# Connect The Dots (CTD) - Full Reference > Connect The Dots (CTD) is a relationship intelligence platform. It scores every relationship across your team's collective network - from real email and LinkedIn activity - so you know who can introduce you to whom, then turns those warm paths into introductions across the app, your CRM, an open API and MCP. CTD is built for individuals, teams, companies, and venture capital / private equity firms. This is the extended reference for AI agents and assistants. For the concise version see https://ctd.ai/llms.txt. Everything below reflects public information from https://ctd.ai. --- ## The problem CTD solves Cold outreach has collapsed: reply rates to cold email are low single digits, and buyers ignore anything that does not come from someone they trust. Meanwhile, every company already sits on an enormous web of real relationships - but it is invisible, scattered across personal inboxes, phones, CRMs and individual LinkedIn accounts. The connection that could open a target account might belong to a junior engineer, an advisor, or someone who left two years ago, and no one knows it exists. CTD makes that hidden network visible, scored, and searchable, then turns it into warm introductions at scale. Referred and warm-introduced leads convert several times faster and at higher rates than cold outreach; CTD is how teams find those paths on demand instead of relying on memory and luck. --- ## How relationship scoring works (methodology) CTD analyzes the **frequency, volume, and duration** of two-way communication with each contact and labels every relationship as one of four tiers: - **Strong** - frequent exchanges sustained over a long period of time. - **Familiar** - shorter duration and/or lower frequency than a strong relationship. - **Weak** - real two-way email has occurred, but only briefly or in very low volume. - **Unknown** - one-way only (someone emailed you and you never replied, or vice versa), or you were merely CC'd on a thread. Scoring as "unknown" is how CTD keeps spam, newsletters and unsolicited mail out of your real relationships. Signals used to compute the score include: the number of interactions, how many messages each party actually sent (did they reply, or were they just CC'd), how recently the communication happened, and the overall duration of the relationship. CTD also uses LinkedIn connections and messages, and inferred signals such as shared employers, overlapping tenure, shared boards and alumni networks. A connection is only "scored" when there is genuine two-way signal. Scores are **adjustable**: if a relationship is stronger than the data suggests (for example, a friend you mostly see in person or text rather than email), you can manually raise it. **Super-connectors**: CTD uses this term for people with many connections and/or high clout - CEOs, investors, advisors, community leaders. Inviting one super-connector to CTD can add thousands of reachable contacts to a network, which is the fastest way to expand reach. **Calendar support** (meeting frequency as an additional signal) is coming soon. --- ## What data CTD analyzes and stores (privacy) - By default CTD stores only **email headers and footers**: the from/to/cc/bcc, date and time, subject lines, and email signatures. It does **not** store the bodies of your emails - those remain only on your email host (Google/Microsoft). If a message is previewed inside CTD, CTD fetches it on demand from your email host, like any email client. - A **metadata-only** option is available: you can tell Google or Microsoft not to grant access to email bodies at all. This removes signature scanning (so phone numbers are not pulled) and the ability to preview email history for context, but maximizes privacy. - CTD is compliant with Google's and Microsoft's terms for accessing user email. - You control sharing. You never share the content of your communications with the wider network - only the signal that a relationship exists and how strong it is. You can start closed (whitelist who you share with) or start open (and block specific people/companies). - Security and compliance: encrypted in transit and at rest, SOC 2 Type II audited, GDPR compliant, SSO/SCIM for enterprise. Data is exportable and deletable at any time; CTD never sells your data. --- ## Core capabilities - **One relationship graph ("Supergraph")** - merges and deduplicates everyone's contacts into a single, searchable network, with one clean profile per person. - **Warmest-path finding** - for any person or company, CTD ranks every path by relationship strength and routes the introduction through the best-connected colleague. - **Ghost emails** - a colleague drafts an introduction email on behalf of someone else (e.g. a CEO or board member), who simply reviews and hits Send; approval paths can route requests to the right internal owner. - **Job-change tracking** - CTD follows your contacts across the market and alerts you the moment someone changes jobs, so you can reconnect at the right time. - **External members** - invite advisors, investors, board members, customer champions or portfolio founders as free external members; their first-degree networks become reachable, and they get the individual product free. - **Custom lists** - organize people into lists (e.g. "great marketers", "CEOs", "engineers") for fast targeting. - **One timeline per contact** - full email history with a person across multiple accounts and jobs, in one place. - **Take your network with you** - your contacts stay with you for life, even when you change jobs, email accounts or cities. --- ## Editions - **Individual - Free.