The seduction trap of hospitality investing

There's something about hospitality that doesn't exist in most other investment categories. You've had the dinner. Stayed in the hotel. You have real opinions — formed over years as a discerning consumer.

When someone presents a hospitality investment, you're not encountering an abstraction. You already have a relationship with the product. That familiarity is a legitimate edge but can also be a trap.

The pitch dinner for a restaurant investment is a demonstration of the very skill set being pitched. The food is exceptional. The room is beautiful. The founder is magnetic in exactly the environment they've mastered.

You're being courted to write a check while being made to feel like a guest.

Those two modes don't coexist well. The investor mode tends to lose. I've watched sophisticated, disciplined people — investors who would never make a comparable decision in any other asset class without rigorous independent analysis — sign term sheets because the experience was extraordinary and the founder was compelling. Founder talent matters but an awe inspiring meal does not equate to diligence. Finding opportunities where both coexist is where the hidden gold lays.