Built by HexCode Studio · Tricia Ballad

Stop guessing
when to reach out.
Know.

SignalForge monitors your portfolio of startups and surfaces the exact moments when a founder is likely to need fractional leadership — so you spend your energy on conversations that matter, not on cold monitoring.

Claim Your Founding Seat → See how it works ↓
SignalForge — Live Briefing Live
Meridian Data Co.
Series A · 28 employees
New VP Sales hired 3 weeks ago. Engineering headcount up 40% YoY. No technical co-founder on record.
Technical Leadership Gap
84
TRS
Flux Automation
Seed · 11 employees
Second product line announced. Compliance signals elevated. Founder posting at high velocity on LinkedIn.
MomentumPressure
71
TRS
Aldgate Systems
Pre-Series A · 19 employees
Enterprise contract announced. No CTO listed. Engineering job postings increased 3x in 60 days.
ComplexityLeadership Gap
67
TRS
Architecture + Engineering
For employers reviewing this as a portfolio piece: SignalForge is a production Python/FastAPI application with a multi-stage LLM analysis pipeline. The architecture decisions below explain why each component was chosen. The full codebase is on GitHub under hexcodestudio.
Ingest
Multi-source signal collection. Funding, hiring, product, social.
Derive
Signal normalization + enrichment. Structured features per company.
Score
LGPS multi-dimensional TRS via LLM analysis + rule-based heuristics.
Gate
ESL engagement suitability layer. Cooldown enforcement. Bias audit.
Output
Daily briefing + outreach drafts. Human review before any send.
Stack
FastAPI + PostgreSQL + SQLAlchemy 2.x + Alembic. Migration-driven schema management from day one. No ad-hoc DDL.
LLM Layer
Multi-provider abstraction. Anthropic SDK primary; abstraction layer allows model substitution without pipeline changes.
Ethics Layer
Human-in-the-loop required. No auto-outreach. Cooldown caps, stability thresholds, and bias audit jobs are architectural constraints, not UI toggles.
Frontend
HTMX + Jinja2. No JS framework. Zero build pipeline. Deliberate — simplicity at this stage is a feature.
Auth
Token-based internal job endpoints. Secure internal ops without introducing OAuth complexity at the current scale.
Deployed by
Tricia Ballad, solo. Architecture, schema design, LLM integration, guardrails, and frontend all authored by a single engineer.
How It Works
01
You add companies to watch

Add any startup you want to monitor. SignalForge tracks signals across funding, hiring, product launches, compliance events, and founder communications.

02
SignalForge scores every company nightly

The Technical Readiness Score (TRS) measures momentum, complexity, leadership gaps, and pressure. The Engagement Suitability Layer tells you whether the timing is actually right.

03
You get a daily briefing with a draft in hand

Every morning, see who moved, why they moved, and get a ready-to-send outreach draft tailored to the specific inflection happening at that company. You review. You decide. SignalForge never sends on your behalf.

The Ethical Difference

Built to protect founders,
not exploit them.

Most outreach tools push you to contact more people, more often. SignalForge does the opposite — the Engagement Suitability Layer actively brakes when a founder appears to be under stress, protecting your reputation and theirs. High founder pressure means lower outreach intensity. You reach out less often, but your timing is consistently better.

Engagement Suitability Layer — live assessment
Momentum signalsStrong
Founder stress indicatorsElevated
Communication stabilityStable
Cooldown statusClear
Recommendation: Low-pressure intro — good timing window. Outreach draft ready. Review before sending.
Pricing
Founding Cohort
$197/mo
Locked for first 12 months · then $497/mo · 10 seats only
  • Monitor up to 50 companies
  • Daily briefing with outreach drafts
  • Full TRS + ESL scoring with explanations
  • Direct input on product roadmap
  • Weekly development updates
  • Priority onboarding call with Tricia
  • Rate locked regardless of future pricing changes
Claim Your Seat →
Standard
$497/mo
Available after founding cohort closes
  • Monitor up to 50 companies
  • Daily briefing with outreach drafts
  • Full TRS + ESL scoring with explanations
  • Standard onboarding
Waitlist opens when cohort fills

10 seats. When they're gone, they're gone.

The founding rate closes when the 10th seat is taken. If you've been waiting for a sign that the timing is right — this is it.

$197/month · locked for 12 months · 10 seats total