Case Study: GTMfund finds exceptional founders earlier with Harmonic

GTMfund finds exceptional founders 200M-profile deep with Harmonic

GTMfund, a venture capital firm specializing in pre-seed to seed-stage investments, needed a new playbook to source and evaluate exceptional founders before they were widely known to the market. Their challenge was to identify and build relationships with high-potential individuals well ahead of any formal fundraising round, moving beyond traditional company-focused sourcing to monitor people for early signals. To achieve this, they turned to vendor Harmonic and its suite of features including People Search, Saved Searches, and the AI-powered Scout tool.

Using Harmonic, GTMfund implemented a systematic sourcing engine built on Saved Searches that functioned as an always-on radar for stealth founders and key talent from target companies. The platform’s extensive people database and alerts allowed their small team to efficiently monitor departures from elite companies and surface profiles matching their "spike factor" thesis. This solution enabled GTMfund to make first contact with founders long before they entered the market, driving a significant portion of their outbound deal flow and ensuring they could lead rounds in the highly competitive pre-seed space.

GTMfund