TBPN · Sep 30, 2026 · 20m · 13m saved
With Noah Friedman, Co-founder of OuterSignal, Founder of Top Shelf Ventures
One large beauty brand discovered through OuterSignal that 10% of its customers were nurses, doctors and other medical practitioners, Noah Friedman said, and that they bought one product in its range far more than anyone else.
Most retailers know a buyer's name, city and email, and personalize by guessing from clicks and past purchases. Friedman said that approach has failed for a decade, and that brands need to know who the customer actually is.
"And that's really been the failed promise of personalization for the last decade"
Noah Friedman, co-founder of OuterSignal, on TBPN, announced the company's $22 million Series A on the show. He also founded Top Shelf Ventures, a fund that invests in alcohol and consumer brands and backs OuterSignal.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it. 20 minutes of audio, 7 minutes of reading.
Here are the 7 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
OuterSignal raised a $22 million Series A to build full profiles behind every customer order
Telling apart people who share a name is the hard part, and Friedman said OuterSignal has solved it
Behavioral personalization has failed for a decade, because it never knows who the customer is
Brands often find their real buyers are "Midwest moms with high disposable income," not young city professionals
A large beauty brand found 10% of its customers were medical workers buying one specific product
The company is about a year old and grows mainly by word of mouth, and is being pulled toward hotels and large retailers
Young people still drink, Friedman said; Covid only delayed them
1. A $22M Series A
"We are announcing Outer Signal's $22,000,000 series a today." — Noah Friedman
"Outer Signal's a customer intelligence and agentic personalization platform." — Noah Friedman
When a consumer buys something, most businesses know only a name, a city and an email address, he said.
"So we give a full time, real time name, email address, date of birth, age, gender, occupation, property value, a full profile behind every single consumer, which lets businesses actually speak to their consumers like humans" — Noah Friedman
