The AI talent wars are heating up, with Meta offering $100 million signing bonuses to lure researchers from OpenAI. But recycling the same small pool of Silicon Valley veterans is driving costs higher and slowing innovation. Alex Bates, founder and CEO of HelloSky, has launched a GenAI-powered platform that maps real-world impact to uncover overlooked talent — an approach that favors performance over pedigree. Leo Cummings, an associate at Hunt Scanlon Ventures, examines what this means for executive search in the AI era.
In a recent article published by Fortune, Alex Bates, founder and CEO, explained how HelloSky is broadening the search for AI innovators at a time when Big Tech is recycling the same candidates. The platform scours not just résumés, but actual code contributions, peer-reviewed research, and trending open-source projects, prioritizing measurable impact over flashy degrees.
“There’s different biases and filters about people’s pedigree or where they came from,” Mr. Bates said. “But if you could truly map all of that and just give credit for people that maybe went through alternate pathways then you can truly stack rank.”
Scarcity Drives Unsustainable Bidding Wars
Meta’s nine-figure offers illustrate just how scarce these experts have become. OpenAI’s Sam Altman has warned there may be only a “medium-sized handful” of people who can push AI toward superintelligence. The competition for that handful is sending costs soaring and creating churn across the same few firms.
Precision Talent: Leveraging AI To Unlock Human Intelligence
“It’s a big unlock for everything from hiring people, partnering, acquiring whatever, just everyone interested in this space,” Mr. Bates said. “There’s a lot of hidden talent globally.
“AI is now being used to cut through the noise and pinpoint performance with extraordinary precision.”
A Complete Map of Domain Experts
HelloSky’s system has been described as a complete map of domain experts worldwide. It identifies candidates who never appear on LinkedIn or in traditional job board searches.
The platform can also sense when certain candidates “embellish” their experience online. “Maybe they said they had a billion-dollar IPO, but [really] they left two years before the IPO. We can surface that,” Mr. Bates said. “But also we can give credit to people that maybe didn’t brag sufficiently.”
“AI is now being used to cut through the noise and pinpoint performance with extraordinary precision,” said Leo Cummings, an associate at Hunt Scanlon Ventures. “This shift allows recruiters to spend less time chasing inflated profiles and more time evaluating the right ones, forcing firms to strengthen leadership assessments earlier in the process.”
The AI Adoption Curve in Executive Search
Scaling With New Investment
HelloSky recently closed a $5.5 million seed round, backed by Caldwell Partners, True, Hunt Scanlon Ventures, and angel investors from Google and Cisco. With fresh capital, the company is scaling its platform to serve industries hungry for AI-ready leadership.
HelloSky Announces $5.5 Million Oversubscribed Seed Round
“If you can really target well and not waste so much time talking to the wrong people, then you can go much deeper into these next-gen behavioral assessment frameworks,” Mr. Bates said. “I think that’ll be the wave of the future.”
“In a market defined by scarcity, discovery is the differentiator,” said Mr. Cummings. “Clients will reward the firms that can bring new talent to the table, and platforms like HelloSky are proving that the pool is far bigger than we once assumed.”
View the article in its entirety here finance.yahoo.com/news/hellosky.
Article By
Leo Cummings
Leo Cummings is Editor-in-Chief of ExitUp, the investment blog from Hunt Scanlon Ventures designed for professionals across the human capital M&A sector. Leo serves as an Associate for Hunt Scanlon Ventures, providing robust industry research to support the firm’s investment group.
