Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n- Christina Qi started a hedge fund as an undergraduate at MIT, building it to trade $7 billion per day.<\/li>\n
- A \u201creally bad year in 2020\u201d caused the hedge fund to shut down. <\/li>\n
- Qi then started her current venture, a market data provider called Databento.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
Christina Qi<\/a> boasts an impressive resume. As a 21-year-old undergraduate at MIT, she quietly did something most finance veterans spend decades attempting: She started her own hedge fund. At its height, the fund, Domeyard<\/a>, traded $7 billion in volume per day.\u00a0<\/p>\nIn 2020, after eight years of running Domeyard, Qi and her fellow founding partners realized that the fund was not scalable, and performance was suffering. \u201cWe had a really bad year in 2020; performance was down 12%, and so we told our investors that we were shutting down,\u201d Qi tells Entrepreneur <\/em>in a new interview.\u00a0<\/p>\nChristina Qi. Credit: Databento<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nShe started fresh that year with a different idea, co-founding and serving as CEO of a new startup called Databento<\/a>. The company strives to become \u201cthe single source of truth for financial information,\u201d Qi explains. It provides market data for researchers at hedge funds and AI labs and now has 70,000 customers, including Nvidia and OpenAI.\u00a0<\/p>\nDatabento raised $97 million<\/a> in a Series B funding round in July, bringing the startup\u2019s total disclosed funding to about $127 million. Qi has not made the startup\u2019s valuation public. Earlier this year, Databento\u2019s head of quantitative analytics, Lou Lindley, disclosed<\/a> that the startup had 8-figure annual recurring revenue. <\/p>\n\u201cWe grew our revenue almost tenfold from a base well above single-digit millions,\u201d Qi says. \u201cWe have a lot of competitors in this industry, which is probably why we don\u2019t share exact figures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite having customers concentrated in Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Qi chooses to reside in her home state of Utah. She runs the business, which employs 38 people, remotely. Instead of seeing coworkers when she steps outside, she looks out at her 10 chickens, two turtles and 15-year-old dog.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An unconventional founder<\/h2>\n
Qi explains her entrepreneurial journey \u201cdoes feel like the American dream to an extent.\u201d She grew up on food stamps and welfare in a low-income household in Utah before attending MIT.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWas it harder? Maybe. Look, the starting line might have been a few steps back,\u201d Qi says. \u201cIt might have been a little bit more difficult as a result because of where I\u2019m from.\u201d<\/p>\n
She adds that people don\u2019t consider her \u201cCEO material\u201d in social settings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I go to a networking event, people sometimes ask if I can speak English,\u201d Qi says. \u201cOr people think I\u2019m a waitress. I got mistaken for a waitress eight or nine times now in my career. Even two weeks ago, I got mistaken as a waitress at a cafeteria.\u201d<\/p>\n
People ask Qi where she is \u201creally from\u201d all the time and aren\u2019t satisfied when she tells them she\u2019s from Utah.\u00a0\u201cPeople also say my English is great all the time, but it\u2019s my native language,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Qi notes that these experiences were frustrating and demonstrated that she had a \u201cdisadvantage\u201d compared to her peers. <\/p>\n
\u201cI still managed to raise a lot of funding, hire a fantastic team and run a tech business selling to quants, who are mostly men in finance,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m in a very male-dominated industry, and I\u2019ve managed to still be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Qi points out that her story proves it is possible to achieve startup success even when you start at a disadvantage. She hopes to inspire more people to pursue their dreams and be unafraid of starting their own ventures. <\/p>\n
In 2019, Qi was elected co-chair<\/a> of the board of Invest in Girls<\/a>, a nonprofit organization focused on financial literacy for high school girls. \u00a0She has also held board and committee roles with the MIT Sloan Boston Alumni Association and 100 Women in Finance<\/a>, a nonprofit that helps women advance their finance careers.<\/p>\nA shift in mindset<\/h2>\n
Qi says in the Asian American culture she grew up in, admitting to failure is something to avoid at all costs.<\/p>\n
She experienced this firsthand at MIT. As a freshman, she applied to her first internship and received a rejection within 24 hours.\u00a0\u201cI cried,\u201d Qi says. \u201cI just remember that core memory.\u201d<\/p>\n
She applied to 100 internships after that, and then it just became like clockwork. \u201cYou realize, Oh, rejection is just normal<\/em>,\u201d Qi says. \u201cThe first time, it hurts the most.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nNow, Qi considers failure a part of her daily life. Investors and customers reject her every day, and she considers it a part of her job. If she is not facing failure, then she is not doing enough or putting herself out there enough, she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of your job description as a founder, as a CEO, is to put yourself out there, embarrass yourself on stage and get rejected,\u201d Qi says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That mindset applied when Qi closed down Domeyard. She wrote in a July 2023 LinkedIn announcement<\/a> that shutting down the hedge fund \u201cfelt like losing a part of my identity.\u201d <\/p>\n\u201cDomeyard will always be my first venture \u2014 letting go was one of the most difficult decisions we\u2019ve ever made,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n
