Affinity History
This year marked the founding of Affinity.co, setting out to revolutionize relationship intelligence for dealmakers.
2014
This is the term for the initial money invested in a startup.
What is Seed Funding?
Private equity firms typically invest in these types of companies.
What are privately held companies?
These team members create financial models and pitch books, often late into the night.
Who are analysts?
This Koala has a street named after their family in Winnepeg
Who is "Heater" Heath Driscoll?
Affinity refers to its core capability—capturing, analyzing, and visualizing relationship insights—as this two-word term.
What is Relationship Intelligence
This metric measures how much a VC’s portfolio has grown compared to the amount invested.
What is ROI to a VC?
This is the typical investment horizon for most private equity deals
What is 5-7 years?
This 3-letter acronym describes the process of taking a company public.
What is an IPO?
This Koala has a bamboo tattoo that translates to "No sad"
Who is Brittany White?
Affinity was founded by these two Stanford grads, whose experience in venture capital inspired the platform.
VC firms often exchange capital for this kind of ownership stake.
What is Equity?
The portion of profits (usually 20%) that private equity firms take after returning capital to investors is called this.
What is carried interest?
This document outlines the structure and rationale of a deal and is presented to clients.
What is a pitch deck?
This Koala got lost in a Costa Rican jungle
Who is "OG Koala" Ryan Clark?
Affinity was built to replace this outdated, manual method of tracking relationships, still used by many firms today.
What is Excel/Spreadsheets?
The term for when a VC-backed startup achieves a $1 billion valuation.
What is a Unicorn?
This title refers to the most senior decision-makers in a PE firm.
Who is the managing partner?
This financial metric shows a company's value relative to its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
What is EBITDA?
This Koala starred in musical theatre as a budding teenager
Who is Neon Deion?
In 2021, Affinity raised $80 million in a Series C round led by this prominent growth equity firm that is a current customer.
What is Menlo Ventures
This emerging funding model allows startups to raise capital without giving up equity.
What is revenue-based financing
A PE-backed exit might come via IPO, strategic acquisition, or this third option.
What is a secondary buyout?
The part of an investment bank that helps clients raise debt financing.
What is the debt capital markets team?
This koala has an extensive fragrance collection
Who is Premium Carl?