David Beisel

Origin Story: In a couple sentences, how would you describe your path to becoming an investor?

I am an entrepreneur first, and my path into venture was almost unintentional.  A few of the angel investors in my first startup had raised a first-time fund while I was in business school.  So upon graduating, I joined them temporarily, originally intending to start another company from within the firm or join a portfolio company as an exec, but I really enjoyed being on the investing side.  After subsequently spending a few years at Venrock, I combined the best of both worlds of VC and entrepreneurship: a decade ago started a new firm, NextView Ventures, with two of my now three partners.
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Investment Approach: What are the key factors you consider when evaluating a founding team?

My partners and I think about three things, in this order: team (how “authentic” is the venture that gives the founders unique insight and hopefully unfair advantage into success), size of market, and current incarnation of product & traction.
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What's your style and approach when it comes to working with founders post-investment? What are the characteristics of founders you've worked well with?

We at NextView describe ourselves as “high conviction, hands on” seed investors.  We’ll typically take a board seat or an active board observer role to have a voice at the company.  As seed stage specialists having invested in 90+ companies over the past decade, we leverage that experience to help push founders towards product-market fit and proactively optimize their subsequent Series A financing process.
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If I'm coming to pitch to you or your firm, what's the one piece of advice you'd give me?

Be genuine.  We value Founders’ authenticity to the startup and her interactions with others.
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How would you describe your own personal mission and values, and how do they impact the way you invest?

I want to be at the creation stage over and over again.  I just love the beginning of things.  Creating something out of nothing.  Being a seed stage investor allows me to be a part of that process repeatedly, taking new lessons learned from the formation stage and applying them again & again.
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What do you like best about investing in NYC, and what’s your outlook on the future of NYC tech?

I’ve been a part of the New York tech scene since my startup was sold to and I joined About.com in 2000.  While it’s grown up tremendously over the past two decades, I continue to believe that the market is underserved by seed stage investors and that the best years are ahead as the ecosystem grows.

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