Auren Hoffman
Chairman, SafeGraph; CEO, NQB8; General Partner, Flex Capital at safegraph
Reviewed Updated May 1, 2026This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.
Background
Auren Raphael Hoffman was born in 1974 in Mamaroneck, New York, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Industrial Engineering in 1996 1. While still at Berkeley he founded Kyber Systems, which sold in 1997, and later founded BridgePath Inc. in 1998 (acquired by Bullhorn in 2002) and sold GetRelevant to Lycos in 2002 1.
In 2006 Hoffman co-founded Rapleaf and served as its CEO until 2012, when Rapleaf was acquired by TowerData and Hoffman left to run a Rapleaf spinoff called LiveRamp 1. On May 14, 2014, Acxiom announced its acquisition of LiveRamp for $310 million 11. (LiveRamp was later spun back out of Acxiom and trades on the NYSE as RAMP.)
Hoffman founded SafeGraph in 2016 and served as CEO until October 2024, when he stepped down and transitioned to chairman 1. SafeGraph is a points-of-interest and geospatial data company providing information about places and the movements of people 1. He is currently CEO of NQB8 and General Partner at Flex Capital, a venture capital firm focused on technology investments 12. Hoffman also co-founded Dialog, a private invitation-only society, with Peter Thiel 1.
Hoffman hosts the World of DaaS podcast, a show about data-as-a-service where he interviews business and technology leaders about “building it, acquiring it, analyzing it, and everything in between” 3. He writes the Summation Substack newsletter, which has more than 43,000 subscribers and publishes monthly “five interesting links” editions 42.
Stated Thesis
(Self-reported: how Hoffman publicly describes his investing approach.)
Hoffman has invested as an angel and via Flex Capital across data, SaaS, AI, developer tools, fintech, and analytics, often with an emphasis on data-centric companies and technical founders 56. Per his Flex Capital bio, the firm has invested in “Chime, Checkr, Coinbase, Flexport, Vercel and more” 7.
On the kind of founder he wants to back, Hoffman told the SaaStr / 20VC founder-led-funds roundtable that he intentionally avoids strict ownership or board-seat rules so he can stay flexible: if you have “a core ownership requirement or something like that, well then you wouldn’t necessarily always be able to back that founder because they may not have room. Or if you always want to take a board seat, okay, well can’t do that because they may have had someone. So you just kind of backed into it through the other way. Like you just want to back founders, like great founders” 7.
On managing talent (a recurring theme across his SaaStr appearances), Hoffman has said: “The better the person, the less time it takes to manage them. That’s the obvious thing, but that’s only up to a point. The true 10xers actually take more time to manage than the average performers. If you happen to have a 10xer on your team, you really are going to need to make sure that you’re giving them quite a bit of your time and your love” 7.
Inferred Thesis
Sample size and data source. Signal by NFX lists 134 tracked investments for Hoffman, with a check-size range of $100K-$10M and a sweet spot of $1.5M 5. Wikipedia and prior aggregator counts have cited “over 120 technology companies” 1. Hoffman has not published a counted breakdown of his portfolio by sector or stage; the analysis below is qualitative because contemporaneous citations for the full 100+ deal list could not be reconstructed in this pass.
Stage discipline. Per Signal, Hoffman is “active across Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds, with notable late-stage participation (Series C/D)” 5. Most of his early angel checks have been at seed (Aardvark, Meebo, Chomp, BackTweets, LabPixies, Flowtown, Scopely) 1, while via Flex Capital he has taken larger positions in later-stage data and SaaS names (Mercury Series C 2025, Perplexity Series D 2024) 5.
