Find the builder before
the database does.
Filter builders by un-fakeable build telemetry — tokens, build time, languages, what they actually ship — captured at the source and tied to the person, often months before they have a deck or a domain. Set a thesis, surface who matches, and reach out first. The same signal YC built Paxel on — open to you.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Y Combinator. Paxel referenced as public category validation.
Every signal you scout on is gamed or late.
Every legacy proxy for builder ability broke at once. Build telemetry — how someone actually ships with AI — is the one signal that didn't. Here's why the rest fail you.
A diligence liability.
~$85 buys the 2,850-star seed-stage median — a 3,500× return on fraud. ~6 million fake stars across 18,617 repos, AI/LLM repos the largest category.
Carnegie Mellon University, StarScout · ICSE 2026
Rewards charisma.
A deck rewards whoever presents best, not whoever ships best. By the time there's a deck, the edge is gone — and so is the price.
Theo Browne: “a $50 problem with a $50 million consequence.”
Index companies after they form.
Harmonic, Evertrace and gitdealflow scrape external, gameable signals — stars, commit velocity, registries — attributed to a company. You see the builder once everyone else can.
Evertrace: “detect founders before they show up in any startup database.”
Un-fakeable build telemetry, tied to the person.
Vibe coding exposed the gap between generating code and shipping. Promptbook shows who actually ships — tokens, build time, real shipped work, captured continuously from the terminal. Stars cost three cents. A 2-million-token build can't be bought at any price.
Polywork raised $44.5M and died — self-reported data, and no buyer to give the profile a job. Ours is captured at the source, so it can't be faked, and you are the buyer — the supply compounds on its own.
Real builders. Verified output.
Before they're on anyone's radar.
Every stat below is tracked, none typed in. 14.6K builds from 221 builders — and growing every day.
From thesis to first check.
No data-science team, no scraping pipeline. Set a thesis on real build axes and reach the builder directly — often before there's a company to scrape.
Filter to your thesis
Filter the whole pool on real axes — tokens, build time, builds, languages, the tools they live in. You set the bar; we never sell you a ranked match-score.
Surface the outliers
See exactly who clears it — the builders shipping hardest with AI, captured at the source, tied to the person, before they're on anyone else's radar.
Reach out first
Message the builder directly, while they're still just shipping. Get the warm intro before there's a deck, a domain, or a competing term sheet.
Find them before
the database does.
We're onboarding a first cohort of scouts and funds that source on proof, not stars. Leave your details and we'll set up your access.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Y Combinator. Paxel and the GitHub fake-star figures (Carnegie Mellon University, ICSE 2026) are referenced as public category validation.