Boston - Cambridge - Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • IoT (& Wearables) • A.I. (& Big Data) • Robotics
Co-Founder and General Partner at Converge
@fiksu @apperian @wymsee @yieldbot @wespire @help-scout @blaze-software @promoboxx @coherent-path GP Converge Ventures, BancBoston Ventures, Shott Capital
Los Angeles - Toronto (Ontario) - Berkeley - San Francisco Bay Area - Boise City - Atlanta - New York - Seattle - Austin - South San Francisco - California, U.S.A. - Canada
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Analytics • Robotics • Mobility
Investor & Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur and Investor
Most Interested In
Machine Intelligence Co-bots Market Networks in overlooked verticals AI to improve our healthcare system
Not Interested In
Consumer apps
Founder @direct-local-food, @gsquare-companies • Works at @bee-partners, @boise-angel-alliance • Studied at @stanford-university, @university-of-washington
San Francisco Bay Area - California, U.S.A.
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • Retail (& E-Commerce) • Sales (& Marketing) • A.I. (& Big Data) • Logistics (& Distribution) • Medical Devices (& Hospital Services) • Robotics • Healthcare (& Wellness) • Online Social
Most Interested In
Co's that apply tech/data/AI to cut material costs out of large, non-traditional tech industries either via "full-stack" offerings or marketplaces. Robotics. Smart SaaS. Consumer applications (viral or transactional).
Not Interested In
Trad. software w/ limited data/network effects or long sales cycles to classic IT buyers. Hardware w/o recurring revenue. Incremental improvements.
Chris Farmer is a Co-Founder and serves as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at SignalFire. He also is an Angel Investor. He also served as Advisor at Stuph. He focuses on investments in consumer Internet, software and mobile with particular emphasis on seed stage investments and working with Entrepreneurs-In-Residence to launch new businesses. Previously, he was a Partner with General Catalyst Partners, where he led the seed program and a Vice President with Bessemer Venture Partners where he led investments in digital media & mobile companies. Prior to BVP, he was a consultant with Bain & Co where he advised on large scale technology buyouts. Prior to Bain, he spearheaded the successful turnaround of Skybitz, a wireless enabled SaaS company, where he served as led Product Management, Finance & Business Development. Earlier in his career, he founded an investment advisory firm for angel investors & private equity funds and served as a Venture Advisor to an early stage venture capital fund where he led investments in SkyBitz and Applied Semantics (acquired by Google). He started his career on Wall Street in the private equity group of Cowen & Company. He received a BA in International Relations & Business from Tufts University & the Fletcher School of Diplomacy.
Palo Alto - California, U.S.A.
Businesses Solutions • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • IoT (& Wearables) • A.I. (& Big Data) • Web Security (& Privacy) • Logistics (& Distribution) • Robotics • Mobility • Nanotechnology
CEO & Managing Partner
Chief Executive Officer & Managing Partner at Next47
Raleigh - Durham / Southeast - Chicago - Austin - New York - Boston - Atlanta - San Francisco Bay Area - Jacksonville - Georgia, U.S.A. - Israel
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Businesses Solutions • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • Logistics (& Distribution) • Robotics • DeepTech • Mobility • Woman Focused
Most Interested In
B2B Platforms and Marketplaces, Logistics & Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Enterprise Software, Connected HW & Robotics, HardTech / DeepTech.
Not Interested In
Consumer apps, marketing & sales automation, games, bio, genomics.
Montreal, Canada
AgroTech • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • CleanTech • A.I. (& Big Data) • Analytics • Impact • Robotics • DeepTech • Woman Focused
Most Interested In
Investing in startups that use software, ubiquitous connectivity, large pools of data, algorithms and AI, all wrapped in superior user experiences, to re-engineer or disrupt industries.
Not Interested In
We mostly invest in Canadian startups at the pre-seed and seed stage. We will take a look at American and European companies that have a strong fit with our thesis but we will not lead those deals.
Raleigh - Boston - New York - Atlanta - Portland - Seattle - San Francisco Bay Area - Palo Alto - California, U.S.A.
Hardware (& Manufacturing) • IoT (& Wearables) • A.I. (& Big Data) • Web Security (& Privacy) • Developer tools • Future Of Work • Robotics • Aerospace (& Defense) • Nanotechnology • Woman Focused
Founding Partner at Ubiquity Ventures
Most Interested In
Ubiquity Ventures invests in software as it leaves the screen and enters the real world. This ubiquitous software (1) runs on smart hardware and/or (2) understands the world using machine intelligence, so we make seed-stage investments in and partner with smart hardware and machine intelligence startups.
Not Interested In
High cost hardware
New York - Seattle - Washington, U.S.A.
