Table of Contents
Overview
The Almanac is an AI-powered people search and biography generation platform launched publicly December 2025 enabling users searching any person’s name and instantly receiving a professional Wikipedia-style profile combining public online information with neutral, cited biography. Rather than manually aggregating data across LinkedIn, news articles, Twitter, company websites, and professional databases, The Almanac’s research agents autonomously crawl public sources, disambiguate individuals sharing identical names, and synthesize findings into structured profiles with timeline, highlights, and connections. The December 2025 Product Hunt launch (105+ upvotes, top featured) and strong Hacker News reception validate market demand for streamlined professional background research.
Available through free beta tier with premium features forthcoming (pricing not yet published), The Almanac targets investors performing due diligence, recruiters conducting background research, journalists researching public figures, sales professionals preparing for meetings, and business professionals needing rapid professional context. The platform’s emphasis on source disambiguation (separating people sharing identical names—persistent problem for GPT and other AI search tools) and cited claims differentiates from generic AI search tools prone to hallucinations and inaccuracies.
Key Features
Instant Profile Generation: Type any name and receive auto-generated professional profile in under 10 seconds. If profile exists in database, returns immediately; if new, AI agents generate from public sources automatically.
Source Reconciliation: Crawls public web sources (news articles, social media, blogs, professional databases, company websites, academic publications) automatically reconciling contradictory information and removing hallucinations before synthesizing into single narrative.
Identity Disambiguation Engine: Intelligently separates individuals sharing identical or similar names. Analyzes context, dates, locations, and associated entities ensuring correct person when searching common names.
Structured Profile Card: Each profile includes professional photo (when available), name, current role/company, headline, and key highlights enabling quick scanning before meetings or research.
Timeline View: Chronological sequence of career moves, major accomplishments, publications, funding events, media mentions, and key life events enabling understanding of trajectory and progression.
Public URL and Sharing: Each generated profile receives permanent public URL enabling sharing as professional bio link. Individuals can claim profiles and suggest edits (under development).
Related People Connections: “Related People” section visualizes social graph connections to other people—co-workers, founders, investors, collaborators—enabling quick understanding of professional network and relationships.
Source Citations and Links: Every claim in biography directly cites source with hyperlinks enabling verification and deeper research. Transparency prevents unsupported claims.
Neutral Biography Narrative: Written without bias presenting facts objectively rather than promotional or critical tone. Similar to Wikipedia article style.
Public Data Aggregation: Combines information from LinkedIn, news archives, company databases, social media, patents, publications, and other public sources creating comprehensive professional footprint.
Name Disambiguation on Search: When searching names with multiple matches, system displays disambiguation options enabling selection of correct person before generating profile.
How It Works
Navigate to The Almanac website and enter person’s name in search bar. System checks existing profiles returning instantly if found. If new profile needed, click “Generate Profile” triggering research agents. Agents simultaneously crawl news articles, LinkedIn profiles, Twitter history, company websites, professional databases, patents, publications, and other public sources. System reconciles contradictory information removing hallucinations and false claims. AI synthesizes findings into structured biography with timeline, highlights, and citations. Profile appears within seconds. User views completed profile with all sources cited. Optional: claim profile and suggest edits to improve accuracy.
Use Cases
Background Checks and Due Diligence: Investors and business development professionals rapidly research founders, executives, and partners before negotiations or investments. Comprehensive public record aggregation reveals track record, experience, and credibility.
Networking Preparation Before Meetings: Business professionals research meeting participants before calls enabling informed discussion and identifying relevant common interests or connections. Reduces cold introduction friction.
Creating Personal Landing Page: Generate comprehensive biography as personal branding tool or shareable professional reference. Use Almanac profile as go-to-bio link on social profiles and business cards.
Journalism and Research: Journalists researching public figures rapidly aggregate comprehensive public footprint. Academics and researchers verify biographical claims with source citations.
Recruiting and Talent Search: Recruiters background check candidates and identify talent pools. Understand candidate track record, growth trajectory, and professional accomplishments.
Sales Prospecting: Sales teams research prospects understanding decision-maker backgrounds, company roles, and relevant professional history. Enables personalized conversation topics and credibility building.
Pros \& Cons
Advantages
Saves Hours of Research Time: Replaces 2-4 hours of manual Googling, LinkedIn scrolling, and cross-referencing with instant structured profile. Time savings especially valuable for time-constrained professionals.
Creates Clean Standardized Profiles: Consistent format, structure, and information organization across all profiles. Eliminates scattered research findings across multiple tabs.
Disambiguates Identical Names: Solves persistent problem where GPT, Perplexity, and other AI search struggle—reliably separates John Smith’s, ensuring correct person. Critical for common names.
Source Citations Enable Verification: Every claim references specific source with hyperlinks enabling deep dives and verification. Prevents unsupported claims building confidence in accuracy.
Identifies Connections and Network: Related People visualization shows professional relationships enabling understanding of who knows whom. Useful for warm introductions and networking strategy.
Completely Free Beta: Free tier generous for early adopters. No paywall preventing access to core functionality during beta.
Disadvantages
Accuracy Depends on Public Data Availability: Profiles only as comprehensive as public information available. Private individuals with minimal online presence yield limited profiles regardless of AI sophistication.
Privacy Concerns for Some Users: Aggregating individuals’ public information and making permanently searchable raises privacy concerns particularly for individuals preferring minimal public profile. Potential for harassment or unwanted attention.
AI-Generated Accuracy Questions: Despite source citations, AI-generated summaries subject to model errors, misinterpretation of nuanced contexts, and selective fact choices. Less authoritative than manually curated Wikipedia.
