Each year, tens of thousands of New York City young teens take the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test, which determines admission to a handful of the city’s most selective public high schools. Among the best known is Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan, whose graduates have gone on to lead in science, medicine, law, government, and business.
David Fiszel, the founder and chief investment officer of Honeycomb Asset Management, is among the school’s alumni. He remains an active alumnus and supporter of Stuyvesant, according to a profile of his firm published by Insider Monkey. From there, he went on to another public institution, the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in finance. Education is now one of the two causes his family foundation supports.
Two Public Institutions
Stuyvesant and UT Austin are very different places. One is a single high school in Manhattan with admission determined by a test. The other is one of the largest public universities in the United States. Both offer a rigorous education within the public system, though their admissions processes and costs differ.
For Mr. Fiszel, the move to Austin also meant entering a business school with deep ties to the finance industry. The McCombs School of Business now has an organized alumni network in New York that helps students from Texas prepare for careers in finance. Mr. Fiszel is part of that network.
From the Classroom to Wall Street
After graduating from UT Austin, Mr. Fiszel worked at some of the best-known firms in money management. He began as a financial analyst at Omega Advisors, the firm founded by Leon Cooperman, and later became a partner. He then served as a senior portfolio manager at Point72 Asset Management, the firm led by Steven A. Cohen. In 2015, Bloomberg reported that Point72 selected him to run a venture unit called Honeycomb Ventures. He left later that year to start his own firm.
Honeycomb Asset Management opened in New York in 2016 with roughly $200 million and grew to more than $1 billion, according to his biography. Honeycomb had produced two consecutive years of 18 percent gains before 2025, according to Bloomberg. Its strategy combined public stock investments with stakes in private growth companies, focusing on technology, media, and consumer businesses.
That kind of investing depends on skills students begin developing long before their first job: reading closely, working through problems with no obvious answer, defending a conclusion against skeptical questions, and changing one’s mind when the evidence demands it. In the classroom, students practice the habits of analysis and judgment they will later need in investment research.
Giving Back Through the Foundation and McCombs
Mr. Fiszel established the Fiszel Family Foundation in 2018, according to Insider Monkey. The private family foundation supports education and healthcare.
His involvement in education extends to his alma mater. He is an Executive Member of the New York for McCombs Council, a group of UT Austin alumni in New York. Launched in 2013, the council raises money for McCombs students and programs, hosts networking events, and helps students find internships and full-time jobs at its members’ firms. It partners with the Wall Street for McCombs Leadership Program, which pairs students with council mentors, prepares them for technical interviews, and brings them to New York to meet employers.
The effects of that support can take years to become clear. Access to a strong academic program, a mentor, or a first internship can influence a student’s career long after graduation. For an investor who spent his career backing businesses through several stages of growth, that long horizon is familiar.
Keeping the Doors Open
Graduates who remain involved can help public institutions serve the next generation. Alumni who give money, mentor students, or connect them with employers can make the transition from school to work easier, especially for students with few professional connections.
Today, Mr. Fiszel continues to manage Honeycomb’s private portfolio and his own investments. He also serves on the Musculoskeletal Advisory Board at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital, consistent with his broader support for healthcare.
His path ran from a public high school in New York to a public university in Texas and back to New York, where he built and ran his own investment firm. His support for education, through the foundation and through McCombs, helps extend opportunities to another generation of students.
