Adam Besnivick: How to Invest in Pre-Seed & Seed Stage Companies; Looking Glass Capital | E1020

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

May 29, 2023

Duration

1h 7m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Adam Besvinick is the Founder of Looking Glass Capital, a pre-seed-focused firm started in 2020. Before starting Looking Glass, Adam spent about 5 years at Deep Fork Capital and Anchorage Capital Group investing in pre-seed through Series C. Adam’s portfolio across funds includes the likes of BigID, Transfix, NomNom, and Hone Health, to name a few. ------------------------------------------------------ Timestamps: 0:00 How Adam Besvinick founded Looking Glass Capital 6:29 Fund Construction at Looking Glass 13:10 Document Preparation for Fundraising 20:40 How to Find Your LPs 29:05 Lessons Learned from First Fund 40:20 How to Think about Loss Ratio 42:35 Benefits of Thematic Investments 45:38 Biggest Mistakes Founders Make 54:40 Quick-Fire Round 59:41 What Has Changed in Venture Capital? ------------------------------------------------------ In Today’s Episode with Adam Besvinick We Discuss:

1. How Twitter Led to Founding a Venture Firm: How did Adam make his way into the world of venture through Twitter? What are 1-2 of his biggest lessons from working with the legend, Chris Sacca? What does Adam know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his time in VC? What do most young VCs misunderstand when it comes to reputation?

1. Raising Fund I: The Process: How many LP meetings did Adam have to close Fund I? What docs and materials did he have for the fundraise? How does he advise other managers on doing docs for fundraises? How do different LP profiles want different things in the managers they work with? How did Adam approach first vs final close? How does he advise others managers on closing? How did Adam instil a sense of urgency in LPs to move and commit to the fund? What are 1-2 of Adam’s biggest pieces of advice to managers raising a first-time fund?

1. Looking Glass: The Very Disciplined Pre-Seed Strategy: How did Adam decide on the fund size? Why is it the optimal fund size? What is the desired ownership for Adam? What level of dilution does he expect across the lifecycle of the company? What is the average check size? What is the average entry price? How does Adam approach reserves and follow-on checks? How does Adam reflect on his own relationship to price? Why does Adam not like the majority of pre-seed micro-fund strategies?

1. The Market: Multi-Stage Firms Destroying Seed Does Adam agree that “multi-stage firms have destroyed seed rounds”? How does Adam advise founders when they have multi-stage offers and seed firm offers? Who will be the winners and losers in the next 10 years of venture? Why is it harder than ever to advise founders on fundraising rounds today? ------------------------------------------------------ Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Adam Besvinick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/besnivick Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ------------------------------------------------------ #AdamBesnivick #LookingGlassCapital #HarryStebbings

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Adam Besvinick

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Adam Besvinick and Harry Stebbings, Adam Besnivick: How to Invest in Pre-Seed & Seed Stage Companies; Looking Glass Capital | E1020 explores pre-seed discipline, reputation, and thematic focus in modern venture Adam Besvinick, founder of Looking Glass Capital, explains his highly disciplined, institutional-style approach to pre-seed and seed investing from a relatively small solo GP fund. He emphasizes reputation with founders as an investor’s primary controllable currency and argues for concentrated portfolios with meaningful ownership rather than spray-and-pray strategies. The conversation dives into fund construction, LP fundraising dynamics, thematic focus (healthcare, climate, education, SMB SaaS), and how to lead and structure early rounds without massive checks. They also explore the post-2021 venture reset, multi-stage funds’ impact on seed, and how founders should think about runway, investor selection, and round composition.

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