Because data entry sucks
I despise inefficiency. This distaste leads me to build things to help make my life easier. It just so happens that tracking deal flow, as part of my job as an investor, is terribly inefficient and kind of a pain in the ass… I started working on this problem, slowly, over the past 2 years. Each iteration would get slightly more efficient, tying in various API’s and other fun stuff, until one day I realized I had built a product.
You can see it here: http://dealscout.co/
I thought about trying to sell this but selling to Angels and VC’s sounds pretty miserable. Free is better.
Main Page (Numbers and status’s shown are mostly not real)
Here is what it solves.
Data Entry: Forget manually typing deals into random spreadsheets or plugging in data to various fields in Salesforce or Pipedrive. Instead, use your VC CrunchBase License Key and start pulling all that data automatically (It also pulls from AngelList).
Type in any company, hit enter and get a one page breakdown of the company and have it automatically added to your list of deals. Or better yet, forward an email from a company to track@dealscout.co and the system automatically creates a record of it and saves the body of the email as a note!
Individual Company Page
Note Taking: Evernote is great but is still a separate system and not tied directly to the company itself or your list of deals. Why not take your notes on the actual deal page and make them easily searchable, with notes organized by company rather than scattered about?
Company Page with Note Sidebar
Collaboration: Invite the whole team, it allows for unlimited users, and have everyone enter and update the status of deals as they happen. See each other’s notes and keep a better list of what is happening. Most fields can be personalized, if you have different names for each stage of the deal process, no problem, they are easily edited in the settings page.
The system also works well for corporate innovation teams. I help run investments, partnerships, and M&A for dunnhumby and use it for all 3.
If you are a motivated young Associate, or anyone really, and want to build this out further, contact me. Otherwise start using it and keep a better record or the companies you actually talk to.