Velvet as a full OS for VCs
Alex Johnson, co-founder & CEO of Velvet, on vertical AI for venture capital
The important point is that Velvet is trying to replace a VC firm’s patchwork of spreadsheets, docs, CRM notes, and research tabs with one working surface where the data also updates itself. In practice, that means a fund can ingest decks, emails, data rooms, call notes, CRM records, and market data into one knowledge base, then use that same system to draft memos, run diligence, prep IC discussions, and map warm intros for portfolio value add.
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This is broader than a memo tool. Velvet describes the product as following the deck to decision workflow, extracting company facts from documents, updating CRM fields, and supporting board reporting, cap table review, co investor mapping, and memo writing from the same dataset.
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The comparison set shows what full OS means in concrete terms. Affinity is the system of record for relationships, Harmonic is strongest in sourcing and startup data, and AngelList is strongest in fund admin and syndication. Velvet is aiming at the layer that sits across all of them and helps make the investment decision itself.
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That matters most for smaller and mid sized funds without in house research teams. Those firms still juggle Notion, Airtable, Google Drive, PitchBook, Carta, and CRM tools by hand, so the product wins if it cuts analyst style busywork and turns scattered firm knowledge into something searchable and reusable.
Going forward, the natural expansion is from internal workflow system to market infrastructure. If Velvet becomes the place where firms evaluate deals every day, it can also become the place where they surface co investors, portfolio support opportunities, and eventually liquidity, which is how an internal operating system turns into a network.