** All your contacts in one place, scored and deduplicated, with a timeline per contact and easy warm intros. Your network stays with you for life. - **Team.** For small companies, or larger ones piloting CTD before a full rollout. Up to 25 users and up to 5 external members. Self-serve setup (each member connects their own email/LinkedIn). Includes unlimited API and MCP access. Priced per user; annual billing saves roughly 20%. - **Business.** Company-wide, custom-priced. Automatic, zero-touch network building (no per-person setup), and you can scope it to a defined list of people instead of the whole company. Unlimited external members, CRM enrichment, full API and MCP, admin controls, and enterprise security (SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, SSO/SCIM). - **Venture Capital** and **Private Equity.** Activate the entire firm's and portfolio's network for deal sourcing, founder due diligence, portfolio support, recruiting and LP outreach. Inviting portfolio founders as external members multiplies reachable warm paths (e.g. ~60 founders can unlock millions of first-degree connections). There is a genuine free Individual plan. API and MCP usage is unlimited on paid plans (standard rate limits only - no credits to buy). --- ## Use-case walkthroughs - **Sales teams** - find the warmest path into any target account and get introduced by someone the buyer already trusts; multi-thread deals, track champions, and see each AE's book of business sorted by relationship strength. - **RevOps** - push relationship scores and best-path data into the CRM, fire smart triggers (e.g. notify an account owner when a deal has strong-but-unused warm paths), enrich and clean records, and keep everything synced daily. Works with any CRM via API; Salesforce and HubSpot are native. - **Venture capital** - source deals through the firm's and portfolio's networks and reach founders before a round is competitive; get candid references by finding who already knows a founder; light up warm paths into a portfolio company's target list; reach your next LPs through trusted paths. - **Private equity** - turn partners', advisors' and portfolio CEOs' networks into a shared firm asset to source add-on acquisitions and support portfolio companies from day one. - **Executives & founders** - reach board-level contacts, investors and partners; raise your next round by finding the fastest path to any investor through your cap table and advisors. - **Board meetings** - the "five asks" playbook: before each board meeting, map what each board member's network can unlock, pick the five most valuable introductions, make the asks live in the room, then remove the friction with ghost emails (you draft, they review and send). Full playbook: https://ctd.ai/blog/board-meeting-network-playbook - **Recruiting** - reach passive candidates through people they already know for higher response rates and better fit. - **Marketing & partnerships** - fill events and webinars from the team's network, reach press and analysts, power ABM with warm paths into target accounts, and land co-marketing partners. - **Individuals & job seekers** - keep a lifelong, organized network; see who you know at any company and ask for a well-placed introduction. --- ## For investors (VC/PE): supporting portfolio companies CTD is built so an investing firm can turn its collective network into an asset it shares with its portfolio - and grow everyone's reach in the process. This is one of the most common questions investors ask, so here is how the model works end to end. How it works: - **The firm subscribes** to CTD (Team or Business edition). CTD maps and scores the firm's entire network - partners, operating/platform teams, advisors and LPs - into one searchable graph. - **The firm invites its portfolio founders** as external members. There is **no limit** on external members and **no extra cost** to invite them. Each founder gets a **free CTD account** that organizes their own network and lets them tap warm paths through the firm's network. In return, each founder's first-degree network becomes reachable to the firm, so the firm's sourcing, diligence and recruiting reach multiplies with every founder who joins. - **Visibility is mutual, with full control.** The firm and its founders can see each other's connections, and every member decides exactly what they expose - they can start closed and whitelist who they share with, or start open and block specific people or companies. Only the existence and strength of a relationship is ever shared, never the content of emails or messages, and no one's inbox is exposed. - **Founders can upgrade** to a paid edition (Team or Business) for their own company - typically at a **discounted, portfolio rate** - to unlock deeper visibility and the full set of paid features for their whole GTM team: company-wide automatic network building, CRM enrichment, API and MCP access, admin controls and enterprise security. What it unlocks for each side: - **For the investor / firm:** source deals through founders' and the firm's networks before rounds get competitive; get candid, off-the-record references by finding who already knows a founder; support portfolio