Stealth Tracking

Stealth Tracking makes stealth status something you can search on. Ask for everyone currently in stealth, or everyone who came out of it in the last quarter, and slice either population with the full set of profile filters.

Two modes

Every search sets stealthConfig.mode:

Both accept date windows, absolute or relative:

• enteredStealthAt — narrow by when they went into stealth. Available in both modes, so in left-stealth you can ask for people who were heads-down for a year before launching, and skip the ones who were in stealth for three weeks.
• leftStealthAt — left-stealth only. Defaults to the last year if you omit it, so you get recent launches rather than everything on record.

Filter it like any other search

stealthFoundersSearch takes a full searchParams object on top of the stealth config — the same filters people search uses. Prior employer, seniority, location, keywords, education, and career timing all compose with stealth status, so you can narrow to something like ex-Stripe, in stealth since March, in the Bay Area.

Results come back with the most recent transitions first. Page with pageSize (1–1,000, default 25) and the returned cursor.

Sizing a search first

stealthFoundersCount returns how many profiles match, without pulling them.

The count is exact. The general search count endpoints estimate and cap at 10,000; this one returns the real number however large the population.

Alerting on people you already care about

To be alerted about people already on your list, use the Tracker rule person_stealth_changed:

{
  "type": "person_stealth_changed",
  "entityType": "person",
  "direction": "entered"
}

Set direction to watch entries, exits, or either. See Tracker for adding entities and receiving signals.

Why VCs love it

• Reach founders before the announcement. Someone in stealth is often about to start a company.
• First-mover advantage. Stealth signals surface opportunities that competitors using snapshot data can't see.

Use cases

• Venture sourcing: find prospective founders before a launch is public.
• Launch monitoring: run left-stealth on a schedule against your thesis filters to catch new companies as they surface.
• Talent signals: a key contact entering stealth may be about to leave — pair with Tracker rules for churn detection.
• Recruiting: identify people quietly between roles and likely open to a move.

Using it effectively

• Combine stealth status with prior employer, seniority, or location — stealth alone matches a large population.
• Set enteredStealthAt to bound how long someone has been in stealth.
• Count before you search: the count is exact, so it's a reliable way to tune filters before spending.
• Query both modes when mapping a space, and dedupe client-side — someone can be in stealth now and have left a different stealth company earlier.

Cost

stealthFoundersSearch bills 1 credit per profile returned, the same rate as people search. A page that comes back short is charged short, so an over-generous pageSize costs nothing extra.

stealthFoundersCount bills 1 credit per request regardless of how many profiles match — cheap to size a search, but not free.

Both endpoints share a rate limit of 120 requests/minute. The chargeInfo on each response is what you were actually charged; see Billing & credits.

Related

• Search — the filter set that composes with stealth status.
• Tracker — alerts on watched people, including stealth transitions.
• Contact Reveal — reach the founders you find.