Scott Belsky co-founded Behance, which Adobe acquired in December 2012, held product and strategy roles at Adobe for years, and says on his own site that he has been an early-stage angel investor since 2010. Lenny's Newsletter ranks him fourth over five years. In early 2025 he announced he was leaving Adobe to join A24 as a partner.
This profile relies on Belsky's own bio and investing page, TechCrunch's reporting at the time, and Lenny's Newsletter and Crunchbase data. It makes no claim about his returns. Where he describes his own approach, the page says so; where a list is his, it is treated as the investments he chooses to show.
Who is Scott Belsky?
His bio page says he founded Behance, an online platform for creative professionals, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired it. TechCrunch reported the deal on December 20, 2012: terms were not disclosed, Behance was bootstrapped until a $6.5 million Series A earlier that year, and its 32 employees moved to Adobe, with Belsky becoming Adobe's vice president of community.
At Adobe his bio lists the roles of Chief Product Officer, Chief Strategy Officer and EVP of Design and Emerging Products. TechCrunch's February 2025 brief adds that he left Adobe briefly in 2016 to become a VC at Benchmark, then returned, and that he announced he was joining the film studio A24 as a partner. His site now describes him as a partner at A24 and the founder of A24 Labs, and notes that he serves on Atlassian's board.
When did Scott Belsky start angel investing, and what does he back?
His investing page says he has been an early-stage angel investor since 2010, focused on consumer, marketplace and what he calls "transformation by interface" companies, which includes many enterprise and B2B products. He says he and his operations partner have supported more than 80 founders and teams. His bio also names BaseTen, Clay, Good Inside, Meter, Pinterest, Ramp and Uber among the companies where he was an early advisor and investor.
Lenny's Newsletter and Crunchbase added an outside view in December 2024. It puts him fourth among the most active US angels over five years, lists early advisory and investor roles at Pinterest, Uber, Flexport, Carta, Airtable, Ramp, Eight Sleep, WorkOS, The Browser Company and Sweetgreen, and says he gravitates to consumer products, which Lenny calls rare these days. The same post says he and Naval Ravikant are the two most frequent consumer investors on its list, as covered in the most active angel investors of 2024.
Does Belsky invest mainly in creative tools?
Only partly. The investing page groups his early-stage investments by area, and creative and productivity tools are one slice of a broader list:
Enterprise, dev and consumer tech, including Notion, Pitch, Replit, Supabase, Suno, Roam, Partiful and WorkOS.
Fintech, including Carta, Mercury, Public and Ramp.
Health tech, including Eight Sleep, Whoop, NewLimit and Ro.
Consumer and DTC brands, including Liquid Death, Blank Street and Good Inside.
Decentralized tech and climate tech, including OpenSea and KoBold.
He lists exited investments separately, among them Airtable, Pinterest, Reddit, sweetgreen, The Browser Company, Uber and Warby Parker. So "creative tools" fits his bio's description of backing businesses at the intersection of technology and design that help empower creative people, but not the full range of what he lists. Some of those companies are still prominent: CNBC's 2026 Disruptor 50 includes Ramp, Notion, Replit and WHOOP, all of which also appear on his page. Appearing on both lists says nothing about what he earned from them.
How does Belsky say he works with founders?
On the investing page he lists five areas where he helps: product (crafting the first mile, structuring a design-driven team, optimizing defaults), go-to-market (picking beta audiences, priming network effects, setting the right KPIs), narrative (positioning shapes the team's view of its own product), building teams, and execution. He says he likes teams that value initiative over experience and that are not set on defying a likely outcome but on making it happen in a better way.
His bio also lists him as the author of Making Ideas Happen and The Messy Middle and of the Implications newsletter, and the investing page ties his help with scaling to "the messy middle", the title of his 2018 book.
What changed in 2025, and how does it affect a pitch?
Belsky's day job changed from Adobe to A24. His bio lists him as an A24 partner and his investing page still describes the work he does with founders, but no source used here states how many new checks he is writing in 2026. If you are considering him, look for a warm path rather than a cold email, as the guide to finding angel investors suggests. Lenny's points readers to his website. Founders whose product turns on design or consumer behavior fit the profile he describes; founders in sectors he does not list will do better elsewhere. The tools he backs are worth knowing in their own right, for example in the comparison of Notion and Obsidian for founders.
More profiles, including Lachy Groom, are in the investor profiles section.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:Who is Scott Belsky?
He co-founded Behance, which Adobe acquired in December 2012, and held roles including Chief Product Officer and Chief Strategy Officer at Adobe. TechCrunch reported in February 2025 that he was joining A24 as a partner.
Q:When did Scott Belsky start angel investing?
His own investing page says he has been an early-stage angel investor since 2010. That page and his bio are self-published, so they are his account rather than an audit.
Q:What companies has Scott Belsky invested in?
His bio names BaseTen, Clay, Good Inside, Meter, Pinterest, Ramp and Uber, and his investing page lists dozens more by category, including Notion, Replit, Carta, Mercury and Warby Parker as exited or current holdings. Lenny's Newsletter lists an overlapping set from outside.
Q:Is Scott Belsky still at Adobe?
TechCrunch reported in February 2025 that he announced he was leaving to join A24 as a partner. His own site now describes him as an A24 partner and founder of A24 Labs.
Q:How do I reach Scott Belsky about my startup?
Lenny's Newsletter points readers to his website, and he writes the Implications newsletter. A warm introduction through a founder he has backed is usually better than a cold message, and his investing page states an affinity for teams that value design and exceptional product experiences.