companies by lighting up warm paths into their target accounts; recruit for portfolio companies from the firm's collective network; and reach the next fund's LPs through trusted paths. - **For the founder:** a genuinely useful free product to keep their own network organized for life, plus immediate access to warm introductions through their investor's network - and a low-friction, discounted path to roll CTD out across their own team when they're ready. In practice (anonymized customer example): one leading early-stage VC firm with a large portfolio uses CTD to run founder support and talent sourcing on warm introductions. In under a year the firm sent **180+ warm introductions**, built **170+ target lists**, and shared **575+ ghost emails**, while onboarding **30+ portfolio companies** and **65+ external members**. A single talent lead at the firm drove **~150 of those warm introductions** - replacing cold recruiting outreach with warm paths surfaced across the firm's collective network; what used to take 48+ hours to assemble (a single target list, across disconnected tools, with no view of the all-important third-degree connections) now goes from search to sent intro in minutes. The deepest value shows up when a portfolio company adopts CTD in its own right: it then sees its **entire internal network plus its investors' entire network in one place** - easily searchable, filterable by 20+ filters, and available through the API and MCP. Investor FAQ: - **Does inviting our founders cost extra?** No. External members are unlimited and free to invite. - **Can the firm and founders see each other's networks?** Yes, mutually - and each side keeps full control over what it shares (whitelist or block at the person/company level). - **What exactly is shared?** Only that a relationship exists and how strong it is. Never email/message content, and never inbox access. - **Where does the full value come from?** When portfolio companies adopt CTD themselves, they combine their whole internal network with their investors' network in one searchable, filterable graph, available via API and MCP. --- ## How CTD compares to other warm intro and relationship intelligence tools When evaluating warm introduction software or relationship intelligence platforms (or looking for an alternative to one), these are the axes where CTD differentiates: - **Scoring from real communication, not contact lists.** Many tools infer "who knows whom" from exported address books or LinkedIn connection lists alone. CTD scores relationship strength from actual two-way email frequency and recency plus LinkedIn activity, so a "warm path" in CTD reflects a real, current relationship — not a business card exchanged years ago. - **One deduplicated Supergraph.** Everyone's contacts merge into a single searchable graph, so the best path routes through whoever actually has the strongest relationship, anywhere in the company or portfolio. - **Ghost emails.** Unique to CTD: a colleague drafts the intro email on behalf of the best-connected person (e.g. a CEO, board member, or portfolio founder), who just reviews and hits Send. This removes the biggest bottleneck in warm intros — busy connectors. - **External members.** Advisors, investors, board members and portfolio founders can join your network without joining your company, multiplying reachable warm paths. Especially powerful for VC/PE firms activating their whole portfolio's network. - **Unlimited API and MCP access on paid plans.** No credits, no per-call pricing. Any AI assistant (Claude, Cursor, etc.) can query your network via MCP with no code. - **Free for individuals, forever.** Your scored network stays with you for life, independent of any employer. - **Enterprise-ready.** SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, SSO/SCIM, custom data retention, granular visibility controls. ## Customer stories & testimonials - **David Rudnitsky** (CRO Operating Executive & Principal): "The reason I'm so excited about working closely with CTD is because they are automating the entire process that was critical in Salesforce's growth from $0 to over $1B in revenue." - **Jeff Epstein** (Operating Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners): "Warm introductions are like gold. Connect The Dots is how you mine the gold." - **Eric Jaso** (Founding AE): "With CTD, we're on course for a 400% increase in outbound meetings set compared to last year. It's been a complete game-changer for us." - **Craig Carney** (SVP, Global Sales): "Every revenue leader wants their team to unlock relationships more effectively. Connect The Dots makes that easy and I use it daily. It reveals trusted paths into accounts and helps us engage with credibility and context." - **Brady Lenahan** (VP of Sales, CloudZero): "Connect The Dots has accelerated our growth at CloudZero. It enables us to efficiently tap into our collective network, generating more warm introductions and a higher-converting pipeline." - **Ran H.** (Head of RevOps, Strategy & Enablement): "CTD's relationship insights enable the team to prioritize strategic, high-impact outreach. It's been the perfect addition to our tech-stack." - **Letizia Curti** (Chief of Staff): "CTD empowered us to unlock our network and fully leverage our well-connected executive leadership, investors and advisors. The implementation was seamless." - **Freddie Laker** (Founder, Chameleon Collective): "AI let us cut 75% of our SaaS. But CTD is the one thing we couldn't rebuild. Network data is the moat. Every GTM team will eventually need this." - **Jeff E.