Qi said earlier, in a 2020 MIT Sloan interview<\/a>, that her friends \u201cinspired\u201d her to step away from Domeyard after a \u201cparticularly rough year\u201d in 2020. They urged her to take a break and evaluate her career trajectory. <\/p>\nDatabento arose out of that self-reflection. Qi worked up the courage to start the venture despite Domeyard shutting down. She was able to learn from that setback.<\/p>\n
The founder archetype<\/h2>\n
Qi also asserts that it is okay to be vulnerable as a founder. She says there\u2019s a certain archetype of founder who is very cutthroat and steps over other founders to obtain funding and attention. Qi encourages founders to follow a different path and be the kind of leader who supports other founders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can succeed and raise each other up and support each other, even as competitors in this industry,\u201d she says. \u201cThat is absolutely possible. That\u2019s what I have done and strive to do with a lot of our competitors in this space, with other founders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n\nKey Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n- Christina Qi started a hedge fund as an undergraduate at MIT, building it to trade $7 billion per day.<\/li>\n
- A \u201creally bad year in 2020\u201d caused the hedge fund to shut down. <\/li>\n
- Qi then started her current venture, a market data provider called Databento.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
Christina Qi<\/a> boasts an impressive resume. As a 21-year-old undergraduate at MIT, she quietly did something most finance veterans spend decades attempting: She started her own hedge fund. At its height, the fund, Domeyard<\/a>, traded $7 billion in volume per day.\u00a0<\/p>\nIn 2020, after eight years of running Domeyard, Qi and her fellow founding partners realized that the fund was not scalable, and performance was suffering. \u201cWe had a really bad year in 2020; performance was down 12%, and so we told our investors that we were shutting down,\u201d Qi tells Entrepreneur <\/em>in a new interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Christina](\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/10\/Christina-Qi-Credit-Databento.jpg?w=1024\")
Christina Qi. Credit: Databento<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nShe started fresh that year with a different idea, co-founding and serving as CEO of a new startup called Databento<\/a>. The company strives to become \u201cthe single source of truth for financial information,\u201d Qi explains. It provides market data for researchers at hedge funds and AI labs and now has 70,000 customers, including Nvidia and OpenAI.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Christina Qi<\/a> boasts an impressive resume. As a 21-year-old undergraduate at MIT, she quietly did something most finance veterans spend decades attempting: She started her own hedge fund. At its height, the fund, Domeyard<\/a>, traded $7 billion in volume per day.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2020, after eight years of running Domeyard, Qi and her fellow founding partners realized that the fund was not scalable, and performance was suffering. \u201cWe had a really bad year in 2020; performance was down 12%, and so we told our investors that we were shutting down,\u201d Qi tells Entrepreneur <\/em>in a new interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n She started fresh that year with a different idea, co-founding and serving as CEO of a new startup called Databento<\/a>. The company strives to become \u201cthe single source of truth for financial information,\u201d Qi explains. It provides market data for researchers at hedge funds and AI labs and now has 70,000 customers, including Nvidia and OpenAI.\u00a0<\/p>\n Databento raised $97 million<\/a> in a Series B funding round in July, bringing the startup\u2019s total disclosed funding to about $127 million. Qi has not made the startup\u2019s valuation public. Earlier this year, Databento\u2019s head of quantitative analytics, Lou Lindley, disclosed<\/a> that the startup had 8-figure annual recurring revenue. <\/p>\n \u201cWe grew our revenue almost tenfold from a base well above single-digit millions,\u201d Qi says. \u201cWe have a lot of competitors in this industry, which is probably why we don\u2019t share exact figures.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite having customers concentrated in Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Qi chooses to reside in her home state of Utah. She runs the business, which employs 38 people, remotely. Instead of seeing coworkers when she steps outside, she looks out at her 10 chickens, two turtles and 15-year-old dog.\u00a0<\/p>\n Qi explains her entrepreneurial journey \u201cdoes feel like the American dream to an extent.\u201d She grew up on food stamps and welfare in a low-income household in Utah before attending MIT.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWas it harder? Maybe. Look, the starting line might have been a few steps back,\u201d Qi says. \u201cIt might have been a little bit more difficult as a result because of where I\u2019m from.