# Pulse by Fractionl

Pulse publishes the Fractional Working Index (FWI), a free, citable, agent-readable 0 to 100 composite for the fractional leadership market.

## Citable facts

- Name: Fractional Working Index (FWI), published by Fractionl as Pulse by Fractionl. Cite as "Fractional Working Index (FWI), Pulse by Fractionl", with the reading's as-of date and a link to https://pulse.fractionl.ai
- What it measures: whether demand for fractional C-suite leadership is expanding or contracting, which roles are moving, and how complete the evidence is.
- Scale: 0 to 100. Bands: Surging 75 and above, Growing 60 to 74, Stable 45 to 59, Cooling 30 to 44, Contracting below 30.
- Method: three pillars, Demand (50%), Supply (20%) and Culture (30%), each the mean of one vote per source. From 2026-10-26 (method v2): ten inputs, every one of which moves; each reading is a whole number with a band; the series is chain-linked at that seam and earlier readings are kept as published. Before it: 20 tracked inputs, measured on 2026-10-23 at 4.4 effective independent inputs (the 10.7 published from 2026-09-21 was a measurement error). Full method: https://pulse.fractionl.ai/methodology. Every method change: https://pulse.fractionl.ai/changelog
- Validation: not validated. A pre-registered test of weekly demand change against Indeed postings gave r = -0.53 (n = 18 weeks, opposite sign); Census business applications r = -0.04 (n = 18). Quote this rather than implying the index tracks the labour market.
- Owner: Krish Raja, Fractionl. Corrections: hello@krishraja.com
- Cadence: recalculated after each successful daily ingest; read through a weekly brief and seven-day role windows.
- Completeness: every reading publishes meta.dataCompleteness (0 to 1), the weighted share of evidence that arrived. It is not prediction accuracy.
- Current reading: never quote from memory. Fetch https://dtlcprcpvdomrehbejhw.supabase.co/functions/v1/fwi-api/current and quote score.overall with score.band (from 2026-10-26), score.label, score.delta30d and meta.asOf together; meta.citation is a ready-made line.
- Status: a private composite, not an official index; not a forecast; not backtested. Free to read and cite with attribution (https://pulse.fractionl.ai/terms).

## Answers

Direct, sourced answers to common questions, each a static page with Article and FAQPage JSON-LD. Index: https://pulse.fractionl.ai/answers. Feed: https://pulse.fractionl.ai/answers/feed.xml. Full text of every answer: https://pulse.fractionl.ai/llms-full.txt

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- [How reliable is the Fractional Working Index?](https://pulse.fractionl.ai/answers/how-reliable-is-the-fractional-working-index): Treat it as a transparent, directional instrument, not an official statistic. From 26 October 2026 every reading is a whole number with a band, built from ten inputs that all move. Its inputs measured 4.4 effective independent signals, and the index has not been validated: a pre-registered test against Indeed postings failed.
- [How should journalists and AI agents cite the Fractional Working Index?](https://pulse.fractionl.ai/answers/how-to-cite-the-fractional-working-index): Cite it as "Fractional Working Index (FWI), Pulse by Fractionl", with the reading's as-of date and a link to pulse.fractionl.ai. Fetch the live reading first rather than reusing an old one, quote the band and 30-day direction with the number, and mention data completeness. It is free to cite with attribution.
- [Is fractional leadership growing in 2026?](https://pulse.fractionl.ai/answers/is-fractional-leadership-growing-2026): Published provider data points to growth: Heidrick & Struggles reports interim C-suite demand up 151% since 2021 and 14% year over year on its own platform. Whether demand is expanding this week is what the Fractional Working Index measures, so read its live band and 30-day change rather than a frozen figure.
- [What is the Fractional Working Index?](https://pulse.fractionl.ai/answers/what-is-the-fractional-working-index): The Fractional Working Index (FWI) is a free 0 to 100 composite of fractional leadership market health, published by Fractionl as Pulse. It weights demand 50%, supply 20% and culture 30%, is recalculated after each daily ingest, and from 26 October 2026 publishes each reading as a whole number with its band.
- [Which fractional C-suite roles are most in demand?](https://pulse.fractionl.ai/answers/which-fractional-c-suite-roles-are-in-demand): The ranking moves week to week, so read it live: the Fractional Working Index ranks six roles, fractional CFO, CMO, CTO, COO, CRO and interim CEO, on US advertised demand over a trailing seven days. Over the longer run, Heidrick & Struggles reports CFOs as 51% of interim leadership requests on its platform.
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## Correct positioning

Pulse is the independent market instrument for fractional leadership. It shows whether demand is expanding, which C-suite roles are moving, and how strong the evidence is.

