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Data-driven VC #21: Top 13 Chrome plugins every VC should use

Where venture capital and data intersect. Every week.

Andre Retterath

Feb 2, 2023

👋 Hi, I’m Andre and welcome to my weekly newsletter, Data-driven VC. Every Thursday I cover hands-on insights into data-driven innovation in venture capital and connect the dots between the latest research, reviews of novel tools and datasets, deep dives into various VC tech stacks, interviews with experts and the implications for all stakeholders. Follow along to understand how data-driven approaches change the game, why it matters, and what it means for you.

Current subscribers: 5,640, +402 since last week

Welcome to 400+ news readers and thank you all for participating in last week’s poll. 27% of the participating VCs classified themselves as “Old-school VCs”, 56% as “Productivity VCs” and only 17% as “Data-driven VCs”, see last week’s chart updated with black arrows and figures below.

Taking into account that the majority of “Old-school VCs” have not yet reached awareness to start their digitization journey and are thus unlikely to be among this community, the data is certainly skewed towards the right. Said differently, the poll results likely miss a significant number of “Old-school VCs” who are busy celebrating themselves and expecting to meet the next unicorn founder at their favorite golf club..

..but provide a great overview of the “state of digitization” of modern VCs. Looking at the reader distribution across these three groups, this newsletter seems to indeed have product-market fit for the “Productivity VCs”.

More interestingly though, 38% of you replied in the second poll of last week that you want to see more technical and research related “Data-driven VC” content. The fact that the interest in “Data-driven VC” content is more than 2x as high as the number of VCs who classify themselves as such clearly indicates that many “Productivity VCs” think ahead and are preparing or are already in the midst of their transition. With these insights in mind, I will make sure to assemble a well-balanced content mix in the future 🧙

So let’s focus today’s post on a topic that was requested multiple times in the past few months:

Chrome plugins, your simple but effective productivity gain

I’ve been using Chrome plugins for a long time to boost my productivity. However, I never actively searched but rather randomly stumbled over them. Their major value proposition is to prevent context switching and execute tasks within the browser right where you are. Starting with your first DMs on this topic in October last year, I kept my eyes open, asked my 30k+ LinkedIn & Twitter followers for their input, saved all relevant extensions, looked for alternatives, checked them out, tried them in my day-to-day and picked the IMO best ones out there.

RESEARCH

#1 Crunchbase: Get Crunchbase’s company and contact data right where you need it. Alternatives: PitchBook, CB Insights

CRM

#2 Affinity Pathfinder: Reduce time spent finding the right deal with relationship intelligence, business insights, and a connection to your CRM as you research and engage deals from websites, LinkedIn, and Gmail. Alternatives: Attio, Surfe (compatible with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive and more)

DATA EXTRACTION

#3 PhantomBuster: Extract data from any corner of the web. Alternatives: WebScraper, Instant Data Scraper

WORKFLOW AUTOMATION

#4 Bardeen: Automate manual work with one click! Connect 30+ apps, scrape the web, and boost your productivity. Alternatives: Zapier

LEAD GENERATION

#5 Hunter: Find email addresses from anywhere on the web, with just one click. Alternatives: RocketReach, getProspect, Apollo.io

Share it with others who might benefit.

#6 Text Blaze: Insert text templates anywhere using keyboard shortcuts.
#7 Compose AI: Write emails, create documents, and chat faster with the power of AI. Alternatives: ChatGPT Writer
#8 TextCortex: Your rewriting, paraphrasing and AI writing tool to write 10x faster and get out of the writer`s block instantly.
#9 Grammarly: Improve your writing with Grammarly's spell check, grammar check, punctuation check, and more.
#10 AuthoredUp: Helps you optimize the "hook" in your LinkedIn posts to make them more engaging.
#11 Loom: Record your screen and camera with one click. Share that content in an instant with a link. Alternatives: Vidyard

PITCH DECK DOWNLOAD

#12 DocSend slide deck downloader: Download any DocSend slide deck as a PDF.

Scheduling

#13 Calendly: Scheduling automation platform for eliminating the back-and-forth emails for finding the perfect time. Alternatives: Mixmax, EasyWeek

Download the full list as PDF here. Did I miss your favorite plugin? Comment below!

Stay driven,
Andre

Thank you for reading. If you liked it, share it with your friends, colleagues and everyone interested in data-driven innovation. Subscribe below and follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter to never miss data-driven VC updates again.

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