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Methodology

Data sources

Every number on the site is built from primary sources, transformed by purpose-built functions (data models + code + Gemini + targeted crawls + prioritisation logic + trend aggregation), shaped by operator input from practitioners, and gated by experienced editors before anything ships.

SourceA public dataset, filing, or feed read directly.
FunctionA purpose-built pipeline: data model + code + AI calls (Gemini) + targeted crawls (Firecrawl) + prioritisation logic + trend aggregation. Not a single prompt.
Operator inputPractitioners contribute workflow, constraint, and feature knowledge — upstream domain input that shapes what the site models.
Human reviewExperienced editors review and correct — reconciling filings, functions, and AI output before anything reaches the site.

How the engine works

A "function" on this site is not a one-line prompt. Each one is a small pipeline that combines a typed data model, code, Gemini calls, targeted Firecrawl runs, prioritisation logic, and trend aggregation. Human review sits at the end of every pipeline before anything ships to a reader.

  1. Step 1
    Data model

    Typed schema per domain — vendors, moves, roles, cities, categories.

  2. Step 2
    Prioritised ingest

    Tier 1 sources are polled first and weighted highest. No open-web scraping.

  3. Step 3
    AI + code pipeline

    Gemini classifies + dedupes; deterministic code handles scoring and joins.

  4. Step 4
    Cross-source validation

    Funding / M&A claims must corroborate against ≥2 sources before entering the review pool.

  5. Step 5
    Editor gate

    Nothing publishes to Pulse, Telegram, or the blog without a human click.

Prioritised sources

Every input is on a maintained registry with an assigned tier. Signals from Tier 1 sources are trusted by default and get higher weight in the Hotness Composite. Tier 2 and Tier 3 signals require cross-source corroboration before they can enter the Vendor Move Ledger. We do not scrape the open web indiscriminately.

Tier 1Primary / regulator-grade

Filings, regulator feeds, LEI registries, and the top wealth-management trade press. Trusted by default; weighted highest in the Hotness Composite; clears the publish gate fastest.

  • SEC EDGAR / Form ADV
  • GLEIF
  • Public ATS APIs (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workable)
  • WealthManagement · ThinkAdvisor · RIABiz · Citywire · InvestmentNews · Kitces
Tier 2Community & long-tail

Practitioner communities and targeted crawls of the long tail. Useful for early signal, but every funding / M&A claim must corroborate against a Tier 1 source before entering the Vendor Move review pool.

  • r/CFP · r/financialplanning · Hacker News
  • Long-tail crawler (targeted, prioritised list)
  • Vendor documentation and product changelogs
Tier 3Opportunistic

One-off inputs — conference reports, podcast transcripts, LinkedIn posts we happen to catch. Never published without human review and a Tier 1 or Tier 2 corroboration.

  • Industry conferences (T3, Future Proof, Schwab IMPACT)
  • Podcast transcripts
  • Practitioner LinkedIn commentary

Vendor catalog

EDGAR/GLEIF on filing; Crunchbase event-driven; overrides continuous.

Vendor cards, Atlas tiles, funding and AI-impact figures.

  • SourceSEC EDGAR
    US filings — revenue, employees, legal name
  • SourceGLEIF
    LEI, parent entity, legal HQ country
  • SourceSEC Form ADV
    Registered investment advisers, AUM
  • SourceCrunchbase
    Funding rounds, founding year (where disclosed)
  • SourceWikipedia / Wikidata
    Company descriptions and overrides
  • Operator inputOperator input
    Practitioners flag which vendors matter in real workflows, and why
  • Human reviewHuman review
    Experienced editors reconcile filings, funding, and overrides before a vendor appears in the catalog

Free, attributable, primary sources. No paid dataset resale, no scraping vendor sites for financial fields.

Industry map

Form ADV annually; annual reports on release; editorial continuous.

Firm profiles, AUM/AUA, channel and product mix on /industry.

  • SourceSEC Form ADV
    AUM, AUA, client counts, advisor headcount
  • SourceGLEIF
    Legal parent, HQ jurisdiction
  • SourceAnnual reports & 10-Ks
    Channel mix, product coverage
  • SourceFirm websites
    Service model and client segments
  • FunctionChannel classifier
    Pipeline that groups firms by distribution channel and product mix: parses filings + firm sites → Gemini classifies channel and segment → cross-checks against a curated taxonomy → aggregates trends.
  • Operator inputOperator input
    Advisors and RIA operators describe channel realities that filings don't capture
  • Human reviewHuman review
    Experienced editors reconcile classifier output before a firm profile is published

Pulse signals

Industry press polled hourly; community signal 30 min; long-tail crawl daily.

News tiles, ticker, and What's Hot feed on /pulse.

  • SourceIndustry RSS
    Tier 1 trade press polled hourly — corroboration required before anything reaches the review pool
    • · WealthManagement— Practice management & industry news
    • · ThinkAdvisor— Advisor-focused reporting
    • · RIABiz— RIA industry coverage
    • · Citywire— Global asset & wealth
    • · InvestmentNews— Advisor & broker news
    • · Kitces & Financial Planning— Long-form advisor commentary
  • SourceRegulator feeds
    SEC press releases, FINRA news
  • SourceCommunity signal
    Tier 2 — r/CFP, r/financialplanning, Hacker News; used for early signal only
  • SourceLong-tail crawler
    Targeted Firecrawl runs against a maintained prioritised list — not the open web
  • FunctionSignal Classifier
    Pipeline: ingests ~40 prioritised feeds → dedupes across sources → Gemini tags event type (funding / M&A / launch / geo) → routes to the right Pulse lens → decays by recency.
  • Human reviewVendor Move review pool
    Experienced editors promote funding, M&A, launches and geo moves into the review pool only after corroboration.
  • Human reviewHuman review
    Every promoted item is reviewed before it appears on Pulse

Auto-surfaced signals and the human-curated Vendor Move Ledger are labelled inline so you always know which is which.

