---
name: company-scout
description: >-
  Find innovative companies, labs, and teams where Ryan's high-agency
  builder/researcher profile is unusually strong. Company-first discovery
  via YC, VC portfolios, funding news, labs, and founder social. Creates
  records with scripts/new_company.py and scripts/new_contact.py.
---

# Company scout

Find innovative companies, labs, and teams where Ryan's high-agency builder/researcher profile is unusually strong.

## Before scouting

1. Read **`profile/target-thesis.md`** — what to prioritize
2. Read **`profile/company-fit-rubric.md`** — scoring dimensions
3. Read **`goal.md`** — search keywords and batch limits
4. Pick a source playbook below

## Workflow

1. Search a source for candidate companies.
2. Filter for technical ambition, novelty, research energy, and learning upside.
3. Create/reuse company records with **`scripts/new_company.py`**.
4. Add company notes and score fields (see rubric).
5. Find 1–3 relevant people if possible.
6. Create contacts with **`scripts/new_contact.py`**.
7. Find roles only after the company is judged interesting.
8. Create leads with **`scripts/new_lead.py`** if relevant.
9. Draft outreach only after company/contact context exists.
10. Run `sync_indexes.py`, `validate.py`, and `report.py`.

```bash
.venv/bin/python scripts/new_company.py --name "Example AI" --website "https://example.com"
.venv/bin/python scripts/new_contact.py --name "Jane Doe" --company "Example AI" --role "Founder"
.venv/bin/python scripts/new_lead.py --title "Research Engineer" --company "Example AI" --url "https://..." --source "yc"
.venv/bin/python scripts/sync_indexes.py
.venv/bin/python scripts/validate.py
.venv/bin/python scripts/report.py --companies
```

## Rules

- Do not just scrape job posts.
- Do not overvalue funding by itself.
- Do not overvalue big names by themselves.
- Prefer small technical teams with reachable people.
- Prefer labs/startups doing hard, novel work.
- Do not invent emails or hiring status.
- Do not manually create entity files or append CSV rows.

## Source playbooks

| Source | Playbook |
|--------|----------|
| YC directory / Work at a Startup | [yc.md](sources/yc.md) |
| VC portfolios | [vc-portfolio.md](sources/vc-portfolio.md) |
| Funding / launch news | [funding-news.md](sources/funding-news.md) |
| Research labs | [labs.md](sources/labs.md) |
| Founder social / technical presence | [founder-social.md](sources/founder-social.md) |

Keep all social-site actions read-only unless Ryan explicitly approves.

## Scoring

Record rubric scores in company `notes` when evaluating:

```
technical_ambition: 5
research_energy: 4
builder_appreciation: 5
novelty: 4
talent_density: 4
learning_upside: 5
outreach_surface: 4
role_plausibility: 3
```

Then sync indexes.