Daniel Hoffer
About Daniel Hoffer
Daniel Hoffer (also known as Dan Hoffer) is based in Chicago, Illinois. He studied philosophy at Harvard University and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School. He co-founded the travel site CouchSurfing and served as its CEO. He also founded The Marketplace Conference, which Autotech and Silverwood bios describe as a global conference on marketplace investing and management.
His venture career includes time as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Benchmark Capital and as a Partner at Tandem Capital, a seed-stage firm, from April 2015 to September 2017. He was then a Managing Director at Autotech Ventures, a firm that invests only in ground transportation, from July 2018 to July 2023. Earlier product roles were at Symantec and TripIt.
Hayden AI announced in September 2023 that he had joined as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development. The company said he had already added value to it as an investor. Crunchbase lists that role as running from August 2023 to January 2025. Since February 2025 he has been Managing Partner at Deep Venture Partners. In February 2026 he was appointed an Independent Director of Mode Mobile.
Public databases count his investments differently. Crunchbase lists 2 investments and 2 portfolio companies. PitchBook lists 16 investments, 9 portfolio companies and 3 exits. NFX Signal shows 7 investments on record.
NFX Signal dates several rounds: Preply Series A (March 2020), KlearNow Series A (May 2020), Drover Series B (July 2020), newtrul Pre-Seed (February 2021) and Mundimoto (June 2023). He has also said on LinkedIn that he was an angel investor in SpotHero's seed and Series A rounds. A third-party profile lists Grove Collaborative, LoungeBuddy and Beanworks among his angel investments. It gives no dates for them.
He invested in Hayden AI before joining it as an executive. Hayden AI builds AI-powered vision technology for automated bus lane and bus stop enforcement, and a geospatial analytics platform.
He is a director of Citian, an AI-driven smart city SaaS company. He became an advisor in August 2023 and was elected to its board in May 2024. He has also been a board member of KlearNow.AI since May 2020. Public sources do not give his check sizes or dates for these AI roles.
A third-party profile lists his interests as ground transportation, marketplaces, network effects, the sharing economy and travel. His public track record is mostly seed to Series B rounds. NFX Signal lists his angel range as $5K to $50K with a $25K sweet spot. That is a third-party listing, and he has not confirmed it publicly as far as we found. He is active on LinkedIn, and his Deep Venture Partners work includes a podcast.
- Hayden AI: AI vision platform for bus lane enforcement and geospatial analytics. He invested early and later became SVP of Corporate Development.
- Preply: language learning marketplace. Series A, March 2020.
- KlearNow.AI: customs and logistics software. Series A, May 2020, and board member since then.
- Drover: Series B, July 2020 (NFX Signal).
- newtrul: Pre-Seed, February 2021 (NFX Signal).
- Mundimoto: Round in June 2023 (NFX Signal).
- SpotHero: parking marketplace. He was an angel in the seed and Series A rounds.
- Citian: AI-driven smart city software. Advisor from 2023 and director from May 2024.
- crunchbase.com/person/daniel-hoffer-2
- linkedin.com/in/hoffer
- hayden.ai/press/Daniel-hoffer-joins-Hayden-AI
- finance.yahoo.com/news/daniel-hoffer-joins-hayden-ai-123000946.html
- newsfilecorp.com/release/284568/Mode-Mobile-Appoints-Seasoned-Venture-
- sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1748441/000149315226010636/partiiandiii.ht
- signal.nfx.com/investors/daniel-hoffer
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/122083-12
Investing activity
Daniel Hoffer has made 2 investments according to Crunchbase across 2 portfolio companies, and has seen 1 exit and founded 2 companies.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Daniel Hoffer
Who is Daniel Hoffer?
Daniel Hoffer is an entrepreneur and investor based in Chicago. He co-founded CouchSurfing and was its CEO. He is Managing Partner at Deep Venture Partners and an Independent Director of Mode Mobile.
What is Daniel Hoffer's angel check size?
NFX Signal lists an investment range of $5K to $50K and a sweet spot of $25K. This is a third-party listing and he has not published a check size himself that we found.
What stage and sectors does Daniel Hoffer invest in?
His dated angel investments run from pre-seed to Series B. Third-party profiles list his interests as ground transportation, marketplaces, network effects, the sharing economy and travel. Several of his roles are in AI and smart city software.
Has Daniel Hoffer invested in AI companies?
Yes. He invested in Hayden AI and later worked there as SVP of Corporate Development. He is also a director of the AI smart city company Citian and a board member of KlearNow.AI.
Where is Daniel Hoffer based?
Crunchbase lists Chicago, Illinois. His LinkedIn and some other profiles show Menlo Park, California.
How can founders contact Daniel Hoffer?
He has a public LinkedIn profile. His firm's site is deepvp.com. We did not find a verified X account.
Is Daniel Hoffer an angel investor?
Yes. Daniel Hoffer invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 2 investments and 1 exit.
How can founders reach Daniel Hoffer?
Founders on Lounge can see Daniel Hoffer's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Daniel Hoffer to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.