Hex Technologies, Inc. is a Delaware-incorporated data analytics platform founded in 2019 by Barry McCardel, Caitlin Colgrove, and Glen Takahashi (former Palantir engineers). Hex blends SQL, Python, and no-code visualization in a collaborative notebook interface, with native connectors to Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, and Postgres, plus a published-app mode that turns notebooks into interactive dashboards.
The product targets data and analytics teams who previously toggled between Jupyter, Mode, Looker, and ad-hoc Google Sheets, and is used by Notion, Reddit, Brex, Anthropic, Toast, and a long tail of data-first companies. Operational headquarters are in San Francisco.
Hex raised a 28 million US dollar Series A led by Amplify Partners in 2021, a 52 million US dollar Series B led by a16z in 2022, and a Series C in 2024 bringing total funding above 130 million US dollars. The legal entity is Hex Technologies, Inc., a Delaware C-Corporation with its registered agent at the Corporation Trust Center in Wilmington.
Hex is a clean example of a closed-source dev-tools-adjacent SaaS that follows the same Delaware C-Corp template as its open-core peers. The product is proprietary - there is no Hex open-source edition, and the company sells exclusively through a managed cloud with self-host enterprise contracts available for the largest customers.
The capital stack is fully conventional Delaware: pre-seed SAFEs in 2019-2020, priced Series A led by Amplify in 2021, priced Series B led by a16z in 2022, priced Series C in 2024.
Each priced round issued a new series of convertible preferred stock with 1x non-participating liquidation preference, weighted-average anti-dilution, pro rata rights, and standard NVCA voting/IRA/ROFR documentation.
The option pool was refreshed at each round - in a closed-source SaaS the option pool tends to run slightly smaller than open-core peers (10-15 percent at Hex versus 15-20 percent at Pinecone) because hiring competition is narrower; the buyer market is data engineers and analytics-platform engineers rather than the global ML researcher pool.
The 409A valuation is refreshed annually and after each priced round, with common stock priced at a 25-35 percent discount to the latest preferred for a Series-C-stage company.
Hex deliberately does not have super-voting founder shares - the company is too early to pre-position for an IPO and the cap table reflects that.
Closed-source IP is managed through aggressive CIIAA discipline: every employee and contractor signs at hire, all copyrights and trademarks are owned by Hex Technologies, Inc., and trade-secret law (the Delaware Uniform Trade Secrets Act) backs up the contractual protections.
Delaware is the only sensible jurisdiction: a16z, Amplify, and every other lead investor on the cap table writes preferred-stock terms assuming Delaware default rules, and the eventual exit will be cleaner from a Delaware C-Corp than from any alternative.
The default is post-money SAFE for checks under roughly 5 million US dollars total - same as open-source peers. SAFEs convert at the next priced round at the better of the cap or discount, and Hex followed exactly this pattern: SAFEs at pre-seed, priced Series A led by Amplify. Closed-source posture does not change SAFE mechanics.
Founders should still model SAFE conversion at multiple Series A scenarios to avoid surprise dilution.
Delaware is required by every institutional VC, has the deepest preferred-stock case law in the US, qualifies as a domestic C-Corporation for QSBS Section 1202, and uses the NVCA model documents that assume Delaware default rules. The closed-source posture is irrelevant to the jurisdiction choice.
Wyoming's LLC privacy advantages are irrelevant once an institutional cap table is filed, and a redomicile to Delaware before the Series A costs legal fees and resets the QSBS five-year holding clock.
Three pillars: (1) trade-secret law via the Delaware Uniform Trade Secrets Act, (2) copyright (automatic on creation, registrable at the US Copyright Office for stronger remedies), and (3) contractual NDA + CIIAA discipline. Every employee and contractor signs a Confidential Information and Invention Assignment Agreement at hire that assigns all work IP to the Delaware C-Corp.
Trademarks (wordmark, logo) are filed at the USPTO. Source code stays internal; key algorithms can additionally be patented if they are novel and non-obvious.
Four-year vesting with a one-year cliff is universal at any a16z-led round. Double-trigger acceleration on change of control - acquisition plus involuntary termination within 12 months - is the standard a16z term sheet. Single-trigger acceleration is rejected. 83(b) elections within 30 days of restricted stock issuance are mandatory.
Repurchase rights at fair market value let the company reclaim unvested shares if a founder departs voluntarily, and these rights remain in force through Series C and beyond.
