Talent signals for every career move that matters.
Specter delivers you 1,000+ talent signals a day: from new stealth founders, unicorn and Fortune-500 spinouts, fresh YC founders and applicants. We flag these for you the day they're detected, so you reach stealth founders before anyone else.
Trusted by 400+ elite firms
The earliest talent feed in private markets, delivered wherever you work.
Signal types
New Company, New Role, Promotion, and Searching, each with a Live, Stealth, or Out of Stealth status: founders going dark, senior hires, and operators back on the market, in one feed.
Signal dates and scores
Every signal is stamped the day it's detected and scored 1–10 for confidence, with stealth moves carrying how many months they beat the public announcement. Rank a day's feed before reading a single profile.
Summary and profile links
A three-sentence summary of the move and the career behind it, with the LinkedIn profile, location, photo, and a link to the new company's record in Specter.
Target by industry, vertical or company
Aim a tracker at a company's alumni, an industry, or a tech vertical as narrow as agentic frameworks or stablecoin payments. Every signal is classified with the deepest taxonomy on the market, so you can target at whatever level you source.
Real-time moves that matter.
Talent Signals surface the people moves that matter in private markets — before a company is announced, before a round is disclosed, before a hire shows up in a press release. Each signal pairs the event with the person's full profile, so you can act on it immediately.
New founders
People leaving roles to start companies — caught while the company is still dark.
Stealth activity
Early signals of companies being built before public launch.
Job changes
Senior hires, promotions, and role switches across companies.
Months early
Every signal is stamped with how many months it beat the public announcement.
Spot the next mafia while it's still forming.
Generational companies seed the next wave of founders. Specter flags senior departures the day they're detected, so you can follow any company's alumni and reach the ones who are building before the news does.
“Tools like Specter surface early talent signals, company foundations, team moves, and nascent traction, beyond what internal scouts can manually track. We see companies we wouldn't see otherwise.”
Ben Urwin
Data at Giant Ventures
“We've invested in a founder with roots at Stanford and Wharton. They were a rising star in their industry with a strong technical background. We found them as a Stealth signal through Specter.”
Iynna Halilou
Partner at The MBA Fund
A tracker on every alumni network that matters.
Save a tracker for OpenAI, Stripe, or any company whose alumni you want to meet first. Fresh departures land by email daily, weekly or monthly, and in-app alerts fire the moment someone leaves to build.
Discover, track and act on career moves with the preferred talent signals API.
Talent Signals are first-class resources in Specter's REST API. Pull the feed by date, one person's history, or a saved search's new results; every signal embeds the person's full profile, so one call returns the whole record.
Get talent signals by date
GET /talentGet person talent signals
GET /people/{personId}/talent-signalsGet talent signal saved search
GET /searches/talent/{searchId}Get talent signal saved search results
GET /searches/talent/{searchId}/results// Get talent signals by date: [ { "talent_signal_id": "02d32673-f1ab-40a1-93c5-a3a36a10d342", "person_id": "per_7f8d9e2a1b3c4d5e6f7g8h9i0", "signal_date": "2026-06-12", "signal_type": "New Company", "signal_status": "Stealth", "signal_score": 9, "out_of_stealth_advantage": 6, "talent_last_signal": true, "signal_summary": "Sarah has co-founded VisionAI, a computer-vision platform for enterprise.", "new_position_title": "Founder & CEO", "new_position_company_id": "5e3a7f2b0aa7a3270a55f2b9", "new_position_company_name": "VisionAI", "new_position_company_website": "visionai.com", "new_position_company_tagline": "Computer vision AI platform for enterprise applications", "past_position_company_id": "5e3a7f2b0aa7a3270a55f2a8", "full_name": "Sarah Chen", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahchen9776", "about": "AI/ML researcher and entrepreneur with a focus on computer vision applications. Previously led ML teams at Google and founded an AI startup.", "location": "San Francisco, California, United States, North America", "highlights": ["prior_exit", "prior_vc_backed_experience", "prior_vc_backed_founder", "serial_founder"], "level_of_seniority": "Executive Level", "years_of_experience": 12, "education_level": "Ph.D.", "experience": { "company_name": "Google AI", "title": "Senior Research Scientist", "start_date": "2020-03-01", "is_current": true }, "education": { "name": "Stanford University", "degree_title": "Ph.D.", "field_of_study": "Computer Science" }, "skills": ["Machine Learning", "Computer Vision", "Deep Learning", "Python"], "linkedin_followers": 8756, "linkedin_connections": 3421 } ]
Reach the founder before the round exists.
Join 400+ firms sourcing with Specter's live talent feed.
