What David Fiszel Would Tell a Student Walking Into Wall Street Today

A finance student starting a first job in 2026 enters an industry that looks very different from the one David Fiszel joined more than 25 years ago. Artificial intelligence is changing how research is done. Many of the most valuable companies stay private far longer than they once did. Stock market returns have become concentrated in a handful of very large businesses.

Mr. Fiszel, the founder and chief investment officer of Honeycomb Asset Management, helps students prepare for careers in finance. He is an Executive Member of the New York for McCombs Council, an alumni group from the University of Texas at Austin that mentors students hoping to work in New York finance. His own career, and the principles he has expressed in letters to his investors, offer lessons for someone in their first year on Wall Street.

Spend the Early Years Learning

Mr. Fiszel earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from UT Austin and began his career as a financial analyst at Omega Advisors, the firm Leon Cooperman founded after leaving Goldman Sachs. He eventually became a partner there. He then worked as a senior portfolio manager at Point72 Asset Management, the firm run by Steven A. Cohen.

In 2015, Bloomberg reported that Point72 selected him to lead a venture investing unit called Honeycomb Ventures. Later that year, he left to start his own firm and brought the team with him. Honeycomb Asset Management opened in New York in 2016 with roughly $200 million and grew to more than $1 billion, according to his biography.

Before founding Honeycomb, he spent years working at established investment firms. For a student eager to advance quickly, that experience suggests a first job’s value lies partly in watching experienced people make decisions and understanding their reasoning.

Do the Work Before Forming a View

His biography describes Mr. Fiszel’s investment approach as long-term and research-driven, focusing on innovation-driven companies in the technology, media, and consumer sectors. Honeycomb invested in public stocks and in private growth companies, backing businesses such as Palantir and Ramp.

Private investments in particular demand conviction built on research. There is no daily market price to confirm or contradict a thesis, and an investor may hold a position for years before learning whether the thesis was sound. A headline or research note alone cannot provide the understanding needed to sustain that conviction.

AI tools can now draft a company summary or a financial model in minutes. They can speed up parts of the work. Analysts still have to judge which questions matter, scrutinize the answers, and take responsibility for their recommendations. A young analyst who leans on those tools without developing that judgment will struggle to stand out.

Learn When to Do Less

One of the clearest examples of Mr. Fiszel’s approach came in the summer of 2025. With stock indexes near record highs, he told Honeycomb’s investors the firm would sell most of its public equity holdings and return most of their capital. The firm had posted gains of 18 percent in each of the previous two years, according to Bloomberg.

“Often, the hardest decision is to do less and remain patient,” he wrote in the letter, as reported by Bloomberg. “It is my wish to avoid loss of capital first and foremost.”

For a junior employee, the pressure often favors action: proposing a new idea, recommending a trade, or producing something to show a supervisor. Mr. Fiszel’s decision illustrates that discipline sometimes means declining to act and that a manager’s first obligation is to the capital entrusted to them. He kept Honeycomb’s longer-term private investments and remained invested in them alongside his clients.

Understand the Whole Life of a Company

Mr. Fiszel’s work across both public and private markets reflects a view that the two are increasingly connected. Companies now raise large amounts of money privately and often reach considerable size before they list shares, so much of their growth can occur before public-market investors can participate.

For a student, this makes it useful to understand how investment banking, private equity, venture capital, and public markets connect. An analyst who understands how a company creates value at each stage, from early funding rounds through an initial public offering and beyond, will be better prepared for whichever part of the industry they enter.

Remember the People Who Helped

The New York for McCombs Council exists because alumni decided to make the path from Austin to New York easier for those who came after them. Through its partner, the Wall Street for McCombs Leadership Program, council members serve as mentors, help with interview preparation, and host students on a subsidized trip to meet New York firms.

Mr. Fiszel’s involvement with the council connects him to students at his alma mater. He also serves on the Musculoskeletal Advisory Board at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital and supports education and healthcare through his private family foundation.

For students, the council offers a practical example of the role relationships play in a finance career. The people who offer help early are worth remembering, and students who benefit from that support may eventually be able to offer it to others.