Signal Sourcing Engine

Signal sourcing engine

When to use

Use this skill when you need to:

• Generate new at-bats (companies and founders) in a specific thesis area
• Build a repeatable sourcing system (not ad hoc coffee chats)
• Turn weak signals into qualified founder meetings

Inputs you should request (only if missing)

• Thesis wedge (or ask for a short description)
• Stage focus + geography constraints (if any)
• How the firm defines a "qualified" first meeting (traction, team, ICP, etc.)
• Existing CRM rules (Salesforce fields/stages) if available

Outputs you must produce

1. Sourcing loops (3 compounding systems, not ad hoc searches)
2. Signal rubric (what to watch + how to score)
3. Weekly pipeline update (10 new names, 3 meetings, 1 partner-ready candidate)
4. Monthly network refresh (top 50 humans + 10 new additions)
5. Outreach experiments (2 variants with response tracking)

Hard gate: No "qualified" company exists unless there's a Salesforce Account/Lead + next task + owner.

Templates:

• assets/signal-rubric.md
• assets/outreach-templates.md
• assets/weekly-pipeline-update.md

Cadence and metrics (required)

Weekly deliverables

• 10 new names added to pipeline
• 3 meetings scheduled or completed
• 1 partner-ready candidate surfaced
• Salesforce updated with all entries

Monthly deliverables

• Refresh top 50 humans list (remove stale, add emerging)
• Add 10 new humans to network cultivation list
• Review outreach experiments: what's working, what's not
• Update signal rubric based on hit rate

Procedure

Loop A: Earned network loop (highest signal, first-class object)

Goal: become "first call" for a cluster of builders and operators.

Build the system:

1. Identify 2-3 "talent pools" for the wedge:
   • ex-employee clusters from relevant companies
   • OSS communities (maintainers + power users)
   • buyer/operator communities (CISOs, data eng leads, RevOps, etc.)
2. Build a "Top 50 humans" list with columns:
   • Name, role, company, thesis relevance
   • Last touch date, relationship strength (1-5)
   • Value provided to them, value received
   • Next action + due date
3. Provide small, concrete value before asking for meetings:
   • 1 targeted intro
   • a short market map excerpt
   • a recruiting assist on a specific role
4. Track compounding metrics:
   • Touches -> warm conversations -> referrals -> founder intros
   • Target: 20% of Top 50 should generate a referral per quarter

Monthly refresh:

• Review all 50: who's gone stale? Who's risen?
• Add 10 new humans, remove 10 lowest-value
• Log changes in Salesforce (Contacts with "Network" tag)

Loop B: Signal harvesting loop (volume, disciplined)

Goal: produce a weekly list of candidates worth human qualification.

Build the system:

1. Define 8-12 signals tied to the wedge (avoid generic hype). Examples:
   • hiring for "founding AE" or "head of sales" (GTM transition)
   • design partners mentioned in job posts
   • OSS adoption with maintainer activity and downstream usage
   • specific buyer pain appearing in forums where buyers complain
2. Score each signal (1-5) for:
   • Relevance to thesis
   • Timeliness
   • Uniqueness (are competitors seeing this too?)
3. Human qualification pass:
   • 10 minutes scan -> 50 names -> 5 worth work -> 1 worth meeting.
4. Log "why" for every pass to improve the rubric.
5. Weekly output: 10 new names with signal scores

Loop C: Thesis-driven outbound loop (precision outreach)

Goal: outreach that feels like "I did the work," not spam.

Build the system:

1. Create 2 outreach variants per thesis:
   • Variant A: insight-led ("We mapped this space and noticed...")
   • Variant B: value-led ("We can intro you to [specific customer]...")
2. Track response rates per variant (aim for >20% response, >10% meeting)
3. Rules for every message:
   • Must include: the wedge you believe is emerging
   • Must include: what looks distinct about their approach
   • Must include: a concrete offer (customer intro, operator feedback, recruiting, etc.)
   • If it could be sent to 20 companies with minimal edits, rewrite it.

Monthly review:

• Which variant is winning?
• What offers get responses? What offers fall flat?
• Update templates based on data.

Qualification checklist (first pass)

A candidate is "qualified for a first meeting" if you can answer:

• Who buys? Who uses?
• What changes the buyer's mind?
• What do they replace?
• What proof of pull exists (even weak)?
• What's the likely wedge expansion path?
• Must be true: one sentence stating what makes this worth partner time
• Fastest falsification test: what's the 1-call test?

Salesforce logging (MANDATORY GATE)

Hard rule: A company does not exist in your pipeline unless it has:

• A Lead (founder contact) or Account (company)
• A next-step Task with owner and due date
• Source field populated (Loop A/B/C)

Minimum fields to capture:

• Source (Loop A/B/C)
• Thesis tag / segment
• Signal score (1-5)
• Must be true (one sentence)
• Next step + due date
• Status (meet / watch / pass)
• Pass reason (if passing) + "what would change our mind"

Use salesforce-crm-ops for API logging patterns.

Examples

• Input: "Source seed-stage AI security posture management."
• Output: Top 50 humans list with refresh schedule, 10 new names this week (all in Salesforce), 5 outreach targets with 2 variants, 2 warm intros, weekly metrics (3 meetings, 1 partner-ready), outreach experiment results.

Edge cases

• If signals are noisy: tighten wedge and require buyer clarity before meetings.
• If outbound response is low: your offer is not concrete enough; fix the offer, not the subject line.
• If you can't log to Salesforce: stop and fix the integration before continuing. No exceptions.