\u201d<\/p>\n She adds that people don\u2019t consider her \u201cCEO material\u201d in social settings.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I go to a networking event, people sometimes ask if I can speak English,\u201d Qi says. \u201cOr people think I\u2019m a waitress. I got mistaken for a waitress eight or nine times now in my career. Even two weeks ago, I got mistaken as a waitress at a cafeteria.\u201d<\/p>\n People ask Qi where she is \u201creally from\u201d all the time and aren\u2019t satisfied when she tells them she\u2019s from Utah.\u00a0\u201cPeople also say my English is great all the time, but it\u2019s my native language,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Qi notes that these experiences were frustrating and demonstrated that she had a \u201cdisadvantage\u201d compared to her peers. <\/p>\n \u201cI still managed to raise a lot of funding, hire a fantastic team and run a tech business selling to quants, who are mostly men in finance,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m in a very male-dominated industry, and I\u2019ve managed to still be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Qi points out that her story proves it is possible to achieve startup success even when you start at a disadvantage. She hopes to inspire more people to pursue their dreams and be unafraid of starting their own ventures. <\/p>\n In 2019, Qi was elected co-chair<\/a> of the board of Invest in Girls<\/a>, a nonprofit organization focused on financial literacy for high school girls. \u00a0She has also held board and committee roles with the MIT Sloan Boston Alumni Association and 100 Women in Finance<\/a>, a nonprofit that helps women advance their finance careers.<\/p>\n Qi says in the Asian American culture she grew up in, admitting to failure is something to avoid at all costs.<\/p>\n She experienced this firsthand at MIT. As a freshman, she applied to her first internship and received a rejection within 24 hours.\u00a0\u201cI cried,\u201d Qi says. \u201cI just remember that core memory.\u201d<\/p>\n She applied to 100 internships after that, and then it just became like clockwork. \u201cYou realize, Oh, rejection is just normal<\/em>,\u201d Qi says. \u201cThe first time, it hurts the most.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, Qi considers failure a part of her daily life. Investors and customers reject her every day, and she considers it a part of her job. If she is not facing failure, then she is not doing enough or putting herself out there enough, she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPart of your job description as a founder, as a CEO, is to put yourself out there, embarrass yourself on stage and get rejected,\u201d Qi says.\u00a0<\/p>\n That mindset applied when Qi closed down Domeyard. She wrote in a July 2023 LinkedIn announcement<\/a> that shutting down the hedge fund \u201cfelt like losing a part of my identity.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cDomeyard will always be my first venture \u2014 letting go was one of the most difficult decisions we\u2019ve ever made,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n Qi said earlier, in a 2020 MIT Sloan interview<\/a>, that her friends \u201cinspired\u201d her to step away from Domeyard after a \u201cparticularly rough year\u201d in 2020. They urged her to take a break and evaluate her career trajectory. <\/p>\n Databento arose out of that self-reflection. Qi worked up the courage to start the venture despite Domeyard shutting down. She was able to learn from that setback.<\/p>\n Qi also asserts that it is okay to be vulnerable as a founder. She says there\u2019s a certain archetype of founder who is very cutthroat and steps over other founders to obtain funding and attention. Qi encourages founders to follow a different path and be the kind of leader who supports other founders.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou can succeed and raise each other up and support each other, even as competitors in this industry,\u201d she says. \u201cThat is absolutely possible. That\u2019s what I have done and strive to do with a lot of our competitors in this space, with other founders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Christina Qi<\/a> boasts an impressive resume. As a 21-year-old undergraduate at MIT, she quietly did something most finance veterans spend decades attempting: She started her own hedge fund. At its height, the fund, Domeyard<\/a>, traded $7 billion in volume per day.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2020, after eight years of running Domeyard, Qi and her fellow founding partners realized that the fund was not scalable, and performance was suffering. \u201cWe had a really bad year in 2020; performance was down 12%, and so we told our investors that we were shutting down,\u201d Qi tells Entrepreneur <\/em>in a new interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n She started fresh that year with a different idea, co-founding and serving as CEO of a new startup called Databento<\/a>. The company strives to become \u201cthe single source of truth for financial information,\u201d Qi explains. It provides market data for researchers at hedge funds and AI labs and now has 70,000 customers, including Nvidia and OpenAI.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nAn unconventional founder<\/h2>\n
A shift in mindset<\/h2>\n
The founder archetype<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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