The firm is strengthening the team with new hires and promotions, deepening the commitment to helping innovative founders grow their businesses
SignalFire, a tech-enabled early-stage venture capital firm harnessing data and artificial intelligence at scale to identify investments and support the next generation of startups, has announced the firm has hired nine new team members and promoted three existing team members in order to scale for long-term growth.
SignalFire is welcoming Sooah Cho as a Partner; Veronica Mercado as a Principal and Chief of Staff to CEO Chris Farmer; Lisa Liu as a Principal, Venture; Bradford Jones as a Principal, Venture; Lauren Nguyen as the Head of Marketing; Asher Bantock as the Head of Research; Sadasia McCutchen as our Head of Ecosystem; Mario Espindola as the Senior Director of Talent; and Andrew Reid as Director of GTM Recruiting.
In addition to welcoming new faces, the firm takes pride in fostering an environment where the team can grow and thrive. Three existing team members have recently been promoted to new roles. Libby Hadzima Perkins has been named General Counsel (formerly Vice President, Legal), Yuanling Yuan (YY) has been named Partner, Venture (formerly Principal); and Heather Doshay now serves as a Partner, People + Talent (formerly Managing Director).
“I am tremendously proud to welcome these remarkable individuals to the SignalFire family and to be able to grow the careers of our existing team members,” said Chris Farmer, CEO, Partner, and Co-Founder. “I am optimistic that together, we can provide greater value to our current and future founders as they navigate the challenging environment. By investing in our current and future talent, we are propelling the firm into a new era of growth where we are better positioned to serve more founders in more ways.”
With the addition of nine talented team members and growth of three, SignalFire is harnessing momentum to propel the firm into a new era. For a full list and bios of the SignalFire team, please visit https://signalfire.com/.
New SignalFire team members
Sooah Cho—Partner: As a product builder, GTM strategist, and policy nerd turned investor, Sooah will expand our early-stage health and life sciences tech investment practice. Previously, Sooah led fast-growing B2B software investments at Underscore VC. Sooah was also a product leader at Devoted Health, which was recently valued at over $12B, and CVS Health, where she launched its prescription delivery and virtual care products.
Veronica Mercado—Principal and Chief of Staff to CEO Chris Farmer: Veronica will lead efforts related to early-stage enterprise AI investments through the AI Lab. Previously, she spent several years leading special projects and strategic growth initiatives at Thoma Bravo in San Francisco. Veronica began her career at Bain & Company in Boston, where she advised a variety of private equity, hedge fund, and technology clients.
Lisa Liu—Principal, Venture: Lisa will focus on venture and growth-stage software investments. Prior to joining SignalFire, Lisa spent more than five years at General Atlantic in New York, where she invested in growth-stage and pre-IPO software and consumer internet investments globally. She also helped build the firm’s first thematic sourcing program and earlier-stage investing efforts.
Bradford Jones—Principal, Venture: Bradford is focused on seed and early-stage AI/ML and vertical SaaS investments. Prior to joining SignalFire, he was an investor at Insight Partners, where he deployed about $600M in capital across application software, data infrastructure, security, and consumer internet investments. Bradford is a former D1 athlete, operator, and entrepreneur with experience investing in and working with founders of early-stage, growth, and pre-IPO companies.
Lauren Nguyen—Head of Marketing: Prior to joining SignalFire, Lauren built the self-service growth team at Cloudflare responsible for all self-serve revenue across its product portfolio. Previously, she built and led marketing teams at high-growth startups such as Pantheon, Mattermost, and Sauce Labs, focusing on building and scaling data-driven and results-oriented marketing practices with an emphasis on developer-focused products.
Asher Bantock—Head of Research: Asher will apply our Beacon AI data platform to develop insights to inform the firm’s investment strategy and support our portfolio companies’ needs. Prior to joining SignalFire, Asher worked as a data science leader at companies like Square’s Cash App, Facebook, and SoundCloud.
Sadasia McCutchen—Head of Ecosystem: Sadasia’s goal is to cultivate vital relationships with key customers, corporates, and strategic partners to drive portfolio growth. She leads the firm’s Mentor and Specialist program and supports the portfolio via scaled efforts that: propel product-market fit, scale revenue, and foster potential future investments. Prior to joining SignalFire, Sadasia was the VP of Community and Growth at CapitalG, where she envisioned the firm’s community strategy and built networks of portfolio founders, industry experts, and customers to drive portfolio growth.
Mario Espindola—Senior Director of Talent: Mario will be assisting portfolio companies with talent acquisition strategies. Prior to joining SignalFire, Mario served as the Head of Talent Acquisition for healthcare technology company Wheel, and Head of Global Talent for Autodesk Construction Cloud. He is an experienced talent acquisition professional with a background in startups and publicly traded organizations.
Andrew Reid—Director of GTM Recruiting: Andrew will be assisting portfolio companies with talent acquisition initiatives across Go-to-Market functions. Prior to joining SignalFire, Andrew was the Head Of Talent at growth equity fund Lead Edge Capital, and worked on executive placements at retained search firms Artisan Talent and SPMB.
Recently promoted SignalFire team members
Libby Hadzima Perkins—General Counsel: Libby works closely with the investing and operations team, board members, LPs, and portfolio entrepreneurs and CEOs on a range of legal activities across the firm. She joined SignalFire in 2021 to oversee the legal affairs of the firm. Prior to joining SignalFire, Libby advised high-growth companies and their investors at Cooley LLP in the San Francisco office on private financing of all stages, mergers and acquisitions, public capital markets transactions, and corporate governance matters.
Yuanling Yuan (YY)—Partner, Venture: YY focuses on venture and growth-stage investments in health tech. She joined SignalFire in 2019 and previously held the title of Principal. Prior to SignalFire, she worked on the investment team at Blackstone’s Strategic Opportunity Fund, where she evaluated late-stage and IPO investment opportunities. At Blackstone, she also spent time on the Emerging Markets team, evaluating macroeconomic and political risk in countries such as China, Brazil, and Egypt.
Heather Doshay—Partner, People and Talent: Heather leads the people and recruiting programs for the portfolio. She joined SignalFire in 2021 as a managing director. Prior to SignalFire, Heather served as a Vice President, People at Webflow. Actively involved in the people and talent leadership community, Heather is SHRM senior certified, serves on the PeopleTech Partners Advisory, and has served on the Forbes HR Council. She was honored as a top Talent Operator on the inaugural 2020 Anchor List and Top Women Leader in SaaS in the 2018 SaaS Report.
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