BioTech • Businesses Solutions • A.I. (& Big Data) • Robotics
General Partner at IA Ventures
What I look for
Pre-product market fit companies making the world suck less by delivering magical-seeming solutions to important and difficult problems. And appeal to a rational economic buyer.
Founders who are customer domain experts with a formidable strategic understanding of, and an ambitious non-obvious take on, a fast growing market.
Companies benefiting from a massive fundamental trend. Ones where the market will continue to blossom over the next 10+ years. For example:
DataDog and DigitalOcean benefit from the incredible growth of new software developers,
Kepler benefits from the burgeoning space economy & software-defined satellites,
DataRobot benefits from the importance of ML and the desire to democratize it,
Coiled benefits from Python becoming the defacto language of data science/engineering,
Canvas benefits from the move to value-based health care, and
Vectra benefits from the rise of AI, the move to the cloud, and the increasing sophistication of security attacks.
Companies with audacious visions that can deliver an MVP and have many collisions with the market in the 12 months following our initial investment because distribution matters as much as product. Ones that can get to fast-growing, high-margin, scalable, and repeatable revenue within 18 months.
Companies that have a thesis about how they can be a 70%+ gross margin business with an accelerating advantage that enable them to capture the majority of the market and resulting economics.
Founders that display clarity, courage, & urgency (clarity of speech == clarity of thought). Ones who are relentlessly resourceful and can attract the talent to achieve the vision.
How I like to invest
Provide enough runway. 24+ months of capital (thoughts on burn and team size at the seed stage) to build team, product, demonstrate the irrefutable product-market fit needed to raise the next round from a great investor.
Have enough conviction to do the whole round. No lead investor should make founders scavenge to fill out the round.
Value great syndicate members over ownership. The right syndicate can change the complexion of a company. Bottom line is the founder has the final say as to the right raise and right syndicate — keeping in mind it’s in both our interests to have a small focused group of truly helpful investors.
Hold an additional amount in reserve from the outset in case the company needs a bridge to demonstrate product-market fit. This falls under the responsibility of a true lead investor.
Invest in only a handful of companies a year. New investments should never be “options” or “lottery tickets.” Every investment I make has the potential to change the world, be a legendary company, and return our fund many times over.
Keep it simple (e.g. post-money SAFE) and expect that the time from signed term sheet to money in the bank will be less than 2 weeks.
Pay my own legal fees.
How I like to work with companies
Earn the trust of founders. Founders who believed in me enough to let me invest in their company.
Do no harm. The singular focus of a seed-stage company is finding irrefutable product-market fit. Investors can and do help, but most important is to ensure they don’t randomize founders. Founders know their business better than anyone.
Be an accountability partner. This has an outsize effect on success.
Be aligned. Every round of funding is an experiment. It is important to be explicit about, constantly assess, and evolve the hypotheses that are being tested. The company and its investors must be aligned prior to an investment. I’ve found that the best way to achieve this is for the founders and investors to explicitly define and agree upon the hypotheses being tested with this round of funding (here is an example of a hypothesis document ). That is not to say things won’t change, but it’s much easier when both parties are starting from a place of mutual understanding.
How I like to communicate
Be open. Send me anything you think is helpful or useful. When in doubt, send it. I read every email — if I have something of value to say I’ll respond, if not I won’t. The more information we share, the better we can work together.
I’ve found that the best entrepreneurs send out monthly updates.
Be candid. If I’ve done something that you want me to stop doing, keep doing, or start doing — let me know. I’d rather you be honest with me and tell me I screwed up than keep it to yourself. It makes me better and builds trust between us.
I’m your investor. I believe in you. I want you to succeed. I’ve seen it all (ducks!). You don’t need to market to me.
What I hope for
While each company has its own path to success, patterns do stand out. Generally, within 18 months after our initial investment, the best companies have built the right team, have the product in market and have demonstrated conclusive and irrefutable product-market fit (if you are not sure you have it, you likely don’t).
Once a company has demonstrated product-market fit, actively help raise the next round. Work closely with companies to refine the pitch (here is some great advice). Introduce them to the best VCs.
Invest my pro-rata in subsequent rounds of those companies that have demonstrated success. On average we invest somewhere between $6 and $10M over the life of the best companies in our portfolio. And those companies return 10x++ our total investment.
Los Angeles - New York - Detroit - San Francisco Bay Area - Tel Aviv - Los Altos - California, U.S.A. - Israel
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Media • Education • FinTech (& Financials services) • Entertainment (& Sports) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Robotics • Healthcare (& Wellness) • Mobility • Online Social • Consumer
Most Interested In
Consumer Mobile Software, Consumer Health, Autonomous Cars and Truck technology, esports, Consumer VR
Not Interested In
saas, big data, enterprise