The Client
Mission Driven Finance® is a private impact asset management firm based in San Diego, California, founded in 2016 by David Lynn and Lauren Grattan. As a Certified B Corporation, Mission Driven Finance® is committed to building a financial system that ensures impactful businesses and nonprofits can access affordable, flexible capital. They design, develop, and manage private investment structures to support inclusive economic opportunity in local communities.
Migration Toolset
Tools Used in the Migration Process
- HubSpot CRM
- Salesforce - source system
- VS Code - used for managing and organizing data for import
- Microsoft Excel - for data transformation, organization, VLOOKUPs
- Google Drive - for storing and retrieving exported Salesforce files
HubSpot Features and Capabilities Utilized
- Custom Objects - used to recreate unsupported Salesforce structures
- Object Associations - Contacts ↔ Companies ↔ Deals ↔ Funds ↔ Investments
- Contact Properties - used to embed document metadata for reference
- Data Imports/Manual Uploads - repeated uploads to preserve data relationships
The Challenge
Mission Driven Finance® came to us for a standard HubSpot onboarding as they transitioned from Salesforce to HubSpot. Our team’s initial attempt to migrate their data using traditional HubSpot-to-Salesforce integration methods failed, despite our best efforts—hence, our normal engagement became a much bigger challenge. As a result, the migration stalled, leaving essential business data trapped in Salesforce and disconnected across multiple objects like contacts, deals, funds, investments, and capital campaigns. So HIVE went back to the drawing board.
Without a reliable CRM in place, MDF faced significant operational disruption and risked losing access to years of valuable relationship and transaction history. What began as a typical onboarding quickly turned into a complex data rescue and reconstruction project. MDF needed a partner who could rebuild their CRM ecosystem in HubSpot, preserve historical context, and create a scalable foundation for growth.
The Solution
After our initial attempt to migrate MDF’s data using traditional Salesforce-to-HubSpot integration methods failed, HIVE Strategy quickly pivoted to a hands-on, technically complex approach. We rebuilt their CRM environment from the ground up by manually reconstructing their entire CRM architecture within HubSpot.
HIVE began by extracting and organizing data from Salesforce exports across multiple business-critical objects
- Thousands of contacts across thousands of companies
- Dozens of capital campaigns
- Hundreds of opportunities and investments
Using VS Code and Excel, HIVE created a structured data mapping process to reestablish object relationships lost in the export. Our team executed a series of phased imports, carefully preserving connections between contacts, companies, deals, and custom objects like funds and campaigns.
To account for Salesforce-specific data types like campaigns, which have no direct HubSpot equivalent, it was necessary to create custom objects to retain historical data integrity. These acted as reference records, ensuring MDF could still access their legacy data when needed without compromising the clean structure of their new CRM.
Rebuilding complex data relationships required advanced data manipulation. For example, individuals were not directly linked to investments; they were linked to funds, which were linked to investments. Our team used Excel transformations and VLOOKUP logic to restore these indirect associations within HubSpot.
File-level data migration also needed to be addressed. Salesforce held thousands of investment-related documents with cryptic filenames. HIVE developed a cross-referencing system to match document IDs with related records and embedded that data into HubSpot properties, allowing users to retrieve critical documentation from external storage when needed.
The Results
By the end of the engagement, MDF had a fully operational, custom-configured HubSpot CRM, built from tens of thousands of diversified records, custom objects, and relationship attributes previously trapped in a Salesforce instance. The new setup not only restored their critical business data but also transformed it into a scalable, organized ecosystem within HubSpot.
This successful migration enabled:
- Improved Data Visibility: All legacy Salesforce data was cleaned, categorized, and associated properly, giving MDF a 360-degree view of their stakeholders and financial relationships.
- Operational Efficiency: Team members can now easily locate associated records and supporting documentation, eliminating manual cross-referencing and saving countless hours of administrative time.
- Custom Object Utilization: Strategic use of custom objects preserved historical campaign data and investment structures, while also future-proofing the CRM setup for growth.
- Foundation for Automation: With clean data and restored relationships, MDF is now equipped to implement lifecycle automations, pipeline workflows, and marketing communications with confidence.
- Enhanced Collaboration: Teams across fundraising, investment, and operations now work from a unified source of truth, ensuring decisions are informed by reliable, real-time data.
“HIVE Strategy was a crucial part of our successful HubSpot deployment. Without their assistance and knowledge in how to best meet our business needs within HubSpot, and their quick pivot when the Salesforce Integration failed, we would not have made our migration timeline!” ~Kyla Garrison, Assistant Vice President, IT
