Conduit — AI deal sourcing from $300/mo. 30-day free trial.
Request Demo →Affinity is a relationship CRM that tracks who you know. Conduit is a discovery engine that finds investment opportunities before a company even exists — scanning research papers and patent filings automatically.
The honest take: Conduit and Affinity solve different problems. If you're losing deals because of weak relationship tracking, get Affinity. If you're missing deals because breakthroughs are happening in research labs you're not watching — that's the gap Conduit fills.
Automated daily scanning of ArXiv, USPTO, preprint servers, and academic labs. AI scores each finding for commercial potential and generates an investment memo. You're in the deal before it's a pitch.
Syncs your email and calendar to track relationship strength, meeting history, and warm intros. Excellent for managing your existing network and tracking relationship quality across your portfolio companies and co-investors.
| Feature | Conduit | Affinity |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | Pre-startup discovery | Relationship CRM |
| Research paper scanning (ArXiv) | ✓ Daily, automated | ✗ Not available |
| Patent filing tracker (USPTO) | ✓ Real-time alerts | ✗ Not available |
| AI opportunity scoring | ✓ 1–10 signal score | ✗ Not available |
| Auto-generated deal memos | ✓ Per paper/patent | ✗ Not available |
| Researcher profile pages | ✓ h-index, lab, publications | ✗ Not available |
| Email / calendar auto-sync | ✗ Not available | ✓ Core feature |
| Relationship strength tracking | ✗ Not available | ✓ Core feature |
| Warm intro pathfinding | ✗ Not available | ✓ Available |
| Auto data entry (contact enrichment) | ✗ Not available | ✓ Core feature |
| Deal pipeline / CRM | ✓ Analyst plan+ | ✓ Core feature |
| Weekly digest email | ✓ Top 10 opportunities | — Alerts only |
| Starting price | $300/mo · month-to-month | ~$200/mo · annual contract |
| Free trial | ✓ 30 days, no card | — Demo only |
Daily automated scanning of research papers, patent filings, and preprints. New findings scored and memos drafted before you wake up.
Prioritized list of opportunities hits your inbox each week. Researcher profiles show you who's behind the work.
You reach out to the research team before they've incorporated. No competition. No auction process. Just a conversation.
Once you've made contact with a researcher or founder, Affinity tracks the relationship — meeting history, email frequency, context.
Affinity shows relationship warmth and flags when contact has gone cold — useful for nurturing long-term research relationships.
Term sheet, due diligence, close — Affinity tracks deal stages and auto-logs every touchpoint across the process.
Scout plan. Analyst at $700/mo adds patent tracking, researcher profiles, and CRM pipeline.
Base plan. Higher-tier plans with advanced relationship intelligence are significantly more. Annual contract typically required.
Affinity manages relationships you already have.
Conduit finds the ones you haven't made yet — before anyone else does.
30-day free trial · No credit card required · Cancel anytime