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It can be useful to consider the data and interfaces that make up AI software initiatives along two intersecting axes:
The input being used
Emerging AI tools typically pull information from two datasets:
- Public data: Information captured by scraping publicly available resources on the Internet, which all companies can use, or,
- Proprietary data: Information that lives within the tool or software and is unique to that user’s organization
The output being generated
Information can be relayed to the user in two ways:
- User directed: An active/conversational interface, commonly experienced through a chat UI where the user prompts the tool for an answer. We can call this an immersive experience.
- System directed: Passive, background analysis that produces proactive and automatic results—without the need for a user’s prompts. We can call this an ambient experience.
Every AI tool fits somewhere on this axis. Some solutions may fit across multiple quadrants, but each quadrant provides a unique value—especially in the context of dealmaking.
Here is the axis featuring some mainstream examples:
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The journey to finding that next 100xer or unicorn isn’t easy. It’s a journey that involves layers of data and complexity at every stage: tracking for signals to source new deals earlier, sifting through large amounts of information throughout engagement and diligence, and optimizing portfolio company performance across numerous growth metrics. And our research shows that dealmakers are referencing more data than ever before.
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Let’s take a closer look at what this data looks like across the lifecycle of a deal:
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Capturing, sorting, and analyzing this data at scale is a huge challenge. But for firms that have overcome it, the benefits are already being realized. Among leading data-driven VCs, 35% claim that their data-driven tools are responsible for almost half of deals sourced today.
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Centralize dealmaking data in Affinity
Use Affinity's automations to:
- Create and update people and company records based on inbox and calendar activity
- Make email attachments (e.g. decks, documents, and spreadsheets) available within the CRM
- Create and sync meeting transcripts
Use Affinity's enriched data to:
- Score relationship strengths between users and external people and companies based on interaction frequency, recency, and cadence
- Enhance people records with biographic and experience data
- Enhance company records with firmographic, funding, and headcount
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So where does it make sense to develop AI tools that support private capital dealmaking?
We help more private capital firms turn their data into a competitive advantage using a strategy that mirrors why more than 3,800 private capital firms across the world use Affinity throughout their dealmaking workflows: context.
Affinity was—and is—purpose-built for private capital dealmakers. The platform’s power lies in its connection with users’ inboxes and calendars. This data is used to map each firm’s shared network of relationships and provide insight on the history of interactions like meetings, exchanged emails, and ongoing deals.
This means that, for many firms, the Affinity CRM is at the core of every process from deal sourcing, outreach, engagement, and diligence, through to closing. Partners run Monday Morning Meetings with the help of Affinity; report on team performance and deal performance to LPs; and pull experts, future hires, and opportunities for founders.
The risk for private capital firms adopting generalized AI tools is that outputs will be weak and broad, with answers that don’t meaningfully save users time or give them valuable insights. At Affinity, we’re building for private capital and we’re building with an expert lens that understands the workflows, lingo and terminology, and goals of the industry.
The result is output that is exceptionally useful in the workflows of our users, whether that’s highly relevant answers, understanding which files/notes/information to pull from the CRM, or surfacing insights at just the right time in the deal cycle.
Our vision is to boost productivity and effectiveness by freeing dealmakers from time spent capturing and gathering information. Our AI is focused on giving you the information you need to make informed decisions across the entire life of a deal.
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We believe the most value can be gained by employing AI with the context, knowledge, and workflows that are unique to Affinity and the customers that we serve.
This means focusing on two specific sources of information:
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- Affinity Data: Our proprietary dataset that has been developed to help private capital investors learn more about founders (e.g. biographic and experience data) and startups (e.g. funding, growth, and firmographic data).
- Relationship and deal data: The unique, unstructured data that Affinity users procure through capturing interaction histories in the CRM, including conversations with founders, file exchanges, notes, emails, and meetings.
Built into all Affinity products is a deep understanding of what it means to be an investor in this private capital: the make-up of teams; the lingo; the key workflows like sourcing, diligence, closing deals, portfolio growth, and fundraising. We understand (and in many cases provide) the types of data and insights that teams are looking for at each stage.
Because of this, Affinity is uniquely able to offer users advantages through a combination of our proprietary datasets as well as the relationship and deal data that users keep within the CRM. This is the foundation underpinning AI at Affinity, with several innovative tools already available.
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Here’s an overview of how Affinity’s AI products map to the dataset and user interface axis:
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Industry Insights available now
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An AI-generated list of companies that directly compete with a target company you’re viewing. Available on company profiles in the Affinity CRM as well as in Affinity Pathfinder.
- Deal sourcing: Use Affinity Data and AI to generate a list of companies directly competing with or selling to the same target audience.
- Portfolio management: Monitor the changes to the competitive landscape of companies you’ve already invested in.
Affinity Notetaker available now
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An AI meeting companion that transcribes your discussion, creates structured meeting notes including action items as next steps, and syncs those notes to the Affinity records of all external participants.
- Throughout the deal cycle: Understands private capital dealmaking and your relationship with the participants on the call to create hyper relevant and error-free meeting notes.
Deal Assist coming aug 2024
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A chatbot that uses notes and files captured throughout your meetings and emails to provide insight into your deals.
- Due diligence: Provides users with clear answers generated from an analysis of the various types of meeting notes, transcripts, pitch decks, financial documents, and other assets that get collected throughout the life of a deal.
Pitch Deck Analysis Coming fall 2024
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Pulls data from pitch decks to fill and update tracked fields of companies in the Affinity CRM.
- Deal sourcing and screening: Helps users keep records up to date with fresh data throughout a deal’s engagement.
Affinity Notetaker let us focus on our meetings and created robust summaries as well as accurate transcripts that we could share across the team to speed decision-making.
Village Global
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Affinity continues to invest in AI where it delivers optimal value for our customers. To see any of these features in action and to discuss how they can drive efficiencies in your firm, request a demo.
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