Ask DFX

Where it is

• The Ask page (/data-factory/ask), Ask in the Data Factory bar, the box on the Data Factory home, the box under each market landing's doors, and Cmd-K.
• A question asked from a market is read as that market's question unless it names another market. The Ask page says which market it is reading through and links to Ask across every market.

How it answers

A planner reads your question and chooses which parts of the graph to read, those reads run, and rows are ranked with the graph's own reasons and sources. The facts in a row come from the graph, not from a model. The model writes the reading of your question (shown as the interpretation) and a short explanation, and both are labelled.

Depth

• Fast (quick lookup, about 15 seconds): reads the best fitting data once. Anyone.
• Standard (checked answer, about 30 seconds): writes a research plan, checks the answer against it, computes real counts. Free account and up.
• Deep (investigated answer, 1 to 3 minutes): chains across markets, looks for evidence against each lead, and labels every claim KNOWN, STRONGLY INFERRED, POSSIBLE or UNKNOWN. Desk and up, or the $1 trial (5 a day, 10 over the trial). Desk 10 a day, Pro 25, the Data Factory 50.
• High Output (analyst research): a DFX analyst works the whole question and gets back to you within 24 hours. It is a paid request: $495, or $100 for a member on Desk or above.

How many questions

Without an account, 1 question a day. A free account, 3 a day. The $1 trial, 40 a day. Desk 200, Pro and the Data Factory 1,000 a day. A link that opens Ask with a question in it runs that question when it opens, and counts as one.

Questions that work well

• Private equity firms in Chicago that buy industrial companies
• Which family offices in Texas invest directly in software companies?
• Independent sponsors who closed an industrial deal in the last 12 months and need equity
• Which public pensions committed to private credit funds in the last year?
• Find PE-backed healthcare companies in Texas with debt maturing before 2027

A weak or empty answer

• The banner says what happened: Answered from the graph, with caveats (a constraint was relaxed, and it says which), DFX holds no matching record, DFX could not run this as asked, or The graph did not answer (an error, not an empty market).
• Read the interpretation. If it misread you, rephrase with the market, the geography, the size and the time window stated plainly.
• Widen one constraint at a time (a region instead of a city, a size band instead of a point).
• Try Standard or Deep for questions that need several steps.

Names in Ask answers follow the same rules as the rest of the site: without a plan for a market, the first rows are named and the rest are masked.