Getting started
Your first hour with Connection Intelligence System
One path, start to finish. Follow it in order and you'll be looking at real suggestions by the end.
Updated 1 Nov 2026
Before you start
Free to start
No card and no password to set up. You sign in with a secure email link, and you can skip any step below and come back to it later — nothing is a one-shot decision.
The setup questions that appear on screen
Four short questions, one at a time
The first time you open the app, a small card appears at the bottom of the screen with four questions: what brought you here (something in your way, something you want or need, an opening you can see, or potential you know you have), who you most want to meet, what you want from the next three months, and a few lines you have written so drafts sound like you. Answer, skip, or close the card at any point. If you skip, a small button at the bottom of the screen, "Finish setting up", stays there until you have answered everything, and picking it up on another device carries on where you left off. Drafts only start sounding like you once you have shared some of your writing. You can also open "Getting started" in the side menu at any time: it lists every question and your email connection with what is done and what is left (for example "2 of 5 done"), and each row has a button that brings the question back, so nothing is lost if you closed it. What you want from the next three months is the one answer we ask for first; until you give it, Up Next shows a short reminder with a link. Gmail can be connected now; Outlook is coming soon.
Your LinkedIn profile
A one-page workbook
Headline, about, experience, skills, recommendations and activity, each with a short checklist and a good example. Under each one we show what we already know about you, from your own record only. You edit your own profile on LinkedIn; we never log in to it.
Open the workbook (sign in first) ›Two ways in — if you're joining a workspace that already exists
The seven steps below are for a brand-new workspace
They're the path for setting Connection Intelligence System up from nothing. If you're joining one a colleague or a partner admin has already set up, you don't sign up at all — you arrive one of two ways instead, depending on what you were sent.
You have a sign-in seat
Your workspace admin adds your email first — there's no self sign-up on this path. On the sign-in page you can choose Continue with Google with that same email, or use the sign-in email we send you. It has a link and a code: click the link, or type the code on the sign-in page. Either way you land in your own workspace: Up Next, your contacts and companies, and your own connected accounts to set up.
You have an access link
Some team members get a link instead of a sign-in — a personal one, or one shared across the whole team. Open it and press the Continue button once (the link works only once, so it waits for your click); a cookie keeps you in after that. This path takes you to your connections map and the upload page only — it doesn't reach the rest of the workspace, so if you expected Up Next or a contacts list and only see your map, that's expected, not a mistake.
See what the map shows ›The seven steps — setting up a brand-new workspace
1
Create your workspace
Go to the sign-up page and enter your email address. Connection Intelligence System sends you a sign-in email with a link and a code. Click the link, or type the code on the sign-in page, and your workspace is ready. No password to remember. If the link opens somewhere else (a different device, browser or a new incognito tab), just type the code instead, or request a fresh email from the sign-in page.
2
Connect your Google
This is the first thing the setup asks, because it is the quickest way to see Connection Intelligence System working. Connecting Google (Gmail + Calendar) lets it see who you've actually spoken to and when, so your reach numbers and connection flow stay accurate without you logging anything by hand. We only read who you spoke to, never what was said. As soon as you are connected, the page shows your ten warmest people, with a line each on when you were last in touch and how often. A large inbox can take a few minutes to read, and until it has finished the page tells you it is still working, and your closest people appear on Today when it is done. It is skippable like every step here; you can do it later from /app/connectors. Microsoft 365 support is coming, not yet available.
3
Bring your LinkedIn network
The next onboarding step asks you to upload the zip file LinkedIn emails you when you ask for your data, or your Connections.csv (we show you exactly how to get it from LinkedIn first). Your own file, your own consent — nothing ever logs into LinkedIn on your behalf. Connection Intelligence System reads it immediately and maps names, roles, companies and LinkedIn profiles automatically. You can skip this and come back to it later from /app/connectors. A big file takes a few minutes: you will see a progress bar and a time estimate, and it is best to keep the page open until it finishes (if you close it, nothing is lost and it carries on when you come back). When it is done, the first thing you see is how many people you know at which companies, with a link to see who could open a door at each.
4
Sound like you, not a template
Tick the box that says how your writing will be used, then show us how you really write: paste a few messages you have sent (your own words only), add five you are proud of and five you would never send, and answer three short questions by voice or typing. Every part is optional and the whole step is skippable; nothing is read until you tick the box, and nothing is drafted in your voice until you do this. Recorded calls, voice notes and any writing you paste are used only to build this model of how you speak and write, so drafts can be put in your voice for you to approve; nothing is ever sent on your behalf. You can ask us to delete it at any time and we will.
