Speya Auto is your autonomous sourcing agent. You describe what you are looking for, and Speya works out the market, finds the best-fitting suppliers, qualifies each one against your requirements, and returns a shortlist where every match is backed by sources you can open. Where the evidence is limited or contradicting, Speya flags it clearly, so nothing important sits hidden in the list and every decision you make from it is transparent and source-checked.
This guide walks you through your first sourcing case and, more importantly, how to read what Speya gives you and what to do with it.
In this article
Start with your case description
What to expect while it runs
How to read a Speya list
After the qualified shortlist
FAQ
Start with your case description
Sourcing a new supplier in Speya starts with your case description. Type it into a new chat, hit send, and in under 30 seconds Speya is already working on it — no filters, no forms, no setup.
Speya Auto is for exploring new suppliers and markets: new categories, alternatives to a current supplier, or mapping a market you want to understand. The quality of your first list is shaped more by your brief than by anything you do afterwards. Write to Speya the way you would brief a colleague who is going to do the work for you.
A good brief includes:
What you are sourcing. A product, a service, a set of capabilities.
The kind of partner you want. Region, size, specialisation, certifications that matter.
Why you are looking. Entering a new category, replacing a current supplier, or mapping a market before an RFQ. The reason changes what a good result looks like.
A reference supplier, if you have one. Even from an adjacent category. Naming one supplier you already work with anchors the search more than any list of requirements. Speya will surface companies that resemble that reference in relevant ways.
What would rule a candidate out. Rule-outs upfront are more useful than a long list of must-haves. "Not a distributor," "not under 50 employees," "no operations outside the EU" — these shape the search cleanly.
A thin brief: Find me sofa manufacturers in Morocco.
A better brief: I am looking for sofa manufacturers in Morocco for fixed-frame and modular products. We already work with a local foam and mattress supplier and are looking for a different partner on sofas specifically. Rule out anyone without documented material traceability.
The second brief gives Speya the shape of the case. The first gives it a keyword.
When Speya asks follow-up questions to scope the case, answer them properly. They are the shortest path to a better first list.
What to expect while it runs
Speya works through the case in phases. First it builds the supplier list, evaluating candidates against your scope as they come in. Once the list matches what you asked for, it adds research columns for the questions it thinks matter most, and fills them in across every candidate. When the research is complete, it ranks the list into tiers.
You can steer at any point. Look at the list as it fills up and tell Speya what you see: widen the search, exclude a segment, add a column, or point out named suppliers that should be there. The more you steer as the case runs, the sharper the shortlist you come back to.
Cases vary in how long they take. From under a minute for straightforward categories to twenty minutes or more for niche markets. You do not have to wait — start the case, open a new tab, and start another one.
For a deeper look at how Auto plans and runs a case, see How to run a sourcing case with Speya Auto.
How to read a Speya list
Read the list in this order — each step builds on the last, so the picture gets sharper as you go.
Start with the match / no match on your core requirement. Open the first few suppliers and check whether they actually deliver the product or service you are looking for. This is your first check on whether Speya has understood the scope. If most suppliers are matching on something adjacent to what you meant — distributors instead of manufacturers, resellers instead of producers — Speya has drifted, and the earlier you redirect the sharper the rest of the run will be.
Action: if the scope has drifted, redirect Speya. Tell Speya what you actually meant, for example "these are distributors, I need manufacturers" or "widen the search to include upholstery producers, not just sofa specialists." Different framings reach different parts of the market, so a second pass framed differently is often the fastest way to expand coverage.
Click the match chip to verify the specifics. Clicking a match chip opens the reasoning and the sources Speya used. Click a source and it takes you to the exact page where Speya found the information — the capability page, the certification listing, the product spec. Doing this a few times early is the fastest way to calibrate how much to trust the rest of the list.
Scan the research columns. These are the questions Speya thought were worth researching for your case — certifications, capacity, ownership, sustainability signals. Ask yourself whether it's enough for the decision you're making.
Action: add more columns. Whatever criterion will decide the case — a specific certification, capacity above a threshold, no adverse press — add it as a research column. Speya fills it in across every candidate at once, with sources for each answer. Seven criteria across a hundred suppliers is seven hundred manual lookups; Speya does it in about a minute.
Look at the evidence strength on each cell. Alongside the reasoning, Speya shows how strong the evidence is. When it's limited, that's a signal to ask the supplier directly. When it's strong, you can move on.
Read the summary Speya wrote. Alongside the list, Speya writes a summary of what it found: the shape of the market, the dominant players, information gaps it hit. For markets you're mapping, the summary is often more valuable than the ranking itself.
Look at the tiers last. Tiers are Speya's synthesis of everything above. Tier 1 is the strongest fit, Tier 2 is worth reviewing, Tier 3 is where fit is weaker or information is thinner. Reading the tiers only after you've looked at the underlying evidence means you know why a supplier is where it is, not just where it landed.
Action: add suppliers you expected to see. If a name you know well is not on the list, add it in chat and call this out for Speya to complement with similar companies. Do this before you decide anything from the tiers.
After the qualified shortlist
Once the list reflects what you were looking for, there are two directions to go.
If you found candidates worth engaging, select the ones you want to reach out to and ask Speya to draft the outreach. Speya finds contacts, drafts personalised emails, and pulls replies back into the same list. See How to email suppliers with RFx.
If nothing on the list is quite right yet, set Monitor to watch the market for new entrants and changes.
Either way, ask Speya to shape the case into a summary you can share. This way Speya will create a spreadsheet. A short version for your manager, a fuller one for a category review.
If you want to steer the sourcing process yourself, use step-by-step mode instead — see How to find new suppliers with Discovery.
FAQ
Why didn't a supplier I know well show up?
Two common reasons: their public presence is thinner than their capability (small websites, no marketing, sparse trade fair presence), or the framing of your search reached a different part of the market than they sit in. Add them by name in chat and Speya will research them alongside the discovered candidates, or run a second pass framed differently to reach that corner of the market.
Why are there only a few suppliers in Tier 1?
Tier 1 reflects the strongest matches against your requirements. In sparse or specialised markets, that can be a small number, and a short Tier 1 is a real finding, not a failed search. It tells you the market is narrow and the few names in it are worth engaging directly.
Why is revenue shown as a range instead of a number?
When a reliable public source for the exact figure exists, Speya shows it. When it does not, Speya returns a band (like 50–100M USD) rather than guess. A range means somewhere in this band based on available signals; a single number means the exact figure is sourced.
How do I know Speya isn't making things up?
Every result links to the source it came from. Click any cell to see the reasoning and open the source Speya used. When Speya cannot confirm something, it says so instead of filling the cell.
Can I use Auto to research suppliers I already have?
No. Auto is for Discovery, finding new suppliers and mapping markets. To ask questions across a supplier base you already have, work step-by-step. See Getting started: working with your existing supplier base.
Can I run more than one case at a time?
Yes. Open a new tab for each case. Running several in parallel is the normal way to work, especially when some cases finish in a minute and others take longer.