Now we spend far less time on infrastructure and spend more of our time building those relationships and investing behind the best founders in our ecosystems. I think Specter will become table stakes for any fund that wants to be in the top quartile.
Richard Dulude
Partner at Underscore VC
In a short period of time, Specter has become an integral part of how we ensure we have 100% coverage of the markets we operate in.
Gideon Hayden
Partner at Leaders Fund
We continually evaluate tools on the market, and Specter repeatedly stands out with its highly differentiated UX and comprehensive data.
Andrea Gurnari
Partner at 2100 Ventures
We are embedding Specter into all our workstreams, and it is showing significant promise as part of our strategy to find the next company we will back.
Ozge Sevim
Investor at 212 Ventures
Specter enhances the efficiency of our operations, and contributes to the in-house data systems we build to generate alpha. Covering both bases makes it a highly versatile and valued part of our tech stack.
Abhijay Thacker
VP at Picus Capital
Specter allows me to narrow or expand the scope of searches at will, without needing to build or maintain any of the data pipelines and infrastructure myself. Using it on a daily basis is super powerful.
Timothy Chen
Partner at Essence VC
We've already found one of our investments through Specter! That being said, its value extends beyond pure sourcing. Signals provide a level of intelligence that's valuable throughout the entire investment lifecycle.
Pietro Invernizzi
Founder of firedrop
Specter's performance-based signals draw us towards the right startups at the right time, so we're prepared as we can be to make the right decision.
Danny Chepenko
Corporate VC at inDrive
We've invested in a founder with roots at Stanford and Wharton. They were a rising star in their industry with a strong technical background. We found them as a Stealth signal through Specter.
Iynna Halilou
Partner at The MBA Fund
Tools like Specter surface early talent signals, company foundations, team moves, and nascent traction, beyond what internal scouts can manually track. We see companies we wouldn't see otherwise.
Ben Urwin
Data at Giant Ventures
Specter has been a useful addition to our sourcing stack - it's surfaced interesting companies we might have otherwise missed and helps keep our pipeline fresh.
Dominique Yadegar
VP at Bonfire Ventures
Specter is my go-to for founder outreach before anything else. My time on LinkedIn is substantially reduced; I open Specter, run our saved searches, look at Talent and Investor signals, and reach out
Aarushi Sharma
Investor at BEENEXT
Now we spend far less time on infrastructure and spend more of our time building those relationships and investing behind the best founders in our ecosystems. I think Specter will become table stakes for any fund that wants to be in the top quartile.
Richard Dulude
Partner at Underscore VC
In a short period of time, Specter has become an integral part of how we ensure we have 100% coverage of the markets we operate in.
Gideon Hayden
Partner at Leaders Fund
We continually evaluate tools on the market, and Specter repeatedly stands out with its highly differentiated UX and comprehensive data.
Andrea Gurnari
Partner at 2100 Ventures
We are embedding Specter into all our workstreams, and it is showing significant promise as part of our strategy to find the next company we will back.
Ozge Sevim
Investor at 212 Ventures
Specter enhances the efficiency of our operations, and contributes to the in-house data systems we build to generate alpha. Covering both bases makes it a highly versatile and valued part of our tech stack.
Abhijay Thacker
VP at Picus Capital
Specter allows me to narrow or expand the scope of searches at will, without needing to build or maintain any of the data pipelines and infrastructure myself. Using it on a daily basis is super powerful.
Timothy Chen
Partner at Essence VC
We've already found one of our investments through Specter! That being said, its value extends beyond pure sourcing. Signals provide a level of intelligence that's valuable throughout the entire investment lifecycle.
Pietro Invernizzi
Founder of firedrop
Specter's performance-based signals draw us towards the right startups at the right time, so we're prepared as we can be to make the right decision.
Danny Chepenko
Corporate VC at inDrive
We've invested in a founder with roots at Stanford and Wharton. They were a rising star in their industry with a strong technical background. We found them as a Stealth signal through Specter.
Iynna Halilou
Partner at The MBA Fund
Tools like Specter surface early talent signals, company foundations, team moves, and nascent traction, beyond what internal scouts can manually track. We see companies we wouldn't see otherwise.
Ben Urwin
Data at Giant Ventures
Specter has been a useful addition to our sourcing stack - it's surfaced interesting companies we might have otherwise missed and helps keep our pipeline fresh.
Dominique Yadegar
VP at Bonfire Ventures
Specter is my go-to for founder outreach before anything else. My time on LinkedIn is substantially reduced; I open Specter, run our saved searches, look at Talent and Investor signals, and reach out
Aarushi Sharma
Investor at BEENEXT