JB

James Beshara

Founder, investor, encourager

San Francisco, California

Invests in

  • Min Investment:

    $100,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $100,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $100,000.00

Work Experience

2020

  • Founder & Executive Chairman

    2020

    The world’s first productivity drink called “Silicon Valley’s new morning elixir” by Forbes. 7 hours of flow-state in a 2oz shot. Meet your new favorite part of your morning ritual at magicmind.com.

  • Startup Investor

    2013

    Seed investor in startups worth over $50Bn in market cap: Gusto, Mercury, Clubhouse, Alchemy, Liquid Death, Mindbloom, Bolt, Super Coffee, ThirdLove, RigUp, LTSE, IRL, Caliva, Triplebyte, ZeroDown, Eden, Gravitational, Eligible, St. Frank, Thunkable, Tari, Backdrop, Rupa Health, Momentus, Cerebral, Nexhealth, Recess, Haus, Halo Top, Jour, Brightland, CB Thera, MatchaBar, The Class, Asystem, WattBuy, Tandem, Mindset, Maker Wine, more (jjbeshara.com for more). Have mistakenly looked over countless great companies that I kick myself for often. Podcasting on the psychology of creation with Below The Line (belowthelinepod.com).

2017 - 2018

  • Director, Product

    2017 - 2018

    Social travel product initiatives across payments, messaging, listings, saved lists; and incubations of new business-lines for the world's best travel brand.

2017 - 2018

  • Advisor, Basic Income Research

    2017 - 2018

    Helping YC Research with their Universal Basic Income project — a first-of-its-kind research project studying the effects of a guaranteed basic income in the developed world.

  • CEO & Co-Founder

    2012 - 2017

    An award-winning social payments application, processing hundreds of millions of dollars for millions of users around the world. Acquired by Airbnb after growing globally (and building an exceptionally talented team).

2008 - 2011

  • CEO & Founder

    2008 - 2011

    "Development via education, lending, and opportunity" — With a focus on non-profit poverty alleviation organizations, it was one of the earliest crowdfunding platforms in the world, taking me from my dorm room to South Africa for two years (and beginning my career in startups). “Below the line” version: Ultimately, this was a failure due to personally not internalizing how expensive growing regulation, that began in 2010, of the space would be; first major touchpoint of public, professional failure.