Best Practices - Affinity for Accelerators and Incubators

Source, track, and support new ventures more easily with Affinity's dedicated relationship intelligence platform. In this article, we'll go over best practices and features you can leverage to get you/your team up and running in no time.

Note: This video contains the old navigation bar on the top, whereas the current navigation bar now lies on the left side of your screen. While the remaining content is still the same, rest assured that we will be updating our videos accordingly.

Overview

1. Getting started with lists
2. Importing data into these lists
3. Getting started with reporting/analytics

Getting started with lists

To get started, we'll focus on three different lists you can create from scratch.

1. Cohort Lists - Use organization lists to track different cohorts and their progression through the pipeline for each application/cycle.
   
   
   1. If you're on the Premium or Enterprise tier, you can use our native Typeform integration to auto-fill these lists based on Typeform submissions. Otherwise, take a look at the Importing data into these lists section below to learn more about the import process.
   2. Leverage the default Status, Owners, Notes, and Reminders columns to track the progression of different applicants and maintain communication with fellow team members.
   3. Filter and sort by different columns to create a saved view based on your preferences. This will help you easily access your preferred view moving forward without needing to recreate this view every time.
   4. When you're ready to track the next cohort for the next cycle, you can use the Copy List Template feature to copy the saved views from this list and share the list with the same team members.
      
      
2. Partnership Development Lists - Use organization lists to track potential partnership opportunities with other companies.
   
   
   1. Leverage the default Status, Owners, Notes, and Reminders columns to track the outreach efforts with these potential partners and maintain communication with fellow team members.
   2. Keep these relationships warm by setting up reminder triggers to stay in touch if a certain amount of time passes since your last interaction.
   3. Create email templates, then use the personalized bulk email feature to reach out to your points of contact at each company. If you only want to send emails to specific individuals within each company, you can always make those adjustments within the bulk email modal.
      
      
3. Mentors and Investors Lists - Use people lists to track your/your team's relationships with mentors and investors as they relate to your programs. No need to have them in the same list - you can track mentors and investors separately in two different people lists if you'd like.
   
   
   1. Create custom columns like Priority and Skillset to apply quick filters based on changing preferences over time.
   2. Leverage Affinity Data columns like Industry or Current Job Title to also narrow down your search to specific individuals.
   3. Keep these relationships warm by setting up reminder triggers to stay in touch if a certain amount of time passes since your last interaction.
   4. Create email templates, then use the personalized bulk email feature to expedite your outreach efforts.

Importing data into these lists

Now that you have these lists set up, quickly migrate data from other CRMs into Affinity using our data importer. We highly encourage you to review the import section of our Getting started with Affinity article.

Getting started with reporting/analytics

Once your lists are filled with relevant data, you can leverage our Basic Reporting feature (available to all Affinity customers) to access pre-made reports/visualizations of your data: Getting started with Basic Reporting

If you're on the Premium or Enterprise tiers, we highly suggest leveraging Affinity Analytics to create more robust dashboards containing key performance metrics and custom visualizations.

• Note: These videos contain the old navigation bar on the top, whereas the current navigation bar now lies on the left side of your screen. While the remaining content is still the same, rest assured that we will be updating our videos accordingly.

1. Getting started with Affinity Analytics
   
   
   
2. Affinity Analytics - List Summary Reports
   
   
   
3. Affinity Analytics - Team Activity Reports
   
   
   
4. Affinity Analytics - Funnel Analysis Reports
   
   
   
5. Get notified when certain metrics/thresholds are met using Affinity Analytics alerts.