If you are reading this article, you likely work at a deal-driven firm in the private markets or other adjacent industries and want to learn more about the 4Degrees relationship intelligence platform and what it does (and does not do).
The goal of this post is to provide you with an honest breakdown of when it makes sense to implement 4Degrees and when you should look elsewhere. We can talk non-stop about the benefits and features of our product; however, giving you all the information you need to determine if 4Degrees makes sense for your team is extremely valuable when evaluating different vendors.
Below are some reasons why you should not buy 4Degrees.
You Need a CRM System to Manage and Close Sales
If your firm sells a standardized service or a physical product and is looking for a CRM to manage and close more sales, there are much better options than 4Degrees.
Unlike traditional or generic transactional CRMs designed to usher prospects down a linear sales pipeline (Salesforce Hubspot, Zoho, etc.) 4Degrees is intended to address the unique workflows of deal-driven teams such as venture capital, private equity, investment banking, etc., where the key to success is building and nurturing long-term relationships.
In traditional sales, when a prospect becomes a customer, they are usually handed off to someone else within the company. On the other hand, deal-driven teams pursue transactions that rely on a more complex relationship-driven process. To achieve this, teams must build strong relationships across multiple groups and continuously nurture them to generate new deals well into the future. In other words, the number and quality of their relationships are crucial drivers of their success.
4Degrees empowers relationship-focused teams to build, manage, and scale long-term relationships, not close transactional sales.
You are Looking for a Financial Services System to Manage Back-Office Functions, Investor Relations, etc.
4Degrees is a relationship intelligence CRM. Its function is to help you close more deals faster by leveraging your firm’s collective network, streamlining your deal pipeline, and automating data entry.
Firms in the private markets will likely need a technology stack composed of multiple systems to manage their entire investment lifecycle, specifically back-office processes, investor portals, fund performance, and fund management. Although 4Degrees is a vital component of a firm’s technology stack, it by no means replaces other products for the abovementioned functions.
At 4Degrees, we believe relationships are the foundation of any deal in the private markets. That is why we focus on building the best relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers to thrive in the relationship economy. We recognize most firms use various technologies for different processes, so instead of trying to replace them, we seamlessly integrate with other elements of your technology stack.
You Are a Crypto-Focused Firm and are Looking for a Crypto CRM.
Cryptocurrencies are gaining popularity, and some firms in the private markets are actively investing in crypto and DeFI projects. Although crypto-focused investment firms can get value from relationship intelligence, 4Degrees does not scrape or integrate with any crypto-focused data sources. We have robust integrations with Pitchbook and Crunchbase, but if you are looking for a CRM partner with experience working with crypto funds and investors, there are better options than 4Degrees.
You Are Looking for a Solution Focused on Portfolio Management
As a VC or PE investor, you want to stay engaged with your portfolio company founders or execs and keep a pulse on your portcos. A relationship intelligence CRM is excellent at helping you stay in touch with contacts from your portfolio companies and ensure you follow up at the right time; however, other systems are much better at tracking unique KPIs and analyzing your PE or VC portfolios.
Using purpose-built software for portfolio management will make it easier for your exec teams to provide you with the updated metrics that matter and for your team to have a bird’s eye view of your portfolio.
To give your portfolio the best level of support, we recommend using both a portfolio management system and a relationship intelligence CRM such as 4Degrees. By having access to your firm’s entire network, 4Degrees empowers you to introduce your portfolio companies to new talent, investors, clients, and advisors in minutes, making you a more efficient investor.
You Do Not Like Purple
If you have seen the 4Degrees product in action, you may have noticed that our main color is purple. Our 4Degrees purple is everywhere on the platform, and some prospects have told us during product demos how they do not like the color and would like to have the capability to change the color of the interface. Although we are working on building a more visually appealing user interface, we are first and foremost focused on shipping the best relationship intelligence CRM for relationship-driven teams.
We spend our time listening to our users and building features to solve their unique pain points by leveraging the power of their networks, automating time-consuming processes, and optimizing their deal pipeline.
If you do not mind the color of our interface and are instead looking for a CRM with advanced relationship intelligence capabilities to become more efficient and close more deals faster, consider requesting a demo of our platform. We promise you will not be disappointed.
At 4Degrees, we know that deals don’t just happen on their own. They happen by building, managing, and scaling relationships. That’s why we created a relationship intelligence platform to provide teams with immediate visibility into their organization’s network, empowering them to uncover new opportunities.
If you want to activate your network to source more deals and automate workflows unique to the private market space, your team will significantly benefit from 4Degrees.
