James Beshara

James is a polymath in every sense of the word. He's a founder, angel investor, author, podcast host, biohacker, father, and musician.

After selling his company to Airbnb, he's invested in 50+ startups including Recess, Brightland, and Haus. Among his range of projects, James launched Magic Mind earlier this year — a nootropic-packed productivity drink.

On his morning routine.

I’m usually up around 6am.

Once I started waking up at the same time every morning, my productivity and energy skyrocketed. I highly recommend it. 

The moment I’m awake, I tend to go through Google News and run through my texts. The main thing I’m going for is the blue light from my phone in my eyes for a few minutes. Then it’s a cup of coffee or matcha followed by Magic Mind.

Next up is my favorite part of the morning, where I give my wife her quiet morning time and play with our daughter until 7:30am. 

On starting with clarity.

I have to start my day with an hour of quiet time and meditation at around 8am.

I originally learned meditation through sports psychology, while trying to improve my game as a basketball player.

Our father taught us meditation at a young age for that purpose. I’m grateful he did, as it’s become a huge part of my approach to each day.

Some days it’s about clearing my mind. Some days it’s about emptying all the thoughts that are going through my head. But like getting enough sleep, it’s one of the best investments I can make for a meaningful day.

On upgrading mental acuity.

In a book I wrote last year, Beyond Coffee, I dive into all the different compounds that can help improve energy, productivity, focus, and clarity.

But the truth is that all of those compounds should be the 5th thing on your list when you’re investing in your productivity, health, and wellness.

Sleep, diet, exercise, and stress management are the first four, critical pillars.

If people feel like they’re struggling with focus or energy, they might benefit from an internal audit of those five areas in that distinct order… sleep, diet, exercise, stress management, and then exogenous compounds (from coffee to adderall).

There isn’t a compound in the world that will offset 3 hours of sleep for multiple nights. No amount of meditation will help with peace of mind and clarity if you’re doing something as counterproductive as drinking too much coffee. 

On nutrition and fitness.

I’m incredibly cautious about my diet.

The biggest pro tip that’s worked for me (not meant to be a recommendation, it’s just what has worked well for my energy and productivity) is not drinking alcohol.

I’ve found that even one or two drinks kill the quality of my sleep by up to 30 to 40%, which is obviously not ideal. I will enjoy a drink every once in a while with friends, and there’s nothing wrong with drinking in my mind.

I honestly just love waking up in the morning and feeling great. I am always experimenting with a tweak here or there to see if there are benefits. 

In terms of exercise, I focus on strenuous aerobic exercises three times a week that really tires out my system. This usually involves 20 minutes of cycling or high intensity interval training.

I’ll also try and hit 100 push-ups every day to keep the creation of ATP (the body’s fuel currency) in check, and one of the best ways to naturally improve and maintain ATP production is through strength training, in addition to things like cordyceps mushrooms.

On building consistency.

I needed to create a system that naturally enables consistency over intensity. 

It’s not about the most intense workout possible, or the most intense *anything* as possible. Even though these areas are necessary foundations, I don’t like thinking about these things. 

I don’t like working out, or thinking about my diet too much. I want to spend my time thinking about what I’m creating that day.

So I find the minimum consistency threshold, tie it to a routine that I, more or less, flip on like a switch, then see if I notice creative, productive benefits. 

You can notice that I don’t have a lot to think about or reassess each day.

I wake up at the same time, I don’t really drink, I have the same morning meditation and nootropics / adaptogens / mushroom routine with Magic Mind, and I have minimal (but strenuous) workouts. 

I have experimented with a thousand different things, but either some don’t have subjective benefits on my creativity and productivity, or some are too intense for me to continue with. 

It’s the middle-ground, the intersection of informed, simple, and effective. And if it’s at that intersection, then it will make it a habit for years.

On vulnerability and honesty.

Honesty is contagious. 

I started a podcast called Below The Line. The concept and name is based on an iceberg, where 90% of the substance is beneath the surface. 

Founders love to talk about the genuine, transparent reasons behind their success. It’s the best part of the story, but it takes time to get there.

A thousand-word tech blog posts or a new feature launch announcement aren’t the mediums for it. But it turns out a long-form podcast (and perhaps hosted by another founder) is a great medium for that kind of honest conversation.

After a decade of instagram filters, short tweets, and fake news, I think the pendulum is swinging towards long-form nuance and honesty.

At least, that’s my hope.

On conversational flow.

It’s not automatic, but I’ve found that if I’m extraordinarily honest with the guests, maybe with something unexpected right off the bat, it bends the boundaries of the conversation a bit — they feel they can be radically honest as well, which they (like most people) are craving.

It sounds counter-intuitive to what people usually say about Silicon Valley, but especially for thoughtful founders, they are craving to go deep on the honest things they are dealing with. 

The reason people say “Founders are always saying ‘they’re crushing it’ all the time!” is because you’re fucking asking them how they’re doing at a cocktail party or some group dinner.

Ask them 1 on 1, with a genuine interest, and perhaps a shared background, and they are craving to tell the honest truth of what they’re going through.

On balancing creative outlets.

The podcast has become a really meaningful project.

With 50-60 angel investments, I am consistently trying to help founders avoid mistakes I’ve made or seize opportunities I may have been too ignorant to seize.

But at the core, investing is meaningful because I get to encourage brilliant creators; and encouragement is often in short supply.

It’s hard for me to understand why, but we don’t collectively, genuinely encourage creation around us — as if creators are taking opportunity away from us in some way, which is a small-minded view (if there’s one consistency in waves of creation in history is that they continually enable even larger waves of opportunity for more to create).

Whether it’s lack of vision, jealousy, or the idea of encouraging your neighbor, friend, or sibling just doesn’t come to mind, most people do not encourage the creators around them, and it’s the easiest thing in the world for each of us to do see our world improve...encourage those trying to improve it. 

I love that aspect of investing, and the podcast gets to be a digital extension of that to hundreds of thousands of people around the world all from my desk. So the podcast is becoming more and more of a creative focus for me.

Between the podcast, angel investing, and the nootropic shot I launched earlier this year, or my writing or the book last year, I only put it together about a year ago that the common thread is mental health and wellbeing.

These different creative outlets, outlets that all feel so different and unrelated, seem to have a throughline. Encouraging creation.

And I think deep down, the Archimedes lever to encourage creation is the lever that touches on mental wellbeing.

So whether it’s a conversation with a friend, advising a startup, talking openly about mental illness or philosophy on a podcast episode, or recommending Magic Mind to a stranger... I think it all comes from the belief that the old adage “health is wealth” should actually be “mental health is wealth.”

On his evening routine. 

Most nights, I’m in bed around 9. I’ll reverse engineer the amount of sleep I need that night while taking into account about 85% sleep efficiency.

So if I’m in bed by 9, I’ll be well-rested for the following morning, ready to build, connect, write, create in whatever form it takes that day.

Right before bed, I’ll take a hot shower to relax, then pop in my Airpods and listen to a great podcast or audiobook. Personally I’m a fan of audio over physical reading, but again, that’s just how I might be wired. I tend to fall asleep within about 20 minutes, which is right in line with my schedule.