I. INTRO
During my summer internship at WestWave Ventures (Currently known as LvlUp Ventures), I had the chance to design and co-develop an internal CRM system that increased segmentation and outreach capacity by 75%, expediting one of WestWave Ventures’ services, Fundraise Prep. Amongst the several coaching packages WestWave Ventures provides, Fundraise Prep assists early stage startups in closing their round of investment. We would personally reach out to other venture capital firms who match the criteria of one of our fundraise prep clients (industry, funding round, etc.) to potentially connect the two leading to an investment.
II. WHAT IS SEGMENTING?
To accurately describe the product, an introduction to segmentation is needed.
Segmentation is the process of finding specific Venture Capital firms that fit the criteria of one
of our fundraise prep clients and recording them down in a spreadsheet. Typically, each week the
goal is to find 120-150 specific Venture Capital Firms for one client, while ensuring that the VC
that was recorded hadn’t been contacted before about the same company (double hitting). Once
segmentation is complete, the Managing Partner of WestWave Ventures, Brandon Maier, would personally
reach out to each company through email to persuade them to have a meeting with our client in order
to negotiate an investment deal.
*Note: Example Spreadsheet, does not include real data
III. THE PROBLEM
Prior to the internal CRM, the entire segmentation process was extremely inefficient and often prone to several bouts of human error. Because the entire segmentation procedure was manual, there was a lot of room for people to make mistakes and was often too time consuming. Some of these mistakes include finding a VC that we had already reached out to, or finding a VC that actually doesn’t match the criteria of our client. Due to these errors, WestWave Ventures was in danger of losing validity and trust from our personal contacts.
IV. THE SOLUTION
Develop an internal CRM software that would keep track of WestWave Ventures personal contact
database of Venture Capital Firms and streamline the process of mixing and matching VC’s with our
fundraise prep clients. Ensuring with a 100% certainty that each VC segmented for a specific client
during a given week is industry appropriate, funding round compatible, and has not been contacted
before.
Because I had been segmenting for weeks and personally truly understood the entire process and its
pitfalls, I was able to accurately materialize and design the wireframes for the internal software
that WestWave Ventures Founder, Brandon Maier, and I had envisioned.
Designed By: Julian Chan
Tools Used: Adobe XD (Wireframes)
*Note: Rough wireframes designed in 4 hours