Venture Passport

S1E2: David Benigson, Co-founder @ Signal AI <> Simon Menashy, Partner @ MMC Ventures

Jack Richardson Season 1 Episode 2

This week's guests are David Benigson, Co-founder at Signal AI, and Simon Menashy, Partner at MMC Ventures.

Signal AI is a leading global external intelligence company which has 40% of the Fortune 500 as customers for real-time market and media intelligence to uncover trends, risks and opportunities. MMC (which has one of the largest portfolios of AI companies in Europe) invested in Signal’s Series A round in 2016 alongside Hearst Ventures, Frontline & LocalGlobe.

We discuss:

  • Engaging seed investors early on, through free MOTs
  • The truly horizontal SaaS model, and how even now, Signal refuses to focus on a specific vertical
  • The use of McKinsey's Horizon model for developing a product roadmap, and the importance of academic relationships to support in doing so
  • MMCs input to sales methodology in the early days
  • Safety and ethics in AI today
  • Culture: how the business is much stronger than any one individual