A Fall From Grace

Affinity is the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software of the venture and startup ecosystem. It is the go-to platform for everyone to stay organized — manage your deal flow, contacts, notes, etc. —

Yet, it’s hard to find anyone that loves the product.

I won’t bore you with my list of feature requests: everything from more advanced note formatting to a better API. But it’s safe to say it leaves things to be desired.

I know this might sound harsh, but I have the right to be harsh because I built custom software to fill in its gaps. Over the years, I’ve created integrations and automation on top of Affinity to improve our workflows and pain points.

For example, in Affinity, the notes section is plain text. You can’t add images, advanced formatting, etc. So instead, I created a custom pipeline that spins up a new Notion page and links it to every company added to our “Deal Pipeline” so the investor can take notes in Notion.

Ok — all of this complaining has a point.

Last week, we switched from Affinity to Attio. And so far — I have zero complaints. I feel free. I feel delighted. I feel all the feelings you should feel when using great products.

Attio is also a CRM. It does the exact same thing Affinity does, except one million times better.

It’s also less expensive. Affinity charges ~$2,000 per seat, while Attio charges ~$700.

If I am, in any way, a representation of a broader trend — this is a remarkable fall from grace.

Just three years ago, Affinity raised $80m from Menlo Ventures. And now, it looks like they are dramatically outgunned, and every person I speak to is looking for a different solution.

I don’t know what happened.

Did they get too comfortable? Was scale their problem? Did they struggle with stability? Tech debt? Talent? Ability to recruit?

Why did they get locked into their launch capabilities and find it difficult to evolve?

Admittedly, I don’t know anyone who works at Affinity. So I can’t speak to the root cause.

But of course, there is the broader, scarier takeaway.

If you’re not constantly shipping, building, and improving in this industry — it’s inevitable you’ll lose.

That’s always been a key feature of technology, startups, and even careers.

So — here is to us finding a new CRM, and to getting back to work with a stark reminder of how important it is to always be iterating.

I’m an investor at Chapter One, an early-stage venture fund that invests $500K - $1.5M checks into pre-seed and seed-stage startups.

If you have any questions on the data, or if you’re a founder building a company, please feel free to reach out on Twitter (@seidtweets) or Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesin-seidel-5325b147/).