfolio construction to placing your bets—and Tisch, 45, sees a parallel between investing in startups and the sports cards of his childhood.

“Especially in early-stage investing, you’re buying something, someone, at the earliest stage, and then you get to see their careers play out.” For Tisch—warm with a sardonic edge and, yes, a scion of one of business’s most famous families —the Cursor acquisition also affirms the strategy he’s been chasing all along: That the person you’re backing matters most.

And Cursor was sourced by then-principal Claire Smilow (now a partner).

So, back in 2022, it was a bet by Tisch on both a young investor and a young founder who, at the time, seemed like he was off-point.