Profiles: Franz A. Heinsen

Mr. Heinsen is part-owner of GlassRoom Software LLC, a privately-held entity that has developed proprietary AI software for analyzing businesses and investing in them. At GlassRoom, among other responsibilities, he conducts open-ended research in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, computer science, and related fields of interest to him, with a focus on their application to long-term investing. Mr. Heinsen publishes his research only when he thinks it can be useful to others, provided the work can be shared without disclosing key intellectual property. Open-source code implementing Mr. Heinsen's published research has been downloaded tens of thousands of times by AI researchers worldwide. He hopes they, and others, find his work useful.

Since 2001, Mr. Heinsen has been investing his own capital, compounding it at an annual rate of return far in excess of that of every major US stock market index, with a simple approach: buying things he understand when their price seems reasonable, and selling them when their price seems excessively high, regardless of market conditions. From 2003 to 2015, he managed the Heinsen Partnership, LP, a privately-held vehicle investing in listed US equities, with a small number of wealthy families and individuals as his co-investors. During its existence, the partnership earned a compound annual return, net of all fees and expenses, above that of every major US stock market index (the results are audited). In 2015, Mr. Heinsen decided to wind down the partnership to focus on AI research in general, and its application to investing in particular, leading to the formation of GlassRoom in 2016.

Mr. Heinsen’s interest in AI was sparked, in part, by his involvement as lead investor, non-executive Chairman, and co-founder of FiveStreet Inc., a software company that developed "classic AI" software for identifying, parsing, and extracting, in real time, relevant lead information from emails sent to residential real estate agents. At its peak, FiveStreet's software was scanning hundreds of millions of emails a year and handled more than a third of all online leads for residential real estate agents in the US. In 2013, the company was acquired by Realtor.com, now a unit of News Corp. Throughout his life, Mr. Heinsen has been involved with entrepreneurial endeavors, mainly as an investor, occasionally an active one. Currently, he sits on the Board of Directors of The Driven Data Network, Inc., a software-services platform that integrates and standardizes commercial vehicle data from a large number of third parties, for use in safety management and insurance applications.

From 2001 to 2003 Mr. Heinsen partnered with Baring Private Equity Partners to explore joint investments in distressed assets, and also to help manage certain portfolio companies. Previously, Mr. Heinsen was a Vice President at Chase Securities Inc. (now JP Morgan Chase), which he joined as an Associate after graduating from Harvard Business School in 1995. The bank granted him a leave of absence in 1999 so he could pursue independent opportunities; he never returned. Mr. Heinsen holds a BS in Systems Engineering from INTEC and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, he came to the US in 1993 to attend business school. He currently resides with his wife in Washington, DC, where they raised two children. Mr. Heinsen has no social media presence, mainly because he puts a high value on his time and privacy.