Fixpoint

What do they actually do

Fixpoint provides two practical services for AI data operations. First, a Vetting API that verifies applicants’ education, licenses, publications, and other credentials by cross‑checking registries and public data, then returns a structured report with evidence. It’s built to plug into onboarding flows and is priced from $3 per verification, with a Python SDK available for integration (docs show more SDKs planned) (Vetting API, Getting Started).

Second, a white‑glove Expert Staffing service that sources, vets, hires, and runs payroll/compliance for teams of subject‑matter experts (e.g., lawyers, doctors, PhDs, linguists, engineers) to perform labeling and evaluation work. Customers share project requirements; Fixpoint delivers a vetted team and handles ongoing ops while the customer runs their workflows (Expert Staffing, homepage, YC profile).

Who are their target customer(s)

• AI training‑data teams at data vendors: They lose time and money onboarding unqualified or fraudulent contractors and need automated checks that slot into existing hiring pipelines to reduce manual review and errors (Vetting API, YC profile).
• Model labs and human‑in‑the‑loop eval teams: Evaluator quality and sourcing speed are inconsistent, hurting benchmark reliability and timelines; they need fast access to vetted, domain‑knowledgeable experts (Expert Staffing, YC profile).
• Enterprise ML/AI teams with compliance requirements: Projects stall without verifiable credential evidence and audit trails; they often require SOC 2/GDPR/FCRA‑aligned processes in onboarding flows (Vetting API — compliance notes).
• Labeling‑platform operators and ops managers: High applicant fraud and identity/credential mismatches create manual review bottlenecks, bad labels, and wasted payouts; they need scalable, automated vetting (Vetting API — pricing & claims).
• Companies needing short‑term licensed specialists: They don’t want to run recruiting, payroll, and compliance for brief projects, and prefer a turnkey staffed team delivered quickly (Expert Staffing).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Founder‑led outreach to data vendors and model labs for short, instrumented pilots: integrate the Vetting API into onboarding and run a discounted staffing trial to show fraud reduction and faster hiring in their own workflow (Vetting API, Expert Staffing, YC profile).
• First 50: Convert pilots into concise case studies and ship plug‑and‑play connectors for common labeling/onboarding systems; pursue co‑sell partnerships with labeling platforms and applicant‑tracking vendors to be included in procurement cycles (Vetting API).
• First 100: Launch more SDKs and a self‑serve dashboard to reduce sales friction for mid‑market teams, while finishing SOC 2/GDPR/FCRA alignment to clear enterprise legal review; expand channel distribution via payroll/HR providers and specialist staffing partners (Getting Started, Vetting API, Expert Staffing).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Relevant markets include AI training datasets/services (estimates from ~$2.9B to high‑teens billions in 2024), background screening (~$15.5B), identity verification (~$11–12B), and global staffing (hundreds of billions) (Fortune BI, Grand View Research, Data Bridge, Grand View — identity, SIA).

Bottom-up calculation:

At $3 per verification, 1M checks/year implies ~$3M ARR; 10M checks implies ~$30M ARR (Vetting API pricing). For staffing, blended rates of roughly $5k–50k per expert per month suggest that operating hundreds of concurrently staffed specialists can yield low‑millions to tens‑of‑millions of annual revenue, depending on mix and geography (scenario math).

Assumptions:

• Fixpoint targets the slice tied to AI labeling/evaluation and compliance‑sensitive expert roles rather than the full staffing/verification markets.
• Verification volumes come from integrations with labeling platforms and high‑throughput onboarding pipelines.
• Blended staffing rates vary widely by role, seniority, and country; utilization and duration materially affect revenue.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• GLG: Large expert‑network that supplies vetted specialists for short projects and advisory calls; overlaps with Fixpoint when customers need vetted consultants rather than managed embedded teams.
• AlphaSights: Major expert‑network focused on rapid specialist sourcing and qualification for research and advisory; overlaps on sourcing domain experts for evaluation or research tasks.
• Appen: Managed data‑labeling vendor with recruiting, vetting, and large annotator pools; competes on turnkey labeling/evaluation projects and managed expert workflows.
• Sama: Provides managed annotation, validation, and human‑in‑the‑loop evaluation with vetted teams and QA; a direct alternative for turnkey labeling and evaluation work.
• Sterling / First Advantage: Enterprise background‑screening and credential verification providers with APIs; overlap with Fixpoint’s Vetting API for primary‑source checks and license/education verification.