5
Tell Connection Intelligence System who you want to meet
Talk or type each answer — a mic button sits beside every box. In your own words: your ideal client or contact, what a strong connection actually looks like, and anyone or anywhere that's a firm no. This is what makes the matching real — your words, not a guess. Either way, the transcript lands in the box for you to check and edit before you continue — nothing is ever saved without you seeing it first. When you have finished, we read all your answers back to you and only save once you say they look right.
6
See your first connections
Open your workspace. Connection Intelligence System has already started ranking your network — who's worth reaching out to today, and why — alongside a running view of every relationship and where it stands. Everyone you bring into your own workspace shows up consistently across Contacts, Companies, Connection flow, Lists and Up Next — not just on this first screen. The number at the top of Companies is the companies your own contacts work at; choose Name to list them A to Z.
7
Ask Connection Intelligence System anything
Every contact has its own chat. Ask it to summarise what you know about someone, to suggest the best way to open a conversation, or to remind you what you last discussed. It also searches your whole workspace, not just the contact on screen — ask "who do we know at Broadridge", "who has the strongest relationship with Ben", "what did I agree with him last time", or "who could introduce me to a Head of People in construction" and it answers from your own network, always naming the real people it found (never a guess). Each person comes with the reason they matched, such as their job title, their company or a sector tag, and where that came from. If only a few people turn up, or they all match the same way, it asks you a narrowing question before it lists anyone. Ask it how many, such as “how many directors do I know”, and the number is counted exactly from your own contacts, the same way Reach and Companies count who is at a company. Ask “who did I last speak to” or “what is on my Monday Five” and it tells you. It never reaches into anyone else's workspace. On Today, under "What your team has done", you will also see a few questions written from your own list, such as "Who do I know in financial services?". Tap one and the answer comes back with real names. The Getting started page in the app introduces the team behind it, and who does what.
On your phone
Five tabs at the bottom
On a phone, Connection Intelligence System shows a bottom bar with five taps: Morning brief, Up Next, Actions, Contacts and More. More opens everything else — the rest of your nav, your workspace and your settings — in one place, so nothing is more than two taps away.
Settings: Billing (workspace Owners)
In Settings, Owners see a read-only Billing page: plan, status, your monthly AI cap and this month’s spend, with a banner at 75%, 90% and 100% of the cap. “Raise my cap” sends a request to Inspiring Connections; a person approves it until billing is live. Nothing is charged here.
Your workspace, Back and the next person
The top bar always shows which workspace you are in. Open a person from a list and the bar at the bottom stays in view. Your phone’s Back button, or a swipe in from the edge, closes the person and takes you back to the same place in the list. To move through the list without going back, tap the arrows beside the count (“3 of 40”) or swipe left for the next person and right for the one before. The same arrows work in Connection flow, on the connections map and when you open a company.
Your first week
A confidence score, framed as a task
Open Connection flow and, if your book needs it, you'll see a panel at the top leading with a plain number: "This book is N/100 confidence" (your real Relationship Data Truth Score, never a guess), followed by up to ten contacts worth verifying first — the highest-priority ones with no confirmed email or no company on file. Each has a one-click Verify that opens the contact so you can check and correct it. It only appears when there's a real reason: a low score, or a book that hasn't been checked in over two weeks. A healthy, recently-verified book, or a genuinely empty one, never sees it — there's nothing framed as a task until there's a real task to do. If a score can't be computed yet, the panel still shows the verify list on its own, without a number — it never invents a score to fill the gap.
Your reach at a glance
Above the board on Connection flow sits a row of live numbers: how many people are in your network, how many have a last-contact date on file, how many have moved past Signal, and your coverage on LinkedIn, email and phone. Click any number and it jumps straight to the matching part of the board below — it's a way in, not just a count.
Ask what a number means
The round ? button in the bottom corner of every screen explains the numbers you can see: what each one counts, where it comes from, how fresh it is and what it leaves out. It answers only from written explanations and your own workspace's figures, and each question counts against your monthly AI allowance.
What happens next
It keeps getting better
The more you use Connection Intelligence System — logging calls, adding notes, saying yes or no to a suggestion — the sharper its sense of your network becomes. It's built to compound, not to be set up once and left alone.
Keep going
How do I…?
Specific tasks — importing, introductions, privacy, and more — each answered on its own.
Search the task library ›I'm a connection partner
If you've been invited to share your network for introductions, this is the guide for you.
Open the partner guide ›