How Samsung Next centralizes deal flow and shares details across teams with Affinity CRM

Introduction

Samsung Next is an investment group within Samsung Electronics. A remote-first company, its team is distributed across three continents and numerous time zones. The company uses the Affinity CRM as its single source of truth for relationship intelligence, centralizing all of the details of prospective and active portfolio companies. With Affinity, Samsung Next’s team of wide-ranging experts were able to source more than 4,000 companies.

Challenge

Centralizing dealflow and sharing across teams

As a remote-first company, Samsung Next needed a streamlined way to centralize details of all prospective and active portfolio companies to build transparency and ensure operational efficiency across the team. 

However, the teams were stuck using manual processes to input and share data across multiple systems and tools. It was virtually impossible to stay on the same page, share important insights across teams, and be able to report out progress. 

“Affinity keeps everybody on the same page— whether they are in the same office or halfway around the world, twelve time zones away,” notes Campbell. “The platform allows us to collaborate transparently and ensures we operate efficiently. Most importantly, it optimizes the founder experience: we know exactly how long they’ve been in process with us, it enables us to follow up effectively, and it never lets an email go unanswered."

Solution

Automated pipeline management and follow up

The Affinity CRM helps keep the Samsung Next team on the same page and supports the entirety of their dealmaking workflow. By syncing directly with each team member’s email and calendar, Affinity logs information about calls, meetings, and emails automatically, eliminating manual data entry and freeing up their time for more important work. “We currently have more than 150 active portfolio companies, all of which get the support of all of our teams, from investments to marketing to business development to legal,” says Campbell.

 “It would be a nightmare to do all that tracking manually. We plug Affinity into our email and calendars, and the platform helps keep us aligned on all of the activity and support we provide each of our portfolio companies.”

 “Affinity also pings me—in a discreet Slack channel—to alert me when the potential deal reaches the final stages of due diligence and once we’ve committed to a deal,” Campbell reports.

Analytics and reporting

Affinity makes it easy for Next’s post-investment support platform team to remain up to date on the firm’s dealmaking, and to keep other team members informed of ongoing engagements.

“The built-in Affinity reporting dashboard gives our platform team an easy-to-use interface to generate easy-to-understand reporting automatically,” Campbell says. 

“Our entire global team can log into Affinity to see what’s coming through the pipeline, even if they haven’t been involved in the deal directly. So if they have specific expertise relevant to the deal, they can chime in. It lets us overcome geography to give us a global perspective on our decision-making.” - Sam Campbell, Global Venture Operations Manager & Investor at Samsung Next

Easy onboarding

Setting up your first CRM or migrating from one CRM to another can be an intimidating endeavor. Affinity’s lightweight design makes getting started easy, ensuring wider adoption across a workgroup.

“Affinity’s customer support team was phenomenal,” remembers Campbell. “They walked us through the setup step by step and provided the guidance and tools we need to get the most out of the platform, and they continue to be an invaluable resource as we further integrate Affinity into our workflow.”

Results

Samsung Next and Affinity

“We’re not a bunch of strategy analysts sitting behind a desk,” Campbell says about Samsung Next. “We partner with founders who are building the future, whether that future is crypto, the metaverse, or Web 3.0.”

Affinity has become an integral part of the firm’s operations with teams across the globe using it as their single source of truth for relationship intelligence. With Affinity, Samsung Next was able to source more than 4,000 companies last year.

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