Hiring pipeline

ATS APIs polled daily, sharded across ~500 employers.

Jobs tab, city heat, vendor and firm jobs moves.

  • SourcePublic ATS feeds
    Daily role postings from ~500 seeded wealth-tech employers
    • · Greenhouse— Public boards
    • · Lever— Public boards
    • · Ashby— Public boards
    • · Workable— Public boards
  • FunctionHiring Signal Extractor
    Pipeline: polls ~500 ATS boards on a sharded daily cadence → Gemini classifies role family and hiring events (surges, cuts, key hires) → weekly delta aggregation feeds heat scores.
  • FunctionDeduplication
    Collapses cross-posted roles using canonical ATS IDs plus a JD Jaccard-similarity check so one opening isn't counted three times.
  • Human reviewEmployer curation
    Experienced editors maintain the employer list and role taxonomy
  • Human reviewHuman review
    New employers and role classifications are reviewed before they count toward heat scores

Roles cross-posted across ATS platforms are collapsed to a single canonical opening before they count toward heat scores.

Hotness scores

Refreshed daily 03:20 UTC.

Hot Companies and Hot Moves rankings per Pulse lens.

  • Human reviewVendor Move review pool
    Editor-curated funding, M&A, launches and geo moves with recency decay
  • FunctionJobs Signal Extractor
    Job openings, hiring surges, and cuts from the news pipeline
  • FunctionHiring Deltas
    Week-over-week role-posting velocity from ATS feeds
  • SourceCommunity engagement
    Reddit / Hacker News reach, weighted by novelty
  • FunctionHotness Composite
    Deterministic weighted blend across curated moves, hiring deltas, and community engagement. Tier 1 sources are weighted higher; weights are versioned and reviewed.
  • Human reviewHuman review
    Experienced editors review weights and outliers before the daily refresh ships

The Hotness Composite is a deterministic weighted blend with a recency decay window. No black-box models — the formula is stable across runs.

Ideas & signal briefs

Aggregator runs 4x daily; drafting functions run on demand.

Daily signal briefs surfaced in Telegram and /blog.

  • FunctionSource Aggregator
    Pulls the last 48h from the same prioritised RSS / community / crawler set as Pulse
  • FunctionIdea Generation
    Gemini proposes ideas grounded in cited sources, each claim tied to a URL
  • FunctionFact-Checking
    Second Gemini pass re-fetches each cited URL and verifies the claim before the idea is queued
  • FunctionResonance rewriter
    Rewrites the draft into a peer-to-peer voice with TL;DR, why-it-matters, and implications
  • Human reviewHuman publish gate
    Nothing ships to Telegram or /blog without a manual editor click

Every brief carries a manual publish gate — nothing auto-ships to Telegram or the blog.

Skills & salary bands

MOOC + salary sources refreshed quarterly; editorial continuous.

Skill cards, role match, salary lab across /skills.

  • SourceKitces AdvisorTech 2025
    Category coverage, vendor practicality
  • SourceT3 Survey 2026
    Vendor market share and satisfaction
  • SourceSalary sources
    Blended compensation signal by geography
    • · US BLS OES— US salary anchors
    • · Glassdoor + Levels.fyi— Crowd-sourced compensation signal
    • · 6figr.com— India salary bands
  • FunctionCourse catalog scan
    Pipeline that measures where practical wealth-tech skills are and aren't taught — targeted Firecrawl runs against MOOC catalogs → Gemini scores practicality → trends aggregated across providers.
    • · Coursera— Global MOOC catalog
    • · Udemy— Practitioner-led courses
    • · edX— University-led catalog
    • · LinkedIn Learning— Career-adjacent catalog
    • · CFI— Finance-focused catalog
  • FunctionPracticality Scoring
    Blend of Gemini scoring + editor overrides for how practical each skill is versus how well existing courses teach it
  • Operator inputOperator input
    Practitioner input on workflow stages, constraints, and where existing tools fall short
  • Human reviewHuman review
    Experienced editors review every role and skill card before it appears in /skills

Quiz library

New drafts daily; humans approve before publish.

Feature pop quizzes and role challenges on /quizzes.

  • SourceKitces AdvisorTech 2025
    Category definitions, vendor coverage
  • SourceT3 Survey 2026
    Vendor market share and adoption
  • SourceVendor documentation
    Feature-level questions
  • Operator inputOperator input
    Workflow-stage articulation prompts contributed by practitioners
  • FunctionQuestion Drafting
    Pipeline: Gemini drafts question variants grounded in the primary sources above, then a fact-check pass validates the answer key against source URLs.
  • Human reviewHuman approval
    Every question is human-approved before it can appear in a quiz

What we don’t do

  • Resell paid third-party datasets (no Pitchbook, no S&P licensing).
  • Scrape vendor websites for financial fields — too noisy, too stale.
  • Publish AI-impact ratings without a written rationale on the sub-capability page.
  • Auto-publish signal briefs to Telegram or /blog — every send needs a human click.

Spot something wrong? Open a sub-capability and use the “Report issue” affordance — the catalog team triages within a week.