Assertion Not checkable as stated
Besvinick led 14 Fund 1 deals despite rarely writing the largest check
“Like I said, I was the first yes or the lead in 14 of 24 investments out of Fund One. It's effectively been the case in every investment out of Fund Two so far, and I was the largest investor in only one of those 14 rounds in Fund One.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Besvinick: Cold inbound deals produced some of Fund I's top performers
“The deals that I've done that have been cold inbound have been explicitly because they're looking for investors that invest in relevant themes to what they're building. And those have been great companies. In fact, those are some of the best companies out of f…”
Opinion
Besvinick: Presenting pitch decks on LP calls is unnecessary for VCs
“I don't think I've never walked through a deck on a call. I just, I don't think that's really necessary as an investor in the same way that it is as a founder who has like screenshots and competitors to show and revenue charts. Like I just don't think that tha…”
Disclosure
General Catalyst and True Ventures accept pre-seed terms set by Besvinick
“In fact, I've had general catalyst, true ventures, tribe, lower carbon that have come in after me after I've said yes and have not altered the terms of those rounds.”
Prediction Open · timeframe May 2033
Besvinick: Venture capital will bifurcate into small thematic funds and behemoths
“What you're ultimately going to see is a very distinct bifurcation of relatively smaller vertical oriented, thematic oriented funds, and then behemoths. And if you're just in the middle, it's very tough to stand out.”
Insight
Besvinick: Reputation is the only asset investors 100% control
“Reputation is the number one currency as an investor that you have control over. The other one obviously is your track record, but you and I both know that To a certain extent that's out of the investor's control. You know, we can hopefully select great founde…”
Insight
Besvinick: Venture funds under $50M must return fund on one $1B exit
“Fundamentally, I believe if you're investing out of a fifty million dollar fund or smaller, a billion dollar outcome has to return the fund or this job becomes even harder than it already is.”
Insight
Besnivick: $40M–$50M is the minimum fund floor for institutional LPs
“I generally think 40, really 50 is kind of the floor for a lot of those groups.”
Disclosure
Besvinick writes an investment memo for every Looking Glass deal
“I write an investment memo for every single investment I make, even though it's just me reading them.”
Insight
Besvinick: Pre-seed financial models reveal founder thinking, not future outcomes
“A financial model, if a founder so chooses to have one, It's a great level of insight into what they think the drivers of their business are and the levers that they can pull over time. But ultimately I am fully aware that what I'm underwriting is a hundred pe…”
Insight
Besvinick: Building in complex sectors self-selects for resilient founders
“And I think the founders that I invest in and the categories I invest in self-select for uncommonly resilient entrepreneurs. If you're building in healthcare, in climate, in education, even in some of the tools serving small businesses that I invest in, like t…”
Disclosure
Besvinick: Every Fund 1 LP was a prior personal connection
“Every single LP in fund one is someone that I knew personally over my prior You know, years and years in and around the early stage tech ecosystem.”
Insight
Besvinick: Hold first fund close at 50% of minimum fund size
“Now my rule of thumb to other founders would be get to 50% of your minimum viable fund size and then do the first close.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Besvinick refuses small $75k allocations to maintain target fund ownership
“I'm never gonna be like, oh, I got a 75 allocation here. Yeah, I'll do that one. Like I stick to my target check size range. I stick to my target ownership, which is an average ownership across the portfolio.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Besvinick expects 20-30% of portfolio to drive returns, 40-50% to fail
“Ultimately I know that the vast majority of returns are going to come from, you know. 20 to 30% of the portfolio, and I'm comfortable with the inevitable zero or less than one X that's going to make up, I don't know, 40 to 50% of the portfolio, call it eventua…”
Insight
Besvinick: Founders target investor lists too narrowly by pursuing only famous funds
“They're not broad enough. They're too narrow with who they go out to and they don't actually realize that there's lots of other investors that are not the household name, pre-seed and seed funds. That would be phenomenal investors on the cap table.”
Insight
Besvinick: Pre-seed startups must raise 24 months of gross burn
“My general rule of thumb is you need to have at least 24 months of cash gross burn, not net burn. When you raise your around that I'm involved in initially, I assume the fact that they're probably going to overspend a little bit. So it's probably more like 21 …”
Opinion
Besvinick: Boldstart is the top pre-seed firm to back as an LP
“I'd go with bold start. I think Ed and Elliot are phenomenal investors. They like me are very disciplined on how they get involved and what they invest in.”
Opinion
Besvinick: Benchmark remains the standard among Series A venture firms
“Benchmark. They're still the standard in my opinion. As someone who knows what they're good at, doesn't deviate from it, I have a ton of respect for the people that I know personally over there, and I just think they're outstanding investors.”
Disclosure
Besvinick: Looking Glass Fund I was $8.5M+ with $300K-$400K checks
“Fund one was a little over eight and a half million dollars, generally investing 300 to 400 K into pre-seed and very early seed rounds.”
Disclosure
Besvinick: Looking Glass Fund I averaged ~4% entry equity ownership
“My average ownership was close to four percent on average at entry across fund one.”
Disclosure
Looking Glass Capital set $100k and $250k LP check minimums
“Yeah, it was 100 on fund one and two 50 on fund two.”
Disclosure
Looking Glass targets $1.5M–$2M rounds at $6M–$10M post-money
“A quintessential round for me would be one and a half to two million dollars at a six to 10 post. That's like down the middle of the fairway, you know, structure for me.”
Assertion Supported
Besvinick operates Looking Glass Capital as a solo GP with zero employees
“I'm a single GP. I'm also a single employee. I don't work with anybody else at looking glass.”
