About Grade / Creatorcheck.io
Grade (formerly Creatorcheck.io) is a San Francisco-based creator verification platform backed by Y Combinator. The product helps brands and platforms verify creator identities, validate audience authenticity, and handle payments in the creator economy. The company was in the middle of a rebrand from Creatorcheck to Grade when the engagement started, operating with a two-person founding team running its first structured sales motion.
The Challenge
Grade was starting from zero with no CRM, no process, and no data model. The team was already booking sales calls through Calendly and using Granola for meeting notes, but nothing connected. Call summaries and transcripts sat in Granola, prospect records did not exist in any system, and there was no pipeline to track who had been called, who had converted, and what the conversion rate looked like.
With YC batch momentum and an urgent need to start selling, the goal was to have a working CRM with existing call history imported and a sales pipeline live within days.
Our Approach
Novlini delivered the full setup in approximately 2.5 days, prioritizing speed without sacrificing the structural decisions that would matter as the team scaled.
Attio Foundation
The workspace was built from scratch: a company and people object structure appropriate for a B2B SaaS sales motion, a deal pipeline with stages from first call through demo, proposal, and closed won or lost, and views giving the two founders clear visibility on what is active and what needs follow-up.
The data model was kept lean by design. At the founding stage, complexity in the CRM creates maintenance overhead that a two-person team cannot absorb. The architecture was built to be extendable rather than comprehensive from day one.
Granola Integration
Granola was connected to Attio so that meeting notes and call summaries sync automatically to the relevant company or deal record after each call. The team no longer needs to copy notes between tools. Every sales call made from day one is captured in the CRM without manual transcription.
Calendly Integration
Calendly was connected to Attio so that when a prospect books a call, a company and contact record is created or updated in Attio automatically with the booking details. The pipeline starts at the moment of booking rather than requiring the team to create records manually before each call.
Technology Stack
Attio - CRM, deal pipeline, contact management (source of truth)
Granola - meeting notes and call summaries, automatic Attio sync
Calendly - prospect booking, automatic Attio record creation
The Results
Grade went from no CRM to a working Attio setup with connected call notes and booking automation in under a week.
CRM live from day one - pipeline configured, data model in place, both founders operational in the system
Granola connected - call summaries and notes synced to Attio automatically after every sales meeting
Calendly integrated - new bookings create Attio records immediately, pipeline starts at the point of booking
Conversion visibility established - the team can now track call-to-conversion rates for the first time
Foundation scalable - data model designed to extend as the team grows and the sales motion matures post-YC
"Was great to work with the team, we were in opposite time zones but they were able to work around that and get me up to speed in a week."
Lotanna E. - Grade ★★★★★
Why It Matters
For a YC-backed startup in the middle of a rebrand and a sales push, speed matters more than perfection. The right CRM at this stage is one that captures what is already happening, Calendly bookings and Granola calls, without adding workflow overhead that a two-person team will not maintain. Getting those integrations working from day one means every deal since launch is now visible in the system, and conversion data starts accumulating immediately rather than after a lengthy setup project.