Founders ignore cold outreach.
Warm introductions win deals.
The best founders have dozens of VCs in their inbox. They take meetings with the ones who come through people they trust. Your fund's network already has warm paths to every founder you want to reach. But your CRM can't tell you how well your people actually know someone, and LinkedIn can't either. Connect The Dots adds the layer that's missing: scored relationship strength across your fund's entire network — so you find the warm path and win the deal.
When LinkedIn started, a connection meant something. Today, the average professional has thousands — most of whom they couldn't introduce you to if they tried.
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CTD connects at the email server level — every partner, executive, portfolio founder, and advisor's network is mapped and searchable automatically. No individual setup. No opt-in.
SEE WHAT'S REAL
Not every shared contact is a scored relationship. A scored relationship is one where CTD has actual signal — email frequency, recency, response rates, calendar overlap. No signal, no score.
LinkedIn shows you mutual contacts. CTD shows you scored relationships — ranked by how well your people actually know them.
ACT ON IT
One click from insight to introduction.
CTD removes the cognitive load from your busiest connectors. Draft the perfect intro, route it for approval, and track it to the meeting.
Venture firms have deal flow tools, CRMs, and market maps. They track contacts, log meetings, and manage pipelines. But none of these tools can answer the most important question: who on our team actually knows this person well enough to make an introduction? That's the gap. Your firm has the relationships. It just can't see how strong they are — or who has the best path.
A portfolio founder's former CTO is now VP Engineering at your next target company. A partner's college roommate runs BD at the strategic acquirer you've been circling. These paths exist. Your CRM doesn't know about them. LinkedIn can't score them. And no one at the firm can see them — until now.
“The relationships exist. The firm just can’t see them.”
portfolio companies
founders and executives across the portfolio
first-degree connections across the fund
And here's what most funds miss: When portfolio founders join CTD as external members, their entire first-degree network becomes visible to the fund. Sixty portfolio founders can unlock 5M+ warm paths — turning your portfolio into your greatest sourcing advantage.
Every VC firm has a CRM for tracking companies and deals, and individual LinkedIn accounts for second-degree connections. CTD gives you five capabilities neither tool can.
01
Your CRM shows companies you're already tracking
CTD shows who in your network already knows the founders, executives, and board members at any company — before you ever reach out
02
LinkedIn only maps connections made on LinkedIn
CTD maps LinkedIn plus email and calendar — surfacing thousands of relationships per person that don't exist on LinkedIn at all
03
LinkedIn can't show your founders' networks
When portfolio founders join as external members, their first-degree relationships become visible warm paths for the whole fund
04
LinkedIn doesn't infer relationships
CTD detects relationships from overlapping employment history, shared board seats, and career signals — even when no direct email or LinkedIn connection exists
05
LinkedIn treats all connections the same
CTD scores every relationship using email interaction patterns, recency, career overlaps, and multiple signals — so you know who actually has a strong relationship, not just a connection
5x more relationships visible. CTD maps connections from email and calendar — not just LinkedIn — surfacing tens of thousands of contacts per person that would otherwise be completely invisible.
LinkedIn tells you two people are connected. CTD tells you how well — with full context on how the relationship started, what was discussed, and how recently they interacted. That’s what makes millions of connections actually leverageable.
HOW CTD SCORES RELATIONSHIPS
Explicit Signals
Email frequency and volume between two people
Email recency — how recently they last communicated
LinkedIn connection status
Calendar meetings — shared meetings and frequency
Implicit Signals
Career overlaps — worked at the same company during the same period
Shared board seats or advisory roles
Co-invested deals or shared portfolio involvement
Alumni networks — same university, program, or cohort
Alex T.
Partner · Meridian Ventures
Strong relationship
Jordan M.
CEO · Arcline
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Active email exchange — frequent, recent communication
Worked together at Acme Corp for 2 years — both VP-level
Lived in the same city during their time at Acme Corp
Relationship strength is scored from real email communication patterns — not just LinkedIn connections. Career overlaps, shared locations, and other signals add context.
HOW IT WORKS
Four steps from deployment to measurable relationship-driven outcomes.
01 Onboard your fund's network
Connect your firm's email server — no individual setup required. CTD maps every relationship automatically within days.
02 Build the fund's Supergraph
Relationships are ranked by strength, deduplicated, and made searchable across partners, advisors, portfolio founders, and extended members.
03 Search any target
Find warm paths to founders, executives, or board members at any company — instantly, across the fund's entire collective network.
04 Activate warm introductions
One-click intro requests go to the best-positioned connector, with timing managed to prevent overlap and connector fatigue. Track intro volume, meeting conversion, and outcomes.
From deal sourcing to recruiting, see how funds activate their network to win deals and create value across the portfolio.
