Charles Birnbaum
Partner / Seed/Early
New York, US

About Charles
Charles Birnbaum is a partner in Bessemer’s New York office, where he invests in early stage and promising financial services, consumer, and education companies in the U.S. and Europe. He has a strong interest in fintech infrastructure, embedded financial services, and the entrepreneurs that are solving the hardest problems facing both consumers and businesses in our current financial system.
Before joining Bessemer in 2013, Charles was one of the earliest team members at Foursquare, the location-based mobile application and social network, where he helped to bring forth the company’s first merchant-facing tools. During the company’s growth phase, Charles became the director of mobile and international business development and built strategic partnerships with media companies, carriers, and OEMs in key growth markets.
Prior to Foursquare, Charles spent six years in investment banking and equity capital markets focusing on the technology, media, and telecom sectors.
He earned his MBA from the Wharton School, Master of Arts in international studies from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Arts in history from Northwestern University.
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Q&A
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The quality you most admire in a founder is...
Integrity. Entrepreneurship requires a little bit of insanity. To take the leap, to get others to join you, to get customers to believe in you, all before it's real, takes a complex mix of traits to make it all happen. The founders I admire the most are the ones who can get through all the selling, the building, the highs and lows with integrity. Caring deeply about their team, their customers, their shareholders and keeping the long game always top of mind.
Latest News & Research
13 Total Posts
Article
Owning the outcome: Bessemer's AI-Native Services evaluation framework
How Bessemer evaluates which services markets are most ripe for AI disruption.

Article
Agentic commerce: The rise of the delegated buyer
AI agents aren’t running your shopping yet. But the new stack is forming and the time to build is now.

Article
Stablecoins: from DeFi primitive to global financial infrastructure
Stablecoins have crossed the chasm. Here's where entrepreneurs should build.

News
Doubling down on Avantos: Building the AI operating system for financial services
Bessemer Venture Partners leads Avantos’ $25M Series A to build the next generation of client management.

Playbook
Fintech entrepreneurs’ guide to creating enterprise value starts with contribution profit
No two fintech companies measure gross profit the same way. For a more reliable measure of profitability, we suggest entrepreneurs understand the true variable costs to their business—and build towards contribution profit instead.

Article
Why fintech is the next supply chain frontier
AI can now solve the unstructured data challenges that have long plagued the industry, helping to turbocharge the financial services layer of global supply chains.