Sectors. Signal breaks his primary sectors as advertising, analytics, AI, developer tools, data services, enterprise, health IT, and SaaS 5. This is consistent with his own operating background (Rapleaf / LiveRamp / SafeGraph are all data companies) and with the data-themed investments named on the Flex Capital bio (Chime, Checkr, Coinbase, Flexport, Vercel) 7. Aggregator pages additionally list G2, Airbyte, Carta, Clearbit, Crunchbase, Dataminr, Datavant, Gorgias, Marqeta, Qualia, Second Measure, Superhuman, Thumbtack, and TrueWork as notable angel positions 8.
Liquidity behavior. Hoffman has spoken publicly about taking secondary liquidity on private positions: on Fabrice Grinda’s World of DaaS episode he said, “I sold, you know, maybe 30 percent of my SpaceX holdings in a secondary year ago” 9. This is a relatively distinctive signal — most angels do not actively manage liquidity on private positions in this way.
Exits to date. Documented exits from his angel portfolio include Aardvark (acquired by Google), BackTweets / Backtype (acquired by Twitter), Chomp (acquired by Apple), Meebo (acquired by Google), LabPixies (acquired by Google), Flowtown (acquired by Intuit), and mob.ly (acquired by Groupon) 1.
Co-investor patterns. Signal’s top co-investors include Brad Flora (Y Combinator), Saar Gur (CRV), Dalton Caldwell (now of Standard Capital), and Gokul Rajaram, alongside repeated overlap with Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and BoxGroup-led rounds 5. Hoffman is most often a participating angel or small-check Flex Capital position rather than a lead.
Active investor signal: strong. Most recent verified investment is Mercury Series C (March 2025, $300M round) per Signal 5. He continues to host World of DaaS, publish Summation, and operate Flex Capital and NQB8 in 2025-2026 234.
Portfolio
The table below lists publicly documented investments. The Signal NFX profile lists 134 deals; the entries below are those verifiable from independent sources (Wikipedia, Flex Capital bio, Signal portfolio listing). This is a partial portfolio — Hoffman has not published a full list.
| Company | Year | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aardvark | ~2008 | Seed | 1 |
| Meebo | ~2007 | Seed | 1 |
| BackTweets / Backtype | ~2008 | Seed | 1 |
| Chomp | ~2009 | Seed | 1 |
| LabPixies | ~2007 | Seed | 1 |
| Flowtown | ~2009 | Seed | 1 |
| mob.ly | ~2009 | Seed | 1 |
| Scopely | ~2011 | Seed | 1 |
| Thumbtack | ~2009 | Seed | 8 |
| Carta | ~2014 | Seed | 8 |
| Clearbit | ~2015 | Seed | 8 |
| Crunchbase | ~2015 | Seed | 8 |
| Superhuman | ~2017 | Seed | 8 |
| Marqeta | ~2014 | Seed | 8 |
| G2 | ~2014 | Seed | 8 |
| Datavant | ~2018 | Seed/A | 8 |
| Dataminr | ~2014 | Seed/A | 8 |
| Airbyte | ~2020 | Seed | 8 |
| Gorgias | ~2018 | Seed | 8 |
| Qualia | ~2018 | Seed | 8 |
| Second Measure | ~2015 | Seed | 8 |
| TrueWork | ~2018 | Seed | 8 |
| ~unknown | Chime | — | Flex Capital |
| ~unknown | Checkr | — | Flex Capital |
| ~unknown | Coinbase | — | Flex Capital |
| ~unknown | Flexport | — | Flex Capital |
| ~unknown | Vercel | — | Flex Capital |
| Perplexity | 2024-12 | Series D ($500M round) | 5 |
| Mercury | 2025-03 | Series C ($300M round) | 5 |
| Turnstile | 2025-06 | Series A ($23M round) | 5 |
| Heron Data | 2025-07 | Series A ($17M round) | 5 |
| Protege | 2026-01 | Series A ($30M round) | 5 |
In Their Own Words
On founder selection and staying flexible as an investor, in the SaaStr / 20VC founder-led-funds roundtable: “you just want to back founders, like great founders” 7.