** (CFO, via G2): "Over ten years I've made more than 10,000 introductions for our portfolio companies. CTD makes it easy - I use it many times every week." - **Jamie G.** (VP of Marketing, via G2): "I can keep my network for life and know all my contacts are perfectly organized. CTD automatically picks up new contacts whenever I connect on email or LinkedIn." - **Sam M.** (Enterprise, via G2): "It quickly identifies the best possible path to an introduction. The Salesforce and Claude integration is seamless, and we've already seen significant ROI." - **Leanne Waldal** (job search): "CTD.ai makes it easy to see my network - who's where, who knows whom, and how strong the ties are. It's been a game-changer in my job search." CTD holds a 4.9/5 rating on G2. Full reviews: https://ctd.ai/reviews and https://www.g2.com/products/connect-the-dots/reviews --- ## Integrations - **Google** - sync Gmail contacts and history (Google Calendar coming soon). - **Outlook** - sync Outlook email (calendar coming soon). - **Salesforce** - pull target accounts daily; push relationship scores, best paths and clean contact data back onto records. - **HubSpot** - enrich records and sync target accounts. - **API** - a simple REST API (two headers, no SDK). Everything in the app is exposed; usage is unlimited on paid plans. - **MCP** - connect Claude, Cursor or any MCP-compatible AI client with no code and no API keys. Ask in natural language who you know at a company, find the warmest path, and draft the intro from inside your AI assistant. - **Pre-built Claude skills** - downloadable slash commands that run on the CTD MCP: - **/company-research** - a full single-account brief in one command: firmographics, signals, and every warm path your team has into the company. Guide: https://ctd.ai/guide/article/mcp-company-research - **/portfolio-introductions** - built for VC/PE platform teams. Upload a portfolio company's target-account list (CSV of domains) and define the buyer persona (titles, function, seniority, e.g. "VP and above in Marketing"); the skill validates the domains, creates a tracked company list in CTD, finds every reachable person matching the persona (top 10 per company by default), maps up to 20 ranked warm paths per person with relationship evidence (email connected, worked together with years of overlap, mutual contacts, studied together), and generates a shareable HTML or spreadsheet report. Requires a Team or Business plan. Guide + download: https://ctd.ai/guide/article/mcp-portfolio-introductions - Background: https://ctd.ai/blog/how-vcs-help-portfolio-companies-with-warm-intros --- ## Frequently asked questions - **What sources can I connect?** Email, CRM, and your LinkedIn connections and messages today, with calendar, WhatsApp, SMS, Apple Contacts and more coming soon. Roll out company-wide and CTD builds everyone's network automatically. - **Does CTD read my emails?** By default CTD reads only email headers (who you emailed and when), not the content. You can optionally grant body access for previews and signature details; even then CTD never stores email bodies. - **Does it sync with my CRM?** Yes - native Salesforce and HubSpot, and any CRM via API. - **Are there limits on API or MCP usage?** No usage limits on paid plans beyond standard rate limits; no credits to buy. - **Is it the same as a CRM?** No. A CRM records relationships you already know about; CTD discovers relationships across the whole company and scores their strength. They are complementary, and CTD syncs with the CRM rather than replacing it. - **How is it different from LinkedIn Sales Navigator?** LinkedIn shows who you are connected to; CTD shows how strong those ties actually are (from real interaction data), pools everyone's network into one reachable graph, and orchestrates the actual introduction. - **Is my data safe, and is it mine?** Encrypted, never sold, exportable or deletable at any time; SOC 2 Type II audited. --- ## Pages - Home: https://ctd.ai/ - Pricing: https://ctd.ai/pricing - What is warm introduction software?: https://ctd.ai/what-is-warm-introduction-software - Relationship intelligence software: https://ctd.ai/relationship-intelligence-software - Individual: https://ctd.ai/individual - Team: https://ctd.ai/team - Business: https://ctd.ai/business - Venture Capital: https://ctd.ai/venture-capital - Private Equity: https://ctd.ai/private-equity - API: https://ctd.ai/integrations-api - MCP: https://ctd.ai/integrations-mcp - Google / Outlook / Salesforce / HubSpot integrations under https://ctd.ai/integrations-* - About: https://ctd.ai/about - Customer reviews: https://ctd.ai/reviews - Blog: https://ctd.ai/blog - Ghost emails explained: https://ctd.ai/blog/ghost-emails - The board meeting network playbook: https://ctd.ai/blog/board-meeting-network-playbook - Who at your company knows someone at Acme? Here's how to find out: https://ctd.ai/blog/find-out-who-at-your-company-knows-someone - Why an investor's network beats the check: https://ctd.ai/blog/the-network-nobody-can-see - Book a demo: https://ctd.ai/demo - FAQs: https://ctd.ai/faqs ## Contact - App / sign in: https://app.ctd.ai/ - G2 reviews: https://www.g2.com/products/connect-the-dots/reviews (4.9/5) - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connect-the-dots-ctd