Forward an Email, Get a Research Report: How Spok's AI Pipeline Works
One of the most common questions we get about Spok is: "How does the email-to-research-report pipeline actually work?" This post walks through the entire process, from the moment you forward an email to the moment you have a scored investment memo.
Step 1: Forward an Email
Everything starts with forwarding an email to agent@spok.vc. This can be any email — a warm intro from a co-investor, a cold pitch from a founder, a DocSend link from a broker, or a portfolio update from a company you've already invested in.
When the email arrives, Spok's inbound processor immediately begins working.
Step 2: AI Classification
The first AI pass classifies the email across several dimensions:
Email Type
- DECK — Contains a pitch deck or DocSend link
- INTRO — Warm introduction from a known contact
- UPDATE — Portfolio company or pipeline company update
- LP — Limited partner communication
- OTHER — Everything else
Urgency Scoring
Each email gets an urgency score from 1-5 based on:
- Sender relationship (known contact vs. cold)
- Content signals (time-sensitive language, competitive round mentions)
- Fund thesis alignment (sector, stage, geography match)
Suggested Action
The AI suggests a next action: Review, Schedule Meeting, Pass, or Follow Up — based on the classification and urgency.
Step 3: Entity Extraction
The second AI pass extracts structured data from the email:
Company Information
- Company name (with fuzzy matching to existing pipeline entries)
- Website URL
- Sector classification
- Stage (Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, etc.)
- Location
- Brief description
Contact Information
- Founder names and titles
- Email addresses
- LinkedIn profiles (when mentioned)
- Relationship to sender
Metrics
- Revenue figures mentioned in the email
- Growth rates
- Fundraising details (round size, valuation)
Entity Alias Learning
Spok uses fuzzy matching (Levenshtein distance, Jaro-Winkler similarity, and Dice coefficient) to match companies mentioned in emails to existing pipeline entries. If someone emails about "Acme Corp" and you already have "Acme Corporation" in your pipeline, Spok matches them automatically.
Step 4: Attachment Processing
If the email contains attachments or DocSend links:
Direct Attachments
- PDFs, DOCX, PPTX, and other documents are downloaded and stored
- Text is extracted from all documents using AI
- Documents are auto-classified (PITCH_DECK, FINANCIALS, TERM_SHEET, etc.)
DocSend Links
- Spok automatically detects DocSend links in email content
- Passcode-protected links are accessed using any passcode included in the email
- The deck is downloaded, text-extracted, and attached to the company profile
Step 5: Pipeline Entry Creation
With all the extracted data, Spok creates (or updates) a company profile:
- Company record with all extracted information
- Contact records linked to the company
- Documents attached and classified
- Activity log entry showing the email intake
- Pipeline placement at the appropriate stage (usually "Sourced")
If the company already exists in your pipeline, the new information is merged — new contacts are added, documents are attached, and the activity timeline is updated.
Step 6: AI Research Report (On Demand)
With the company in your pipeline, you can generate a full AI research report with one click. This is powered by Claude Opus and takes approximately 90 seconds.
Data Gathering
The AI gathers data from multiple sources:
- All uploaded documents (up to 10 per company)
- Web research (company website, press coverage, market data)
- Your fund's investment strategy and thesis
- Existing notes and activity on the company
Report Structure
The generated report includes:
Executive Summary — 2-3 paragraph overview with investment thesis
Company Overview — What they do, founding story, key milestones
Market Analysis — TAM/SAM/SOM, market trends, growth drivers
Competitive Landscape — Key competitors, differentiation, moat analysis
Team Assessment — Founder backgrounds, team composition, key hires needed
Product & Technology — Product description, technology stack, IP considerations
Traction & Metrics — Revenue, growth rates, unit economics, key KPIs
Valuation & Comparables — Recent rounds in the sector, comparable valuations
Return Path Analysis — Expected return scenarios (base, bull, bear)
Risk Assessment — Key risks with mitigants
Conclusion — Investment recommendation with summary rationale
7-Dimension Scoring
Every report includes a quantitative scoring across seven dimensions:
- Moat (0-10) — Defensibility and competitive advantage
- AI Resilience (0-10) — How resilient is the business to AI disruption
- AI Turbocharge (0-10) — How much can AI accelerate the business
- Market (0-10) — Market size, growth, and timing
- Team (0-10) — Founder-market fit, experience, and capability
- Product (0-10) — Product quality, PMF, and user engagement
- Traction (0-10) — Revenue, growth, and key metrics
These scores are combined into an overall assessment and an investment recommendation ranging from STRONG_PASS to STRONG_INVEST.
Fund Thesis Alignment
The report explicitly evaluates how the company aligns with your fund's stated investment thesis. This ensures every evaluation is framed in the context of your fund's strategy, not generic VC wisdom.
The Complete Timeline
Here's what the timeline looks like end-to-end:
| Step | Time |
|---|---|
| Email received | 0s |
| Classification complete | ~5s |
| Entity extraction complete | ~10s |
| Attachment processing | ~15-30s |
| Pipeline entry created | ~30s |
| Research report generated | ~90s |
Total: From email to scored investment memo in under 2 minutes.
Compare this to the traditional workflow: email sits in inbox for hours, manual data entry takes 15 minutes, research takes 4-8 hours, memo writing takes 4-8 hours. The AI pipeline compresses days of work into minutes.
What You Still Do
Spok doesn't replace the investment decision. Here's what the GP still does:
- Read the research report and form an initial view
- Meet the founder — no AI replacement for this
- Add qualitative notes from meetings and calls
- Move the company through pipeline stages based on your evaluation
- Make the IC recommendation informed by structured data
The AI handles the data entry, research, and document processing. The human handles the judgment, relationships, and decisions.
Try It Yourself
The best way to understand the pipeline is to use it. Forward your next inbound deal email to agent@spok.vc and watch the pipeline entry appear in your Spok dashboard within seconds.
Start your 21-day free trial at spok.vc — no credit card required.