Darren Jer

Former Co-founder & CEO, MarketFactory · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutive

Jer co-founded MarketFactory in 2007 to provide institutional traders and banks with a unified, low-latency API and pre-trade risk architecture across foreign exchange venues. After serving as COO and CEO, he scaled the company past $12 million in ARR and led its acquisition by ION Group in 2019.

15statements → 6claims → 2claims resolved → 3.67/5average certainty → 1.13/5average debate potential →

2 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 4 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 assertions · 1 insight · 8 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 4 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Darren argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
The minimum trade size in institutional FX is $1 million
“Minimum trade size is one million US dollars, right?”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 5:50 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Darren Jer on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Darren Jer said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated
MarketFactory was likely the first to bring a SaaS model to FX
“We actually brought the SAS model. We're probably the first ones to bring the SAS model to foreign exchange. So we are strictly, you know, MRR, ARR based.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 6:27 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Insight
Jer: Deep vertical software companies can reach 80% to 90% market share
“And also because of the deep vertical nature, you know, I think you read the S ones for various deep vertical companies and they, you know, the, really it's, you know, as you grow, you can approach 80, 90%, you know, market share.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 15:12 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Assertion Supported
The minimum trade size in institutional FX is $1 million
“Minimum trade size is one million US dollars, right?”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 5:50 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Disclosure
MarketFactory charges ARR per module, offering unlimited API calls
“We actually just charge it by functionality module. So let's say a bank typically needs, you know 20 exchanges to start to trade with to begin, but they'll scale up to 35, 40 exchanges. So we'll charge an ARR per exchange per module. Right. And it's unlimited …”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 6:44 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Jer: MarketFactory customers are 45% banks, 45% funds, 10% brokers
“We're probably like 45% banks, 45% funds, you know, the buy side. And then about 10% brokers.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 8:17 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Assertion Not checkable as stated
MarketFactory's 30 enterprise customers average a massive $400k ARR
“Our average revenue per account is 400,000 ARR. Dollars. Our range of, we have about 30 enterprise customers who pay us between a hundred K and over a million dollars a year.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 8:27 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Disclosure
MarketFactory achieves elite 125% to 138% annual net revenue retention
“Yeah, net, net, it's like one 25 to one 38.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 12:48 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Disclosure
MarketFactory's CAC payback period is an efficient four to six months
“Our cap, okay, our customer, our cap is probably four to six months.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 13:53 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Disclosure
MarketFactory lands $400k ACV enterprise contracts with only three salespeople
“Company is 36 people between New York and London, mostly engineers. We actually only have three salespeople, three, three salespeople who also do some account management.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 14:33 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Disclosure
MarketFactory's enterprise customer lifetime averages eight years
“So our LTV is about is about eight years. Okay. We have one customer that's at nine years.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 14:44 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Disclosure
Jer: $5.7M of MarketFactory's $7M Series A came from angel investors
“Our entire series A was seven million, right? And 1.3 million is from a great venture partner first mark capital in New York. But the remainder of 5.7 is all from individuals.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 15:58 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Disclosure
MarketFactory used a $500k loan from Lighter Capital to bridge cash crunches
“Found a great partner in lighter capital based in Seattle. You know, they gave us like a 500 K AR 500 K loan.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 16:54 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Jer: MarketFactory operates at roughly EBITDA break-even
“No, we're pretty much like EBITDA break even. So, you know, 50 grand, 200 grand plus, you know, maybe like 600 K minus depending on the last couple of years.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 19:55 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Assertion Supported
FX operates like Napster: a decentralized, 24/7 global trading network
“If you trade stocks, there's probably three major exchanges, New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and some others in the US. But if you trade currencies, it's a very global market, right? It's almost like Napster for trading, which is every single bank, every sing…”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 3:16 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk
Disclosure
MarketFactory provides a single API to connect institutional FX traders
“So what Market Factory does is provide a single platform, a single API that connects all these different B to B institutions to one another to trade all these foreign currencies, and it's very much an institutional market.”
Darren Jer Jun 6, 2019 ▶ 5:38 1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
1412 Passed $12m in ARR, Banks Use This API To Decrease Currency Risk Jun 6, 2019 12m
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