YouSaid · the spoken record

Adam Besvinick

lines on the record: 55
first: 2023-05-29
most recent: 2023-05-29
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“I think the number one thing is probably, it comes down to a mindset issue. When I originally started getting coffee and jumping on phone calls with VCs, I was blown away by the fact that so many investors felt like it was better to see an amazing company and pass on it than never see it at all. And as a 24-year-old at the time, that just blew my mind. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that you were more comfortable seeing something amazing and passing on it and that becoming Uber or Instagram or any iconic company. I sort of had this notion of a as someone who was not doing the job that ignorance was bliss. I would rather not see that deal and not have the sort of regret living with me every day that I missed this thing. I've been doing Venture Now full-time for almost a decade, but now as someone who runs their own fund and has been this for quite a while, I 100% understand that feeling where you would much rather be in the flow. You would much rather see the multibillion dollar outflowing passed on it than have never seen it at all.”
2023-05-29 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Financial Models at Seed, $5M Seed Rounds & The Fear of Signalling Risk is all BS | Why Multi-Stage Firms Have Destroyed Seed & Who Wins and Who Loses in the Next 10 Years of Venture with Adam Besvinick, Founding Partner @ Looking Glass Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A difference between reputation with founders and reputation with other investors. Your reputation with founders needs to be sterling. Your reputation with other investors ultimately, I think some people take different tacks as to how they appreciate that one way or another. I personally have always felt that if you have a great reputation with other investors, that should hopefully allow you to be brought into other deals, allow that there would be respect that you're going to punch above your weight on the cap table and other investors want you on board. Maybe not every investor operates that way. But reputation with founders is something that you can absolutely not compromise on.”
2023-05-29 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Financial Models at Seed, $5M Seed Rounds & The Fear of Signalling Risk is all BS | Why Multi-Stage Firms Have Destroyed Seed & Who Wins and Who Loses in the Next 10 Years of Venture with Adam Besvinick, Founding Partner @ Looking Glass Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The number one thing that I learned from Chris was his deference for founders, the absolute respect that he has for entrepreneurs and how that translates to your reputation as an investor. And the thing that I think is so critical as a young VC and really hopefully that compounds over time is that reputation is the number one currency as an investor that you have control over. From working with Chris, I sort of developed this hypothesis that if you have a great reputation, that should compound over time, should yield higher and higher quality deal flow, should yield higher and higher quality references from other founders and ultimately give you the best possible chance of picking the best founders.”
2023-05-29 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Financial Models at Seed, $5M Seed Rounds & The Fear of Signalling Risk is all BS | Why Multi-Stage Firms Have Destroyed Seed & Who Wins and Who Loses in the Next 10 Years of Venture with Adam Besvinick, Founding Partner @ Looking Glass Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Honestly, I joined Twitter in 2009. That was my entry point into understanding the world of Venture. And so I just started following dozens and dozens of VCs on that platform going back and forth with them when I had like 200 followers and use that as a platform for eventually cold emailing hundreds of investors, trying to figure out how to move from traditional finance to venture. And ultimately ended up working for Chris Sofka and lowercase capital while I was in business school off of a cold email to Chris and then diligently following up with him until he gave me some work to do basically.”
2023-05-29 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Financial Models at Seed, $5M Seed Rounds & The Fear of Signalling Risk is all BS | Why Multi-Stage Firms Have Destroyed Seed & Who Wins and Who Loses in the Next 10 Years of Venture with Adam Besvinick, Founding Partner @ Looking Glass Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You raise 5 million at 25, you have a target on your back before you even. Written a single line of code. Giving someone $5 million and four years to figure it out is a luxury of a billion dollar venture fund. You need to have at least 24 months of cash. If you can't find product market fit by being that disciplined over a two-year period, you probably didn't deserve to raise more than two and a half.”
2023-05-29 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Financial Models at Seed, $5M Seed Rounds & The Fear of Signalling Risk is all BS | Why Multi-Stage Firms Have Destroyed Seed & Who Wins and Who Loses in the Next 10 Years of Venture with Adam Besvinick, Founding Partner @ Looking Glass Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source