Your portfolio companies are trying to land enterprise accounts. Your fund's network already has warm paths to the decision-makers at those companies — but no one can see them. CTD makes those paths visible and actionable.
See which executives at a portco’s target accounts are connected to your firm’s network
Filter by persona and seniority (VP, C-level, CXO)
View scored connection paths showing who in your network has the strongest relationship
Facilitate warm introductions on behalf of your portfolio companies
Share curated contact lists directly with portco sales teams
See which executives at a portco’s target accounts are connected to your firm’s network
Filter by persona and seniority (VP, C-level, CXO)
View scored connection paths showing who in your network has the strongest relationship
Facilitate warm introductions on behalf of your portfolio companies
Share curated contact lists directly with portco sales teams
Hosting a Marketing Leaders Dinner or industry gathering? Search your extended network for the right attendees — CMOs, VPs of Marketing, Growth Leaders — and coordinate warm introductions through the best-connected person.
Search across internal team, partners, founders, and extended network
Create dedicated event lists (e.g., “Marketing Event – May 2026”)
View strongest connection paths to each target attendee
Manage outreach in Kanban: Target → Intro Requested → Invite Sent → RSVP Confirmed
Higher response rates, stronger attendance quality, and clear outreach visibility
Search for companies by sector, stage, or geography and instantly see who in your fund's network — partners, advisors, portfolio founders — has a relationship with the founding team. When multiple firms compete for the same deal, the fund with the warmest path to the founder wins. CTD shows you who has the strongest connection and facilitates the intro before your competitors go cold.
Search for companies by industry, stage, size, or geography across your full network
See scored relationship paths to founders, executives, and board members
Run relationship-based diligence — find who in your network has worked with or invested alongside the founding team
Save deal targets into lists and track through stages (Identified → First Meeting → DD → Term Sheet)
Share deal lists with partners for collaborative evaluation
Leverage portfolio founders’ networks to uncover warm paths you wouldn’t see internally
When portfolio founders join as external members, their first-degree networks become visible warm paths for the entire fund. Sixty founders can unlock 5M+ connections — creating a network multiplier effect where founders help founders, and the entire ecosystem becomes more connected.
Expand visibility by inviting founders as external members (unlimited)
Expand visibility by inviting founders as external members (unlimited)
Founders gain access to the broader VC/PE ecosystem
Identify shared connections and strong paths across the full network
Portfolio companies can reciprocate by adding investors as external members
Creates a win-win: investors increase value, founders gain broader access
Use natural language search to find candidates (e.g., CROs or VPs of Sales in healthcare) across your firm’s entire network — partners, employees, and founders. CTD surfaces the strongest connection paths to each person.
Search by role, seniority, function, industry, location, and company size
Save candidates to lists and share with colleagues or portfolio companies
Manage candidates in Kanban view (Good Fit → Interview Scheduled → Hired)
Add notes and collaborate directly in-platform
Before conferences or LP meetings, CTD shows which attendees are connected to your firm’s network, so every conversation is warm and every meeting is intentional.
Source deals and expand your ecosystem through warm paths
Help portfolio companies accelerate sales and build stronger pipelines
Find and place top talent across your portfolio companies
"We closed our best deal last year through a warm intro CTD surfaced from a portfolio founder's network. That path didn't exist in our CRM or on LinkedIn."
"Our portfolio founders now see the fund's network as a real asset — not just a logo on a cap table. CTD made our platform team 10x more effective."
"Within the first month, our investors connected us to three enterprise prospects we'd been trying to reach for a year. Two converted to pilots."
FAQ
Everything you need to know about implementing CTD at your VC firm.
Your CRM tracks companies and deals. CTD maps the people — and more importantly, who across your entire fund already knows them. It's the relationship layer between your collective network and the founders you want to reach. Deal sourcing tools tell you what to look at. CTD tells you who can get you in the room.
CTD is designed for low-friction adoption. Partners and founders sync contacts from existing tools (email, LinkedIn, etc.) in minutes. There's no manual data entry. Portfolio founders especially love it — they get access to the fund's broader network for hiring and sales, which makes adoption a win-win.
CTD gives individuals control over what they share. Relationship paths are surfaced without exposing raw personal contact data — so it respects confidentiality while still enabling warm introductions.
Yes — on a controlled basis. The fund decides which portfolio companies have access, to what parts of the network, and for which use cases. Portfolio founders who join as external members can also contribute their own networks back to the fund. All intro requests are coordinated and visible to fund leadership.
CTD manages this explicitly — prioritizing requests, tracking who has been asked for what, and preventing awkward overlap between companies in the same sector.
Connect The Dots. Inc.
548 Market St
San Francisco, CA 94104