On why over-qualified hires can take more management time, not less, from the same roundtable: “The better the person, the less time it takes to manage them. That’s the obvious thing, but that’s only up to a point. The true 10xers actually take more time to manage than the average performers. If you happen to have a 10xer on your team, you really are going to need to make sure that you’re giving them quite a bit of your time and your love” 7.
On actively managing liquidity in private positions, on Fabrice Grinda’s episode of World of DaaS: “I sold, you know, maybe 30 percent of my SpaceX holdings in a secondary year ago” 9.
On World of DaaS itself: a podcast “for data enthusiasts, by data enthusiasts” where Hoffman “talks to business and technology leaders about all things data - building it, acquiring it, analyzing it, and everything in between” 3.
What Founders Say
No independently sourced founder testimonials about Auren Hoffman’s working style as an investor were found in this research pass. Aggregator pages list him as advisor/investor in 30+ companies, but did not surface verbatim founder quotes about how he helped specifically. This section will be updated as such quotes are found.
Connections
- Co-founder of Dialog (private invitation-only society) — alongside Peter Thiel 1
- Co-founder of Rapleaf / LiveRamp — LiveRamp acquired by Acxiom for $310M in May 2014; LiveRamp now trades publicly as RAMP 11
- Founder and former CEO, SafeGraph (2016-2024); now Chairman 1
- General Partner, Flex Capital — investments include Chime, Checkr, Coinbase, Flexport, Vercel 7
- CEO, NQB8 2
- Host, World of DaaS podcast — interview platform that surfaces deep relationships with data-economy founders and operators 3
- Frequent SaaStr speaker — episodes 086, 135, 413, and the 20VC founder-led-funds roundtable with Jack Altman, Harry Stebbings, and Jason Lemkin 710
- Top co-investors per Signal: Brad Flora (Y Combinator), Saar Gur (CRV), Dalton Caldwell (Standard Capital), Gokul Rajaram; repeated overlap with Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and BoxGroup 5
Sources
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Wikipedia, “Auren Hoffman.” Accessed May 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auren_Hoffman↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Auren Hoffman, “About,” Summation Substack. Accessed May 2026. https://auren.substack.com/about↩↩↩↩
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World of DaaS with Auren Hoffman podcast — Apple Podcasts listing. Accessed May 2026. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/world-of-daas/id157064497↩↩↩↩
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Summation by Auren Hoffman Substack home. Accessed May 2026. https://auren.substack.com/↩↩
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Signal by NFX, “Auren Hoffman’s Investing Profile - Flex Capital General Partner.” Accessed May 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/auren-hoffman↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Crunchbase, “Auren Hoffman - Founder, CEO and Chief Historian @ SafeGraph.” Accessed May 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/auren-hoffman↩
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SaaStr, “New 20VC Roundtable: Founder-Led VC Funds: Are They Any Better? with Jack Altman, Auren Hoffman, Harry and Jason.” Auren bio block describing Flex Capital portfolio. Accessed May 2026. https://www.saastr.com/new-20vc-roundtable-founder-led-funds-are-they-any-better-with-jack-atlman-lattice-altman-capital-auren-hoffman-safegraph-flex-capital-harry-and-jason/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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CB Insights, “Auren Hoffman Portfolio Investments.” Accessed May 2026. https://www.cbinsights.com/investor/auren-hoffman↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Fabrice Grinda, “World of DaaS Conversation with Auren Hoffman: Diversified Portfolios, Secondary Sales & Dinner Parties.” Accessed May 2026. https://fabricegrinda.com/world-of-daas-conversation-with-auren-hoffman-diversified-portfolios-secondary-sales-dinner-parties/↩↩
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SaaStr, “SaaStr Podcast #413 with SafeGraph CEO Auren Hoffman: How to Build a Unicorn in 8 Simple Steps.” Accessed May 2026. https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-413-with-safegraph-ceo-auren-hoffman-how-to-build-a-unicorn-in-8-simple-steps/↩