Private equity CRM software is one of the few purchases where building it yourself on a general suite is a genuinely reasonable answer, which is why the decision takes so long. Salesforce or HubSpot with custom objects will model a deal, a source and a pass perfectly well if somebody builds them. The question is whether that somebody exists, stays, and has time. This page sets out the three things that actually decide it and the cost that never appears in the comparison.
Do you have an owner, and will you still have them in two years?
A configured suite needs somebody who understands both the tool and the business. Firms with that person get an excellent result. Firms who had that person and lost them get a system nobody can change, which is worse than either alternative, because the workarounds accumulate and nobody can say why the objects are shaped the way they are.
How unusual is your process, honestly?
Most funds source, screen, pass and re-approach in broadly the same shape. Firms convinced their process is unique usually mean their stage names are unique, which is a configuration detail rather than a reason to build. The genuine exceptions are firms with an unusual origination model, and they know who they are.
What does the record have to survive?
A partner leaving, an associate leaving, and a year of nobody tidying it. Built systems survive that badly because the assumptions live in the builder's head. Bought systems survive it better because the shape is imposed rather than agreed, which is annoying on day one and valuable in year three.
The cost nobody puts in the comparison
The months between deciding and having something usable. A build is rarely quoted with its elapsed time, and during those months the firm is still running on the spreadsheet it was trying to replace. Against a tool that works the afternoon you sign up at $69 a month, the honest comparison is not licence against licence.
Questions people ask about private equity crm software
Is building on Salesforce a mistake?
Not if you have somebody to build and maintain it. It is a mistake when that person is assumed rather than named.
What is genuinely different about a PE record?
It centres a source and a pass rather than a customer and a sale. That is a modelling difference, not a feature list.
How long does a build take?
Longer than quoted, and the months in between are spent on the spreadsheet you were replacing. That elapsed time belongs in the comparison.