# Auren Hoffman

> Auren Hoffman is a serial entrepreneur, data-industry pioneer, and hyper-connected Silicon Valley networker who turned a $60 million exit (LiveRamp to Acxiom, 2014) into a second act as a venture capitalist at Flex Capital, founder of location-data company SafeGraph, and co-founder of the invitation-only Dialog society with Peter Thiel. He publishes the Summation newsletter and podcast - reaching 41,000+ Substack subscribers - exploring non-obvious ideas at the intersection of data, technology, and business.

- **Role:** CEO at NQB8, General Partner at Flex Capital
- **Organizations:** NQB8, Flex Capital, SafeGraph, Dialog, Summation
- **From:** New York, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S.E. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of California, Berkeley
- **Known for:** Sold LiveRamp to Acxiom for $310 million in 2014, Built SafeGraph into a leading location-data company, raising $61M total, Made 120+ angel investments including exits to Google (Aardvark, Meebo), Apple (Chomp), Twitter (BackType)

## Career timeline

- **1994** — Founded Kyber Systems as a UC Berkeley junior to pay for school
- **1997** — Sold Kyber Systems to Human Ingenuity
- **1998** — Founded Bridgepath Inc.
- **2002** — Sold GetRelevant to Lycos; Bridgepath acquired by Bullhorn
- **2005** — Co-founded Rapleaf with Manish Shah
- **2010** — Wall Street Journal investigation into Rapleaf's data practices
- **2011** — Brief stint as venture capitalist at Peter Thiel's Founders Fund
- **2012** — Spun LiveRamp out of Rapleaf; became CEO; Rapleaf acquired by TowerData
- **2014** — Sold LiveRamp to Acxiom for $310 million; earned ~$60M personally
- **2016** — Founded SafeGraph (location data); became Chairman of Siftery
- **2019** — Co-founded Flex Capital with Tod Sacerdoti and Paul Johnson
- **2021** — SafeGraph raised $45M Series B led by Sapphire Ventures
- **2022** — Rebranded World of DaaS podcast to Summation
- **2024** — Stepped down as SafeGraph CEO; Jason Richman named new CEO; remains Chairman
- **2025** — Dialog announced plans for permanent Washington D.C.-area campus
- **2026** — Currently CEO of NQB8, GP at Flex Capital, Chairman of SafeGraph and Dialog

## Achievements

- Sold LiveRamp to Acxiom for $310 million in 2014
- Built SafeGraph into a leading location-data company, raising $61M total
- Made 120+ angel investments including exits to Google (Aardvark, Meebo), Apple (Chomp), Twitter (BackType)
- Grew Summation newsletter to 41,000+ Substack subscribers
- Summation podcast surpassed 100,000 subscribers
- Co-founded Dialog private society with Peter Thiel, hosting global leaders annually
- Data Innovator of the Year - Data Innovators Group, 2015
- Co-founded Flex Capital with $200M-$300M AUM investing in 50+ startups per year

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Published 'Five Links for April 2026' Summation newsletter issue
- **2025-09** — Portfolio exit: CalypsoAI
- **2025-08** — Dialog announced plans to build a permanent campus near Washington D.C. in Virginia
- **2024-10** — Stepped down as SafeGraph CEO; Jason Richman named new CEO; Hoffman remains Chairman
- **2024-01** — Became CEO of NQB8, an incubator launching approximately 3 companies per year

## Links

- Website: https://summation.net/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/auren
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/auren

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/auren-hoffman
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-29