Limited User Control Currently: Profile claiming and editing not yet broadly available. Users cannot directly edit their profiles limiting ability to correct inaccuracies or update information.
Early-Stage Platform Risk: December 2025 launch means unproven reliability at scale, unknown downtime, limited customer references, and uncertain future investment. Long-term viability unproven.
Potential Legal/Regulatory Risks: Mass aggregation of personal information publicly raises questions regarding data protection, right to be forgotten, and regulatory compliance across jurisdictions.
How Does It Compare?
The Almanac vs LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network where individuals maintain self-authored profiles with career history, endorsements, and connections.
Profile Source:
- The Almanac: AI-aggregated public sources
- LinkedIn: Self-authored by users
Data Accuracy:
- The Almanac: Depends on public data quality; AI-generated synthesis
- LinkedIn: User-maintained; outdated if not updated by owner
Comprehensiveness:
- The Almanac: Captures all public activity including news mentions, projects, publications
- LinkedIn: Limited to what users voluntarily enter
Network Visualization:
- The Almanac: Shows related connections algorithmically detected
- LinkedIn: Shows user-curated connections only
Use Case:
- The Almanac: Research and background intelligence
- LinkedIn: Professional networking and direct communication
Cost:
- The Almanac: Free (beta)
- LinkedIn: Free profile; premium features require subscription
When to Choose The Almanac: For comprehensive background research and due diligence.
When to Choose LinkedIn: For professional networking and direct contact.
The Almanac vs Crunchbase
Crunchbase is company and founder database focused on funding, investment activity, and startup ecosystem with extensive company profiles, investor information, and deal data.
Focus:
- The Almanac: Individual people biography
- Crunchbase: Company and funding information
Data Sources:
- The Almanac: News, social media, public web, databases
- Crunchbase: Funding announcements, company updates, press releases
Scope:
- The Almanac: Any public person
- Crunchbase: Startups, founders, and investors primarily
Person Profiles:
- The Almanac: Comprehensive narrative biography
- Crunchbase: Limited to founder background with funding focus
Investment Intel:
- The Almanac: None
- Crunchbase: Extensive funding history, investor lists
Use Case:
- The Almanac: General background research on people
- Crunchbase: Startup due diligence and investment research
When to Choose The Almanac: For individual professional biography and general background.
When to Choose Crunchbase: For startup and investment intelligence.
The Almanac vs Golden
Golden is structured business intelligence platform aggregating company data from thousands of sources enabling filtering and export of funding, leadership, and growth metrics for business research.
Primary Focus:
- The Almanac: Individual people biography
- Golden: Company intelligence and business data
Data Type:
- The Almanac: Person profiles, biography, connections
- Golden: Company funding, executives, growth metrics
Search Capability:
- The Almanac: People search by name
- Golden: Company search with financial and operational filters
Customization:
- The Almanac: Standard profile generation
- Golden: Custom dataset requests and API integration
Export Options:
- The Almanac: Share public URLs
- Golden: CSV, API, CRM integration, custom data pulls
Use Case:
- The Almanac: Person background research
- Golden: Company intelligence for business decisions
When to Choose The Almanac: For individual professional biography and person research.
When to Choose Golden: For company-level business intelligence and data export.
The Almanac vs Wikipedia
Wikipedia is free online encyclopedia with millions of manually curated articles edited by volunteer contributors with strict notability and verification requirements.
Curation:
- The Almanac: AI-generated from public sources
- Wikipedia: Human-edited with community review
Coverage:
- The Almanac: Anyone with public internet presence
- Wikipedia: Limited to notable people meeting editorial standards
Update Frequency:
- The Almanac: Real-time crawling
- Wikipedia: User-edited, variable update frequency
Notability Standards:
- The Almanac: None; any person with public data
- Wikipedia: Strict notability requirements for inclusion
Accuracy Verification:
- The Almanac: Source citations only; no editorial review
- Wikipedia: Community review and source verification
Cost:
- The Almanac: Free
- Wikipedia: Free
When to Choose The Almanac: For current research on any public person including non-notable individuals.
When to Choose Wikipedia: For verified information on notable public figures with editorial oversight.
Final Thoughts
The Almanac represents pragmatic response to persistent professional research bottleneck: rapid due diligence and background intelligence on any person requires hours of cross-platform searching, information reconciliation, and synthesis. Rather than building new social network, The Almanac transforms existing fragmented public information into structured, discoverable, citable profiles.
The December 2025 launch with strong Product Hunt reception (105+ upvotes) and Hacker News engagement validates market demand. The emphasis on name disambiguation—solving real problem where generic AI search tools fail—and source citations differentiates from competitors. The vision of “people Wikipedia” positioning every person with public internet presence as potential biographical subject expands beyond Wikipedia’s notability constraints.
However, significant challenges remain. December 2025 launch creates stability uncertainty. Privacy concerns legitimate for individuals preferring minimal public aggregation. AI-generated accuracy despite citations raises questions for consequential decisions. Profile claiming and editing not yet broadly available limiting user control. Long-term business model (beta free tier) undefined.
For investors, recruiters, journalists, and business professionals needing rapid background research on public figures, The Almanac provides compelling infrastructure automating hours of manual research. The combination of multi-source aggregation, name disambiguation, and source citations creates trusted research tool unavailable from generic search or singular platforms.
The positioning distinctly addresses the “founder intelligence problem”—investment and business decisions increasingly require understanding not just companies but individuals driving them. The Almanac transforms individual research from scattered activity across LinkedIn, Google, news archives, and professional databases into centralized, structured, cited source of truth.