IThe problem
Mature fund with a settled stack — Affinity for CRM, Notion for working knowledge. Each tool was strong on its own; the seams between them were not.
Deal records lived in Affinity. The team's working knowledge — partner takes, conversation history, sector theses — lived in Notion. Keeping them in sync was manual.
Network search was tribal. Asking "do we know anyone at X?" meant a Slack thread that may or may not get answered before the meeting started.
The partnership had no appetite for a new tool. Whatever we built had to slot into existing workflows or it wouldn't get used.
IIWhat I built
aTwo-way Affinity ↔ Notion sync
Production, multi-year. Deal records mirror between Affinity (CRM) and Notion (knowledge base). Change a status in Affinity, the Notion page updates. Update a thesis note in Notion, the Affinity field reflects it. The team works in whichever tool they prefer for the task.
bNetwork-search Slack bot
Team-wide query over Affinity data. "Do we know anyone at X?" returns matches across the team's collected network, with warmest intro path scored. Slack-native — no new UI to learn.
cIntegrations across existing stack
No new tools forced in. Everything built on top of what the team already pays for. Documentation handed over so the team can extend without me.
IIIStack
IVResult
Material increase in operational efficiency without disrupting the existing stack.
Team keeps focus on founders and investment decisions, not tool maintenance.
The integration layer has been running multi-year. New workflows get added without rewriting the foundation.
— Dennis Erikson · Northzone · London / Stockholm / NYC
