AB

Adam Besvinick

Founder and Managing Partner at Looking Glass Capital

New York City Metropolitan Area

Skills

Financial Analysis
Social Networking
Entrepreneurship
Venture Capital
Business Development
Digital Media
Financial Modeling
Investments
E-commerce
Management
Start-ups
Strategy
Strategic Partnerships
Mergers & Acquisitions
Valuation
Investment Banking

Education

  • Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)

    Harvard Business School

    (2011 - 2013)

  • Bachelor’s Degree

    (2005 - 2009)

  • High School

    The Haverford School

    (1996 - 2005)

Work Experience

  • Founder and Managing Partner

    2020

    Looking Glass Capital is a "first yes" pre-seed investor seeking to invest in and support mission-driven founders during the earliest days of company building. We make high conviction investments most often as a lead, co-lead, or anchor in non-consensus opportunities. We are most inspired by entrepreneurs solving today's biggest challenges across the themes of health, climate, and empowerment (education; tools and platforms for SMBs; and products that enable access, identity, or self-expression). Fund I investments include: Hone, Zolt (fka Framework), Plot (fka Unicycle), [untitled], Basil Systems, Carbon Collective, EnMass Energy, Daily Blends, Therify, Polimorphic, EarlyDay (acquired by Wonderschool), Sylvan Health, WattCarbon, Impilo Health, Frame, Innerwell, Captain Experiences, Millie, Verity, PairUp, OceanSync, Genemod, Kinspire, and CuraFi Fund II investments include: Humans Anonymous, Rhizome, Eli, North, Primary Health, and ThreeV (plus seven more unannounced investments)

Looking Glass Syndicate

2019 - 2019

  • Angel Investor

    2019 - 2019

    Invested in the pre-seed / seed round of five companies: Seasons, Oasis, Therefore, Invisible Universe, and Primer

  • Venture Investor

    2017 - 2019

    Invested in Series A (and later) startups, including NomNom (Series A lead; acquired by Mars), Plant Prefab (Series A lead), Inkbox (Series A investor; acquired by BIC), and Carrot Health (Series B investor)

2014 - 2017

  • Principal

    2014 - 2017

    Responsible for sourcing and leading Deep Fork's investments in BigID, Transfix.io, One Concern, Ease.com (acquired by Employee Navigator), Winnie, StatMuse, Rebel (acquired by Salesforce), Bowery.io, Chalk, Educents, VSporto, Enhatch, Vive, and Datmo (acquired by One Concern) Worked closely with founders and their teams on business development, product, hiring, and planning for subsequent fund raises, doing whatever it took to help companies get to the next level

By/Association

2013 - 2014

  • Co-lead

    2013 - 2014

    Co-led By/Association, an angel investor group that functioned like an "offline AngelList syndicate" Sourced and diligenced opportunities to share with By/Association members; did my best to do the job of a VC before I actually was one By/Association's investments include: Experiment.com, Javelin.com, and Transfix.io

2013 - 2014

  • Partnerships + Business Development Lead

    2013 - 2014

    First business hire overseeing relationships with brands and retailers and monetization Sourced, developed, and managed new relationships with key brands (e.g. Nike and Lululemon), retailers (e.g. Urban Outfitters and Nordstrom), and media companies (e.g. Hearst and Conde Nast), including in-store integrations with all Nordstrom locations and influencer campaigns Restructured, implemented, and managed Wanelo's affiliate partnerships with hundreds of retailers, negotiating favorable commission rates for driving sales Helped affect retailer-oriented product changes and features, including merging store and brands' user profile pages and native transactions within Wanelo's mobile apps

2011 - 2013

  • Associate (Intern)

    2011 - 2013

    Cold-emailed my way into getting to learn the business of seed investing from Chris Sacca while attending business school Worked on projects with portfolio companies, including Twitter (acquisition), Uber (launching a new city), Styleseat (biz dev deal), and PICT (biz dev partnerships and sales) Did research and analysis on various sectors in advance of Lowercase raising two funds

2012 - 2012

  • Growth + Business Development (Intern)

    2012 - 2012

    Identified and partnered with strategic media properties, content platforms, and individuals in order to increase Gumroad's adoption and user base within target markets On-boarded content creators and their digital teams, including Wiz Khalifa and Ellie Goulding, as well as companies such as Onepager and The Monday Life Worked with Facebook and Twitter to develop a relationship with Gumroad Worked full-time in SF during the summer and part-time during the spring and fall

  • Analyst

    2010 - 2011

    Lived in a cubicle and in Excel within the telecom investment banking group, primarily working on debt and sell-side M&A transactions that never closed Learned how to work both hard and smart, while getting more responsibility than the average 23-year-old should have

  • Summer Analyst

    2009 - 2009

    Developed a "love" for investment banking in the tech, media, and telecom group, ultimately leading me to the telecom group at Jefferies