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Jonathan Lim

Partner at SignalFire

Jonathan Lim is a Partner at SignalFire, a venture capital firm where he focuses on early-stage investments.3 He joined SignalFire in 2020 and was promoted to Partner in January 2022.13

Prior to joining SignalFire, Jonathan helped build KKR’s Next Generation Technology Fund and worked as a software investor at Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV).3 He also has experience as an investment banker at Jefferies & Company.13 His interest in technology started in high school, where he built calculators and timers and programmed in Metrowerks.3

Experience and Education::

  • Partner at SignalFire (January 2022 – Present)1
  • Principal at SignalFire (June 2020 – January 2022)1
  • Principal, TMT Growth Equity at KKR & Co. L.P. (July 2016 – June 2020)1
  • Investment Professional - Software at Technology Crossover Ventures (June 2013 – July 2016)1
  • Technology Investment Banking at Jefferies & Company (July 2011 – June 2013)1
  • Aerospace & Defense Investment Banking at Janes Capital Partners (May 2010 – September 2010)1
  • Supply Chain Management at Raytheon (2009)1
  • Software Test Engineering at Xerox (2007)1
  • Legal at Raytheon (2005)1
  • Graduated with honors from the University of Southern California (USC) with a double major in Accounting and Finance.3

Investment Profile::

  • Stage Focus: Seed, Series A & B3
  • Sector Focus: Cybersecurity, Fintech, Vertical SaaS3
  • Investment Range: $5,000,000 to $20,000,0002
  • Target Investment: $12,500,0002

Investments On Record::

  • Boundless Bio24
  • Maze Therapeutics24
  • Erasca24
  • Bonti24

Outside of work, Jonathan enjoys exploring dog beaches and hiking trails with his two dogs, Remy (a husky) and Bailey (a border collie).3 He also enjoys exploring the San Francisco and international food scenes and attempting to recreate dishes at home.3

Highlights

Oct 31 · linkedin

Gently saying 'no' to customers can actually be a secret to success. It's a huge reason why Dig Security signed a deal to be acquired by Palo Alto Networks. Congrats to Dig, its founders Dan Benjamin, Ido Azran, and Gad Akuka, and the whole team on this milestone from Nir Polak and I at SignalFire which led its Series A! For anyone trying to differentiate their product, Dig demonstrates an important lesson…

Everyone knows you need to constantly talk to customers, but how do you build in their feedback?

  1. 🔎Don't identify what they want, but what they need and will actually pay for. You don't have infinite resources, so prioritize what can be spun up quickly and will deliver enormous value on day one. For Dig, that meant solving the burning need to identify and secure companies' rapidly proliferating cloud data stores.

  2. 🙅 Say 'not yet' to everything else, while still rolling those ideas into your long-term roadmap. You want to communicate a broad vision of a comprehensive product, while prioritizing creating a sharp wedge. Dig got customers excited about the big idea of safeguarding all of their cloud data, but prioritized coverage of the top enterprise resources.

  3. ⏰ Don’t expect customers to wait around for a fairy tale ending. Bridge immediate depth and eventual breadth by finding a solution you can keep leveling up over time to retain their business. For Dig, that was real-time threat detection of the latest attack strategies.

Dig’s Founders and Team epitomize genuinely listening to customer feedback and quickly turning that into product reality. We are grateful for our partnership and more to come from SignalFire when the deal closes.

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Jonathan Lim
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Location

San Francisco Bay Area