Here’s a sneak peek at Affinity Campfire San Francisco 2023

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San Francisco’s Presidio is known for its hiking trails, restaurants, and 18-hole golf course, but on September 28, it’ll be known for one more thing: relationship intelligence.

Affinity’s second annual relationship intelligence conference, Campfire, is coming to San Francisco this fall. The one-day in-person event brings together dealmakers to discuss what it means to be a part of the leading relationship intelligence ecosystem.

We’ll also dive into presentations and breakout sessions on the biggest topics facing the industry. It’ll cover the ways how relationship intelligence can fuel growth, help teams manage pipelines, and adapt to a constantly evolving market. And, it’ll demonstrate Affinity helps private capital deal teams find, manage, and close more high-quality deals.

Interested in learning more? Read on to get a preview of what to expect at the event.

Finding, funding, and flourishing: Expert insights on calculated investing

The era of soaring valuations and the ‘one day close’ is over, and private capital investors can no longer justify risky deals based on hype and growth at all costs. They now have to focus on sourcing deals with solid fundamentals and strong metrics with companies that aren’t just stable, but also have long-term growth potential.

In this panel, Vivek Ramaswami, Partner at Madrona Venture Group, Curtis McKee, Partner at Third Point Ventures, Nnamdi Iregbulem, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Kelly Graziadei, Founder and General Partner at F7 Ventures will share how they’re navigating today’s investment landscape and finding success in:

Deal sourcing
Fundraising
Portfolio company growth

Become an operational hero: Set your team and tech up for deal success

It’s essential for firms to find ways to do more with less while also maintaining healthy deal flow. In this breakout session, Caroline Haun, Operations Director at 8VC, and Nolan English, Director of Portfolio Services at SOSV, will share insights, stories, and best practices on how they’ve used Affinity to enable their firm to be more successful and efficient in their dealmaking and supporting portfolio companies.

From insights to investments: Strategies for success as a data-driven investor

Data-driven firms are winning right now—and the most successful ones are ones where this mindset is shared by every team member throughout the organization. General Partners need to lead by example on pairing data-driven insights with leadership intuition, and how this combination is a factor in a successful investment strategy.

This breakout session will be an open discussion for dealmakers to share insights, swap stories, and learn from peers on best practices around:

Sharing your network and ongoing context from day-to-day activities to improve the team’s overall deal and outreach success
Managing deal flow to optimize for efficient prioritization across teams
Using deal data and context to operate faster without sacrificing quality or adding risk

Hurry up and wait: Digitizing in down markets

Gartner predicts 75% of investor reviews will be influenced by AI and data analytics by 2025. With that in mind, many VCs may feel like they’re facing a creeping deadline to modernize their systems and processes as soon as possible, or risk being left behind. Simultaneously, firms are being tested by a challenging deal landscape where cutting costs and doing more with less are of top priority.

In this panel, Jennie Dvorak, Director of Product at Affinity, will sit down with Ryan Bateman, Chief Technology Officer at Sands Capital, Diogo Henriques, Chief Operations Officer at BAM Elevate, Amber Quinones, Head of Platform & Operations at BBG Ventures, Andrew Cafourek, Head of Technology VP at Anthos, to discuss the ways they’ve digitize their firms, and break down the delicate balance of effectively budgeting resources without killing agility.

Affinity will also be hosting a cocktail hour for attendees after the event. This will be a unique opportunity to meet and engage with fellow dealmakers—and most importantly, expand your own networks.

Gather around the campfire with us on September 28 and get key insights and advice on how to take your dealmaking to the next level!