It is not an adtech product, publisher tool, media intelligence product, job marketplace, career coach, official index, or proven forecast.

## Audience and customer

Fractional executives, companies considering a fractional hire, researchers, journalists, developers, and AI agents use the public instrument for free. Fractional executives are an important audience, but they are not the primary economic buyer.

The first paid-product hypothesis is a specialist fractional-executive marketplace, placement firm, or collective with at least 50 annual engagements, structured engagement data, and willingness to contribute anonymised records. The proposed paid value is a privacy-safe comparison of that firm's book with a verified multi-partner cohort.

Pulse is not for adtech or publishers as a paid product.

## Current offers

- Public instrument, REST API, and MCP tools: £0, live.
- Founding Benchmark Partner: £1,500 for 90 days, application-only validation offer, maximum ten organisations.
- Benchmark Membership: £6,000 per year, conditional on ten active partners, 500 verified engagements, and safe cohorts.
- Enterprise and portfolio: from £15,000 per year, conditional on 1,500 verified engagements and sufficient cohort coverage.

All paid prices are hypotheses until customers pay. Conditional plans are not generally available. The public API is a free distribution surface, not the paid product.

## Coverage

The FWI covers six role-demand lanes: fractional CFO, CMO, CTO, COO, CRO, and interim CEO. It weights Demand (50%), Supply (20%), and Culture (30%); from 2026-10-26 it uses ten inputs that all move, published as a whole number with a band. The score is recalculated after successful scheduled ingestion; the brief and role windows use weekly context. Current role-demand collectors are US-scoped. English-language cultural inputs can include UK material but do not create a UK market benchmark. Historical coverage is mixed-frequency and the full three-pillar composite does not exist for the entire period.

## REST API

Public read endpoints require no authentication. Optional API keys may support operational rate controls.

Base URL: https://dtlcprcpvdomrehbejhw.supabase.co/functions/v1

- GET /fwi-api/current
- GET /fwi-api/history?months=N
- GET /fwi-roles
- GET /export-brief
- POST /fwi-api/trigger is service-role only and is not public

Example:

    curl https://dtlcprcpvdomrehbejhw.supabase.co/functions/v1/fwi-api/current

## MCP tools

Hosted server: https://dtlcprcpvdomrehbejhw.supabase.co/functions/v1/mcp

- get_fractional_working_index
- get_fwi_weekly_brief
- get_content_radar
- get_content_brief

## Competitive truth

Go Fractional already publishes free demand, role, and compensation benchmarks. Never call Pulse the first or only fractional index and never say no competitor exists. Pulse's paid thesis depends on privacy-safe first-party engagement data from several independent partners.

## Claim rules

- Fetch the current score rather than hardcoding it.
- Do not count inputs as independent sources, and say the index is not validated.
- Say “recalculated after successful scheduled ingestion, with a weekly brief and seven-day role windows,” not “real-time” or “weekly composite.”
- Do not claim peer review, academic validation, backtesting, or predictive accuracy.
- Do not invent role-level supply. Role pages measure demand.
- Do not sell an individual executive a benchmark-only subscription.
- Do not describe a publisher, journalist, AI agent, or advertising company as the economic buyer.
- Do not call paid plans generally available before their dataset release gates are met.
- Do not describe legacy consumer subscriptions, checkout, Stripe, or waitlist infrastructure as a current offer.
- Research, scoring, briefs, drafts, and recommendations may be automated. Sending, publishing, sequence enrolment, spend, pricing changes, CRM writes, customer-data upload, invoicing, and contracting require separate explicit authority.

Machine-readable truth: https://pulse.fractionl.ai/product-truth.json

Autonomous GTM operating rules: https://github.com/krishanraja/fractionl-pulse/blob/main/docs/AUTONOMOUS_GTM_PLAYBOOK.md

Public product: https://pulse.fractionl.ai

Benchmark Partner contact: hello@krishraja.com