deftly.vc welcomes Nichefire to its portfolio [+ why we invested]

Nichefire uses AI to help companies identify actionable consumer insights. Addressing a $4.8B market that includes social listening and social media intelligence, Nichefire is quickly carving out an outsized presence among CPG companies. It aligns with our views on the "future of work".

deftly.vc is thrilled to be part of Nichefire's pre-seed round, backing Michael Howard, Khalil El-Amin and Steve Brown as they help Fortune 1000 and mid-size enterprises identify actionable revenue opportunities and marketing/brand strategies that capitalize on percolating marketplace trends. Here is why we invested:

Founder/market fit

With over 8 years working together, the Nichefire founders boast seasoned expertise across consumer insights, digital strategies, sales, analytics, and finance. Michael and Khalil previously spearheaded an award-winning agency providing digital solutions for SMBs, merging Michael's consumer insights savvy with Khalil's enterprise sales mastery. They brought on analytics and finance whiz Steven, with his knack for leveraging data-driven insights from financial markets. Together, their complementary strengths made launching Nichefire, a revolutionary cultural intelligence and predictive analytics platform, a natural next step. Today, this tight-knit team helps leading brands access cultural pulse points to drive innovation, reputation, and success.

Unique proposition

Unlike reactive social listening tools, Nichefire takes a proactive approach to cultural intelligence. Its predictive analytics uncover emerging trends before they take off without requiring exhaustive manual boolean searches. While other platforms rely on knowing what to look for (where many consumer insights professionals are spending 80-100+ hours/month), Nichefire's patented system surfaces unknown cultural shifts. With robust data spanning search, social, news, and more, the platform provides the most comprehensive view of the cultural voice. This allows brands to tap into the pulse of the world, driving innovation and growth through profound cultural insights that leads to tremendous top-line value

Vision

Within the next 5 years, Nichefire aims to disrupt the cultural intelligence space, becoming the #1 platform predicting major consumer, political, and societal shifts. The company is looking to set the standard for data-driven cultural insight, leaving outdated models in the dust. The team's bold vision is for Nichefire to become synonymous with cultural intelligence and lead a revolution in how the world's top companies innovate and make critical decisions.

If you'd like to learn more about Nichefire, please feel free to reach out to arie@deftly.vc or mhoward@nichefire.com.