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Most “why is my query returning nothing?” problems come from one mistake: filtering by a display name instead of the canonical permalink the API expects.
Locations, industries, and super categories are matched by exact permalink — not by the name you’d type in a search box. A wrong permalink is silently ignored: the filter is dropped and you get zero or unrelated results with no error. Always resolve the permalink first.
You typeWhat the API actually wants
"San Francisco""san-francisco-california"
"fintech""fintech-e067"
"AI""artificial-intelligence" (industry) or "artificial-intelligence-e551" (super category)
"Series A""SERIES_A"

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Resolve, then query

For locations and industries, never hand-write the permalink — look it up. Both lookup endpoints are free (0 credits) and use fuzzy matching, so a rough name is fine.
1

Find the permalink

Call the relevant search endpoint with a plain-English name.
Locations
curl "https://www.tryfundable.ai/api/v1/location/search?name=san francisco" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
Response
{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "locations": [
      { "permalink": "san-francisco-california", "name": "San Francisco", "location_type": "CITY" },
      { "permalink": "san-francisco-bay-area",   "name": "San Francisco Bay Area", "location_type": "REGION" },
      { "permalink": "california",               "name": "California", "location_type": "STATE" }
    ]
  }
}
Pick the row at the level you actually want — a CITY, STATE, REGION, or COUNTRY are all distinct permalinks. Industry search works the same way via GET /industry/search and returns an industry_type of INDUSTRY or SUPER_CATEGORY.
2

Copy the permalink into your filter

Paste the exact permalink value into your query.
POST /deals
{
  "company": {
    "locations": ["san-francisco-california"],
    "industries": ["fintech-e067"]
  },
  "deal": {
    "financing_types": [{ "type": "SERIES_A" }]
  }
}
Permalinks are lowercase, kebab-case slugs. Many carry a short hex disambiguator suffix (fintech-e067, artificial-intelligence-e551) that distinguishes duplicate names — it is part of the value and must be included verbatim.
Don’t try to construct a permalink by hand (e.g. guessing "fintech" → "fintech-e067"). Always copy it from /industry/search or /location/search.

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Industry vs. super category

industries are specific (e.g. machine-learning); super_categories are broad groupings that automatically include their related industries (e.g. artificial-intelligence-e551 pulls in many AI sub-industries). Use a super category when you want wide coverage, an industry when you want precision. Both come from /industry/search — check the industry_type field to tell them apart.

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Round / financing types

Round types are the exception: there is no lookup endpoint because the set is a fixed enum. Pass them as objects under deal.financing_types, using the exact canonical value — not the human label.
Unlike locations and industries, an invalid financing_types value does return a 422 error (e.g. Invalid financing type(s): series-a). So you’ll know immediately — but you still have to use the canonical form below.
Round (human)Canonical valueRound (human)Canonical value
SeedSEEDSeries A–MSERIES_A … SERIES_M
SAFESAFEConvertible NoteCONVERTIBLE_NOTE
EquityEQUITYPreferredPREFERRED
Secondary MarketSECONDARY_MARKETDebt FinancingDEBT_FINANCING
GrantGRANTNon-Equity AssistanceNON_EQUITY_ASSISTANCE
CrowdfundingCROWDFUNDINGInitial Coin OfferingINITIAL_COIN_OFFERING
Funding Round (unspecified)FUNDING_ROUND
Pre-rounds and extensions are modifiers on the same value, not separate types: 
{
  "deal": {
    "financing_types": [
      { "type": "SEED", "pre": true },        // Pre-Seed
      { "type": "SERIES_A" },                  // Series A
      { "type": "SERIES_B", "extension": true } // Series B extension
    ]
  }
}

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Common mistakes

MistakeResultFix
locations: ["San Francisco"]Silent zero resultsResolve via /location/search → "san-francisco-california"
industries: ["fintech"]Silent zero resultsResolve via /industry/search → "fintech-e067"
Dropping the hex suffix ("fintech" for "fintech-e067")Silent zero resultsCopy the full permalink verbatim
Using an industry where you meant a super categoryNarrower results than expectedCheck industry_type; use super_categories for broad coverage
financing_types: ["Series A"]422 errorUse [{ "type": "SERIES_A" }]
The Alerts API currently accepts round types as human-readable strings (e.g. ["Series A"]) rather than the SERIES_A enum used by /deals and /companies. This is a known inconsistency — follow the format shown in each endpoint’s own reference.