Breaking the bottleneck: A faster path from search to shortlist

Prior to Harmonic, the Antler Elevate team had explored other sourcing platforms, but many introduced friction rather than clarity. Startup rankings often felt misaligned, filters returned irrelevant results, and even basic CRM integrations didn’t work as expected. Chris recalls running a search and seeing AT&T appear among early-stage companies. “I’d do a search and get a list that didn’t match fact or intuition: startups in the wrong order, corporates showing up. That kills trust in the tool.”

The Affinity integration in the team’s previous system was also a pain point. “It was only a single list integration for the entire team; it didn’t support any kind of real workflow between our systems,” Chris recalls. “Harmonic’s integration fits into our process much more naturally.”

Compared to legacy platforms, Harmonic also offered a dramatically faster way to explore early-stage companies. “I can look at dozens of companies on Harmonic before I’d even load two on PitchBook,” explains Chris. That UX advantage is especially important at the top of the funnel, when investors are scanning for themes, evaluating companies at scale, and quickly deciding who’s worth engaging. While PitchBook’s data quality is best-in-class and we still have a place for it in our stack, Chris notes that “that level of detail isn’t always necessary during early-stage research.” Indeed, it can actually slow the process down. 

In contrast, Harmonic’s interface and filters make it easy to move from raw discovery to focused outreach. “If I want to explore companies by geography, sector, theme, or even to search among top seed funds’ deals, I can build that list much faster,” Chris explains. 

Perhaps most important, Harmonic’s company rankings closely match how experienced VCs think. “Harmonic’s algorithm is just much more accurate,” says Chris. “When I look at a list in the platform, the order matches what I’d expect from my own gut prioritization. It’s simply more accurate than what we saw in our previous tool.”

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Seeing what’s moving: Real-time signals inside a global portfolio

With Antler’s global portfolio spanning more than 1,500 companies across 20+ geographies, the Elevate team relies on more than intuition to identify breakout performers. While the team has strong qualitative input from Antler’s pre-seed funds and program leads, surfacing traction across cohorts and markets was still a challenge.

“Even with the help of local teams on the ground, it’s hard to know who’s gaining traction across so many markets and cohorts,” explains Chris. Harmonic helps the team layer in quantitative and behavioral indicators—such as founder activity, social growth, hiring trends, and product updates—surfaced through continuous web scraping and real-time structuring. These signals make it easier to spot inflection points and assess whether a company is gaining momentum, even before a formal raise.

These alternative signals are particularly helpful in strengthening internal pipeline visibility. “Sometimes we don’t even know if a company is still operating,” Chris notes. “Harmonic can help us see which companies are active, accelerating, or worth engaging.”

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From thesis to target: Turning themes into founder outreach

Outside of Antler’s own portfolio, Antler Elevate uses Harmonic to spot net-new opportunities aligned to specific thesis areas. The team often begins with a broad thematic search such as consumer AI or edge computing, and then narrows the list based on geography, investor network, and founder signal. From there, they use Harmonic to research company highlights, click through to founder experience, and determine which companies are worth a closer look.

Once the team identifies promising candidates, Harmonic supports the next step: meeting prep, market research, and company context. Whether getting up-to-speed on a market, refining a thesis, or entering a call with a founder, Harmonic’s research tools and AI-generated reports offer a fast way to understand the competitive landscape. Scout, Harmonic’s AI agent, can instantly generate keyword-rich market maps and company overviews based on a simple thesis description, giving the team an immediate foothold in unfamiliar spaces. “It’s not our only prep step,” Chris notes, “but it’s often our first… especially when we need to move fast.”

That speed has made Harmonic the default tool for early research. “There are a lot of tools that can help at this stage,” Chris acknowledges, “but Harmonic is faster, so it’s become my go-to.” In fact, it’s been strong enough to prompt broader reevaluation: “Harmonic is good enough that we’re reconsidering some of our other licenses.”

One recent investment stemmed directly from a thematic deep dive in Harmonic. While mapping out the AI agent landscape, Chris used Harmonic to identify standout companies, combining company filters with founder search to flag profiles that might otherwise be overlooked. “The more information I can get quickly, the faster I can draw conclusions,” he says. After reviewing roughly 100 companies, half of them surfaced through Harmonic, he reached out to 25 founders. One in particular stood out: “a four-time founder whose profile I may have underestimated at first.” But the product was global, the timing was right, and Harmonic helped crystallize the opportunity. “They were excited about our ability to help them scale across 20 geographies,” Chris recalls. “That became a competitive edge.”

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The new sourcing funnel: Signal-first, founder-focused, network-aware

For Antler Elevate, the real power of Harmonic lies not just in finding more companies, but in spotting the right ones faster. “There are tens of thousands of companies that have raised seed rounds and could be ready for a Series A at any time,” Chris explains. “As a global investor, we don’t see everything. Some top funds might have full coverage, but most don’t. So the more data you can use, the better.” For Chris, tech is no longer optional. “Unless you have a massive team or an incredibly narrow focus, you’re simply not seeing it all. Tools like Harmonic are the only way to close that gap.”

That data includes far more than funding history or web traffic. Harmonic’s platform captures behavioral and contextual signals that help investors gauge early-stage traction. These signals don’t guarantee a winner, but they do add context and direction. “Half the time, the numbers say nothing on their own,” Chris says. “They’re just one part of a company’s broader story.”

Since adopting Harmonic, outbound has grown to 10–15% of Antler Elevate’s pipeline—a notable lift for a lean team. Harmonic’s filters and founder signals help narrow in on the right companies faster, making outreach more focused and effective. The ability to toggle between “in network” and “not in network” also helps prioritize warm intros and reduce time spent on cold outreach. It’s a small shift in workflow, with an outsized impact on deal flow.

Antler Elevate isn’t just building a global Series A pipeline; it’s rethinking what early-stage sourcing can look like when signal, speed, and scale come together. From narrowing the field to spotting breakout potential, Harmonic helps the team operate with speed, focus, and conviction.