We have a very strong track record of getting in front of things before anyone else because of our data. What proof do you have that what you've built works? We're the only venture firm with a true ML system where it's a closed loop. Every time we look at a deal or turn it down, the machine learns. There are a lot of funds that are doing something with data, but having a Bloomberg terminal. It's actually shocking to me how much they've not caught up with us and how we're farther ahead than we've ever been, which is not at all what I expected. I actually think that our competitors have dropped back. You've said previously that SignalFire has access to 100 major datasets that your “competitive data nerds” pore over to figure out what’s happening in the world, but it seems like this approach has been copied by other firms, so what is your biggest differentiator today? And then they get some upside from the fund. They write a check themselves concurrently with us. We've also been doing XIR for a while, pairing operators who have built multibillion-dollar businesses with an entrepreneur with whom they have good chemistry and whose company typically has $5 million to $10 million in revenue they join the board and get involved typically one to three days a week to help scale up the business in sort of like an executive chair mode. Why?Ĭhris Farmer: We don't really break it out because it doesn't really matter, we have hundreds of millions for seed we have several hundred million to follow-on those companies through a breakout vehicle, which most of the companies are alumni and then there's some net new companies, as well. TechCrunch: You've raised a bunch of money across four funds but you aren't breaking out how much each fund is managing. Questions and answers below have been edited and condensed for clarity. We talked last week with Farmer about that data - which has been a source of pride for SignalFire since its outset - and why he thinks it continues to give the firm an edge, even while many other venture firms have become similarly data driven over the last decade. So what did Farmer see that others looked past? Data and lots of it, he says. Farmer - who says that SignalFire began "pumping the brakes" in 2018 because it "saw the valuations were decoupling relative to company traction" - is further being vindicated as valuations continue to plummet and founder expectations get reset. While Farmer's 10-year-old, seed-stage venture firm SignalFire lost frustrated employees who weren't able to compete for deals when the market was at its most frothy, he says, holding the line on price appears poised to pay off at long last.įor one thing, limited partners just committed a whopping $900 million to the firm across four new funds, doubling in one fell swoop the amount of money that SignalFire has raised previously. For most founders, being seen by employees as cheap isn't exactly a badge of honor, but venture investor Chris Farmer doesn't mind.
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