attiocommerceAPP-006

The Attio Revenue Operator

#attio#crm#revenue-ops#modern-crm#startup#relationships

Aha Moment

“What was the moment this product clicked?” —

Identity

A revenue ops manager, head of sales, or technical founder at a startup of 10–100 people who evaluated the legacy CRMs and decided not to inherit their constraints. They chose Attio because it's data-model-first — they can define what a record means in their business rather than forcing their process into Salesforce's assumptions. They are building their CRM from scratch. This is a significant investment. They are aware of that and have decided it's worth it.

Intention

What are they trying to do? —

Outcome

What do they produce? —

Goals

→Build a CRM that reflects their actual sales process rather than a generic framework
→Automate data entry through integrations instead of relying on rep discipline
→Give leadership pipeline visibility without a weekly manual update cycle

Frustrations

—Data model decisions made early that become expensive to change later
—Integrations that sync data in one direction when they need bidirectional flow
—The time it takes to train new team members on a custom CRM configuration
—Features that exist in HubSpot or Salesforce that Attio hasn't built yet — the
—maturity gap that comes with choosing a newer tool

Worldview

A CRM shaped by the vendor's assumptions is a CRM that fits the vendor's demo, not your business
Data entry that humans have to do manually will eventually not be done
The right time to design your CRM was at the start; the second-best time is now

Scenario

A new enterprise deal has entered the pipeline with a buying committee of six people. In Salesforce, this would be contacts attached to an opportunity with roles. In Attio, the rev ops lead is designing a relationship structure that captures the buying committee dynamics, the internal champion, and the procurement contact as distinct relationship types — not just contacts on a record. They're building this for the first time. It will become the template for every enterprise deal that follows.

Context

Manages Attio as the company's CRM and relationship intelligence layer. Uses Attio connected to Gmail, Slack, and their product database via API. Has defined 3–8 custom object types beyond the defaults. Builds reports and views that the sales team uses daily. Maintains a Zapier or Make workflow that syncs Attio data to a dashboard or BI tool. Has participated in Attio's community Slack and has filed 2–3 feature requests that are on the roadmap.

Impact

→Bidirectional sync with Gmail and Slack that captures relationship context automatically
→reduces the manual logging that determines whether a CRM has accurate data
→Data model migration tools that allow object restructuring without data loss remove
→the "we can't change this now" lock-in that accumulates in custom CRM builds
→Pipeline reporting that's configurable enough to match non-standard sales processes
→removes the dashboard-building bottleneck that currently routes through rev ops
→Granular permission controls that match org hierarchy without requiring admin-level access
→for routine pipeline management

Composability Notes

Pairs with `clay-primary-user` for the enrichment-to-CRM data flow workflow. Contrast with `salesforce-primary-user` to map the modern CRM flexibility vs. enterprise CRM depth tradeoff. Use with `venture-critic` antagonist for investor diligence scenarios where CRM data quality is scrutinized.