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Signal key

founded_year_added

Category

Structure

Source

Company Professional Network page (founded year field).
A previously missing founded year was populated.

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When it fires

Trigger condition

founded_year was null or missing and is now populated.

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Magnitude

Low, usually a data completeness update.
For the full bucket definitions used across percentage-based signals, see Magnitude buckets.

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Why it matters

Often a data cleanup, but worth flagging. Adding a founded year is typically profile maintenance rather than a strategic event, low intensity, but it can indicate someone is actively grooming the company page.

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How to use Founded Year Added Signal?

The scenario. You are a platform associate at a venture fund, responsible for keeping the sourcing engine fed. Brand-new companies are the hardest to systematically find: too young for databases, too quiet for press, often too stealthy for even a proper website. But they do one thing early, they fill in their public profiles, field by field, as they come out of hiding. The goal. Use profile-completion events as a discovery layer for young companies entering the visible world. The signal fires. founded_year_added fires for Mosaic Grid, an energy-software company: a founded year has just appeared on a profile that previously did not list one. The year added: last year. This is not an old company tidying its page; this is a young company assembling its public identity in real time. What it tells you. A recently founded company adding its founding year is typically moving from stealth toward market: hiring publicly, talking to customers, preparing to be findable. That transition window is the best sourcing moment a fund gets, the company is discoverable but not yet crowded, and a thoughtful early conversation still stands out. Combined with a young founding year, this small signal works as a tripwire for exactly the cohort your partners want to see early. The play.
  1. Filter hard: the signal alone is housekeeping; the signal plus a founding year within the last two years is a lead.
  2. Enrich the company immediately, team, sector, hiring pattern, and score it against the fund’s theses.
  3. If it fits, reach the founder while the company is still under-networked, referencing their actual space rather than a template.
  4. If it is too early even for you, put it on a six-month re-check, young companies compound fast, and your note-to-self beats a competitor’s cold call later.
Automate it. A weekly Company Signals API pull on founded_year_added, filtered to recent years and your sectors, is a stealth-exit detector running quietly alongside your other sourcing. Why this works. Every fund sees companies once they raise. The edge is the window between becoming visible and becoming obvious, and profile-completion events mark its opening.

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How to read it

Data cleanup

Usually profile completion, not a strategic move.

Page grooming

Suggests active page maintenance, sometimes pre-event.

Low intensity

Rarely actionable alone.

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Outreach playbook

Low priority. Note only as evidence of active page maintenance.

Founded Year Change

The founded year value changed.

Tagline Added

A previously empty tagline is now populated.

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