External members are people outside your organization who you invite to contribute their network to your CTD workspace. They're one of the most powerful — and most underused — ways to expand your team's reach.
How it works
When you invite someone as an external member and they connect their email account, two things happen simultaneously:
- Your team gains access to their network — everyone at your company can now find warm paths through that person's connections
- They gain access to your network — they can search for warm paths through your team's collective connections
It's a mutual network exchange, designed around trust. You only invite people who you want to help and who you trust to have access to your network graph.
Who external members are
The best external members are people who have an existing incentive to help your business:
- Board members and advisors — have senior networks and a direct stake in your success
- Investors — VCs, angels, or strategic investors already aligned with your goals
- Channel and referral partners — anyone in a formal or informal referral program
- Customer champions — customers who love the product and are willing to make introductions
- Portfolio founders/executives (for VC/PE firms) — their networks are valuable and they benefit from cross-portfolio connections
What external members can see
External members have visibility into your network graph — meaning they can see who your team knows and search for paths through your organization's connections. In return, everyone at your company can see who the external member knows.
External members cannot see other external members' networks — each external member relationship is between that person and your organization only.
Admins can configure visibility rules for external members in Settings → External members → Permissions. See Permissions and data access for the full breakdown.
What external members are NOT
- They are not employees and cannot access organizational settings
- They cannot see other external members or their networks
- They cannot access your CRM data or pipeline
- They are not billed seats — external members are free and unlimited on Business Edition
What external members get out of it
External members receive a free CTD account. Beyond your shared network, they get CTD as a personal tool:
- All their contacts from all their email accounts in one place, deduplicated and scored
- Warm path search for their own professional goals
- The CTD mobile app
- Job change alerts for their key contacts
For advisors, investors, and busy executives, CTD becomes genuinely useful on its own — it's the only place where they can see their entire network organized, scored, and searchable. This makes the invitation easy to accept.
See Inviting external members to get started.