Venture capital · Outlander VC
Affinity to Attio migration for a VC fund.
Outlander VC ran on Affinity. The team (Tony, AJ, and Abbie) wanted Attio so the fund could be modelled the way they actually work: commitments and LPs as first-class objects, fund stages as lists, inbound applications as a real pipeline, and outbound running inside the same tool.
Affinity
Migrated from
2
Custom objects
Specter, PitchBook
Integrations
2
Outbound sequences
The problem.
- Pricing. Affinity starts at around $2,000 per user per year. Attio's Plus plan is $34 per user per month and Pro is $69 per user per month, more than enough for what the fund needed. On annual billing, Attio Pro is roughly $828 per user per year against around $2,000 on Affinity. The cost difference at team scale was material.
- API limits. Affinity's API throttling made enrichment and automation painful to run at the cadence the fund wanted. Attio has no equivalent rate limit on the operations the team actually needed, so Specter and PitchBook flows can run as often as makes sense.
- Schema flexibility. Affinity does not let the team shape objects around their own thesis. Commitments lived inside deal notes. LP relationships were tracked as contacts with tags. In Attio, Commitments and LPs become first-class custom objects with their own fields and their own list views.
- One tool for everything. The partners wanted sourcing, enrichment, LP comms, and outbound running on the same records, not spread across four products. That meant Specter and PitchBook data had to flow into the same workspace, and outbound sequences had to live next to the deal pipeline.
- No more inbox-based intake. Inbound startup applications came in through forms and sat in inboxes. There was no pipeline view, no routing by sector, and nothing forcing a screening decision.
The data model.
Two custom objects (Commitments and LPs) on top of the standard Companies and People. Commitments link to Companies and LPs, so the fund can answer questions like “how much have we committed in this sector this year” and “which LPs are backing this deal” from the records themselves, not from a spreadsheet on the side.
Commitments
Custom object tracking every commitment the fund makes to a portfolio company. One record per commitment, linked to a Company and the LPs backing it.
LPs
Custom object for limited partners. Keeps LP identity, capital commitments, and update cadence separate from operating contacts.
Companies
Portfolio and prospective companies. The standard object, extended with VC-specific attributes (round stage, pipeline stage, sourcing channel, Specter enrichment, linked Commitments).
People
Founders, co-investors, LPs, and operating contacts. One person record, multiple relationships.
Lists and pipelines.
Fund stage lists
Separate lists of Companies per pipeline stage so partners see only what is at their stage: sourced, screened, partner review, term sheet, due diligence, committed.
Investor updates list
One list dedicated to LP communication. Tracks who has received the latest update, who has open questions, and what the next touch should be.
Startup application pipeline
Inbound applications land in a structured pipeline with screening, partner review, and pass or progress stages. Nothing sits in an inbox.
Integrations.
Specter enrichment
Specter pushes company and founder signals into Attio. Companies are matched on domain, and Specter fields populate on the Company record so partners see growth, headcount, and funding signals without leaving Attio.
Recurring PitchBook CSV import
We drafted a CSV template that maps PitchBook columns to Attio attributes for Companies and Commitments. The team runs the import on a recurring cadence and new records flow in cleanly, with no manual reformatting.
Workflows we built.
Fifteen workflows automate the fund's day-to-day. The five doing the most work:
Create Commitment when a Company is committed
When a Company's pipeline stage moves to Committed, a Commitment record is created automatically, linked to the Company, the partner who led it, and any LPs backing it.
Route startup applications by stage and sector
New applications are tagged by stage and sector, then pushed to the right pipeline-stage list and assigned to the partner covering that sector.
LP update reminders
Scheduled workflow that flags LPs who have not received an update in the agreed cadence, and creates a task for the partner who owns the relationship.
Specter signal alerts
When Specter pushes a meaningful growth signal on a portfolio or prospect company, a notification fires in Slack and a task is created on the Company record.
Outbound sequences
Two Attio sequences for founder outreach. Founders from the startup application pipeline and Specter-sourced companies are added into a sequence, with stop conditions on reply or meeting booked, and a workflow that updates the Company stage on reply.
Results.
- 20 hours a month of CRM operations saved, with automated workflows handling the routing, record-keeping, and LP reminders that used to fall on partners.
- 15% more deals entering the pipeline, as inbound applications and outbound sourcing run on the same records.
- $2,000 → $828 per user per year. Attio Pro at $69 per user per month billed annually is around 2.4× cheaper per seat than Affinity, roughly $1,170 saved per user per year.
- 0 → 2 first-class custom objects. Commitments and LPs out of deal notes and contact tags.
- 0 → 6 fund-stage list views. Partners see only what is at their stage, not one flat pipeline.
- 0 → 2 data sources flowing on a recurring cadence. Specter enrichment and PitchBook imports into the same workspace, no manual reformatting.
- 1 inbox replaced by 1 structured startup application pipeline. Every inbound application has a screening decision attached.
- 15 partner workflows automated, including commitment creation, application routing, LP update reminders, and Specter signal alerts.
- 2 outbound sequences running inside Attio on the same records the partners already work from.
- 2-day migration window with deal history, LP relationships, and commitments preserved.
Ready when you are.
Two ways in. Pick the friction that fits.