As a global organization that develops and supports communities of entrepreneurs in underserved and emerging markets, Endeavor’s network is central to their mission. To manage their connections more effectively and maximize the impact of their network, Endeavor turned to Affinity for Salesforce.
Keep reading to learn four ways Endeavor enhances their entrepreneurial communities with this powerful tool.
1. Connect founders and mentors strategically with automated network mapping
One of Endeavor’s crucial roles is connecting impactful entrepreneurs with mentors and peers who have successfully navigated similar challenges. But as an organization of 600 people spread across more than 40 countries—with a network of over 2,500 entrepreneurs—Endeavor has a vast number of connections to keep track of and maintain.
Endeavor uses Affinity to address this challenge in two ways:
- Automated network mapping provides visibility into Endeavor’s entire network. Affinity automatically syncs with employees’ emails and calendars to log contact, company, and communication data directly in Salesforce. This creates a 360° view of Endeavor’s network and interactions—including connections that might otherwise be overlooked—enabling them to provide better matches for their founders.
- Affinity’s enriched data facilitates faster, more relevant matching. For example, if Endeavor wants to connect a Series A fintech founder in Poland with a mentor from a similar background, they can use Affinity to identify contacts in their network who meet those criteria. Affinity enriches Salesforce records with valuable information, including:
- Company information: Industry, location, number of employees, year founded, investment stage, investors, last funding date, and last funding amount
- Contact information: Job title, industry, location, date of last meeting, years of experience, education, and LinkedIn URL
- Relationship intelligence: Affinity’s relationship strength algorithm evaluates relationship depth to calculate a score so Endeavor knows the strength of every connection and the best path to warm introductions
Sanjay Thapa, Senior Salesforce Administrator at Endeavor, says, “Through the email and calendar sync [feature], Affinity is very seamlessly creating insights around who the best person might be to connect with somebody within our network on a global scale.”
2. Retain organizational knowledge with engagement history
One of the challenges of managing large networks is losing valuable information on relationships when employees leave, especially if there isn’t an effective process for transferring knowledge.
For Endeavor, this type of context is crucial to maintaining the depth and breadth of their network. Thapa notes, “When that institutional knowledge is lost, we lose insight into the relationships that we have with our entrepreneurs, and the network of our mentors at large as well.”
Affinity captures and centralizes all communications with network connections in Salesforce, so Endeavor can retain context regardless of the circumstances:
- Affinity’s engagement history minimizes information gaps. By providing a complete history of employees’ interactions with their network contacts, Affinity offers visibility into communications across the organization. This centralized view ensures that important information on external relationships is accessible across teams and retained even if employees leave.
- Enriched data provides crucial context. Before using Affinity, Endeavor often lacked a way of knowing how frequently mentors were contacted to support entrepreneurs. With Affinity’s enriched data fields, Endeavor can see how often a mentor is contacted, who contacted them last, the dates they spoke or exchanged emails, what they discussed, and more. This way, Endeavor ensures they don’t exhaust their resources.
- AI-driven relationship intelligence helps keep important relationships active. Using Affinity’s relationship strength scores, Endeavor can see if relationships with key contacts fall below certain thresholds, reminding them to reach out when a relationship is at risk.
Thapa says, “During its active sync, Affinity is giving us some of the most relevant data points. Affinity’s data enrichment allows us to have a broader picture and a more clear and up-to-date understanding of our network in those different areas.”
3. Increase CRM adoption with automated data collection
When Endeavor was evaluating solutions, they were focused on streamlining contact management and retaining institutional knowledge, while also looking for a solution that would drive high CRM adoption across their global organization.
Endeavor’s global platform team, led by Enrico Robles Del Rio, Director of Data Analytics Platform, evaluated their CRM needs across all levels of the organization—from developers and power users to managing directors. They aimed for a solution that was both easy to implement and use.
Thapa says, “Adopting software across a global organization is always difficult, and with Salesforce, it’s been a consistent challenge that we've been trying to address in different ways over time. I think Affinity has been one of the more innovative ways we're trying to do it, where it's a very low lift for the team, but it's really impactful for the organization level.”
Affinity for Salesforce simplifies CRM adoption in the following ways:
- Automated record creation saves time. Previously, employees at Endeavor had to manually create and update records in Salesforce every time there was a change. This led to mixed adoption and inconsistent records. By automating the creation, update, and enrichment of Salesforce records, Affinity eliminates a significant amount of manual data entry. As a result, employees can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time engaging with high-impact entrepreneurs.
- A team committed to a seamless user experience. From the initial setup to ongoing support, Affinity’s onboarding and customer success teams are dedicated to providing a smooth, low-lift onboarding experience.
Thapa notes, "What was really wonderful was having the Affinity team being all on board as well, making sure that this implementation was successful. Our customer success manager and everybody else were helpful and clear on how they could be a resource for us and also outlined different ways to make sure the adoption and the implementation processes were quite seamless."
4. Quickly research and update opportunities with Affinity’s Chrome extension
As part of their selection process, Endeavor researches entrepreneurs to see if they’re a viable fit for their communities. With Affinity, the team can make updates directly to Salesforce from wherever they’re working—whether that be their inbox, LinkedIn, or company webpages.
Affinity’s Chrome and inbox extensions enhance productivity in two primary ways:
- Research more effectively with extensions. As employees navigate sites like LinkedIn and startup webpages to evaluate prospective entrepreneurs, with Affinity, Endeavor can view Salesforce insights—like years of experience, location, last funding round, and investors—directly as they browse. They can also see if they share any mutual connections and how strong those connections are. Thapa notes, “Our teams are doing a lot of scoping; learning about founders, learning about companies, whether that's through LinkedIn or other websites. Affinity’s Chrome extension is a very compelling tool to surface those relationships, interactions, and insights really quickly to save our team some time.”
- Save time by updating records without switching between tools. Moving between email, LinkedIn, company pages, Salesforce, and other tools is time-consuming and disrupts workflows. Affinity’s extensions sync with Google Chrome, Outlook, and Gmail to provide relationship, company, and activity insights directly within everyday tools. For example, Endeavor’s team can create opportunities directly from their browser or inbox and add an organization or founder to an outreach list without leaving the page or tool they’re working in.
“By making the day-to-day of our teams a little easier, Affinity goes a long way in making the experience for our entrepreneurs, founders, and larger network better, which goes far when making sure that Endeavor fulfills its mission as a whole. That’s critical when it comes to the value that Affinity for Salesforce can bring to an organization like Endeavor,” says Thapa.
Expanding Affinity for Salesforce’s impact
Looking ahead, Endeavor plans to integrate Affinity more deeply into their analysis of entrepreneurs looking to join the organization. They’re also focused on increasing the number of employees actively using Affinity.
As Endeavor continues to expand their use of Affinity, they’re already experiencing transformative impacts across their network. Affinity for Salesforce has become a critical tool for Endeavor, enabling them to connect founders and mentors more seamlessly, increase organizational knowledge retention, and boost CRM adoption.
With Affinity, Endeavor is well-positioned to maximize the impact of their entrepreneurial ecosystem and continue fostering success in their mission.
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