What Beacon does
Where a normal search returns everyone who matches your filters, Beacon works the market the way a researcher would:- Interprets the brief. It restates your requirements so you can confirm it understood the role, the context (ownership, stage, sector), and the location.
- Runs multiple search sweeps. Several parallel searches from different angles: by title and sector, by geography, by exit history, and firm-by-firm through relevant companies.
- Evaluates candidates individually. It reads profiles, weighs them against your qualifications, and explains its reasoning as it goes; you can watch every step live.
- Ranks with SmartRank. The pool is scored against the explicit qualifications in your brief.
- Verifies freshness. Before finalizing, it re-checks that shortlisted candidates are still in the roles that made them relevant, and drops or demotes the ones that are not.
- Delivers a shortlist and a market map. A ranked shortlist with fit scores and evidence, plus a map of the companies that define the talent market for the role.
When to use Beacon versus regular search
- Use Beacon when you have a role to fill and want an evaluated shortlist: a brief with judgment applied, not just a filtered set.
- Use People or Company Search when you want to define the universe yourself, need precise control over every filter, or are doing broad market exploration rather than filling a specific seat.
Where results live
Each Beacon run works inside a folder. The shortlist is saved as a people list and the market map as a company list, so everything Beacon produces plugs into the same lists, stages, sharing, and newsfeeds as the rest of HelloSky.Beacon runs take several minutes; that time is spent actually evaluating candidates. You can watch it work, interrupt with follow-ups, or leave and come back: runs continue in the background and appear in your Beacon history.