1. Before you start: how to write a strong MCP prompt
Include a simple framework:
Good prompts usually include:
- The audience or workflow: sourcing, diligence, market mapping, portfolio monitoring, app enrichment
- The target segment: sector, geography, funding stage, company type
- The time period: announced after X date, closed in 2025, last 12 months
- The filters: funding round, IPO status, HQ, investor type, category
- The output format: top 20, sorted by amount, include fields X/Y/Z
- The intended next step: create a list, compare companies, summarize findings
Prompt formula:
“For [company/investor/sector], find [specific data] within [timeframe/geography/stage], return [fields], and sort by [priority].”
Example:
“For U.S.-headquartered fintech companies that raised Series A or B after 2025-01-01, show company name, HQ, latest round, investors, total funding, and IPO status. Rank by total funding raised.”
Find more examples in this guide: Getting Started with MCP
2. Here’s how to get confident, relevant Crunchbase-backed answers with The Crunchbase MCP:
Financial & Investment Teams
| Workflow | Use this when | Example prompt |
| Portfolio monitoring | You want to track companies you already hold or follow. | “Review the companies in my portfolio list and identify recent funding, leadership, layoff, acquisition, or growth signals. Prioritize companies with material changes.” |
| Competitive intelligence | You want to track companies being evaluated against your portfolio. | “Compare [Company A] to similar companies in [sector]. Show funding stage, total funding, latest investors, growth signals, and recent company activity.” |
| Pre-meeting research | You need a quick company briefing before a call. | “Summarize [Company] for an investor meeting. Include company description, HQ, founders, funding history, investors, valuation if available, board members, recent signals, and relevant risks.” |
| Deal sourcing | You want to find companies matching a thesis. | “Find U.S.-based fintech companies that raised Series A or B in the last 12 months and show company, HQ, round date, amount, investors, and total funding.” |
| Co-investor mapping | You want to identify active investors in a sector or stage. | “For U.S. Series A climate tech rounds in 2025, list the largest rounds and include company, amount, close date, and participating investors.” |
Financial Platform Builders
| Workflow | Use this when | Example prompt |
| Company profile enrichment | You want to populate a company profile in your app. | “Retrieve structured profile data for [Company], including HQ, categories, funding rounds, investors, founders, board members, valuation, and founded date where available.” |
| Entity resolution | You need to match user-entered names to Crunchbase records. | “Resolve [Company Name] to the correct Crunchbase entity and return likely matches with identifiers, descriptions, and HQ.” |
| AI research assistant | You want to answer user questions with grounded Crunchbase data. | “Answer this user question using Crunchbase data: [question]. Return the source fields used and note if data is unavailable.” |
| List-based enrichment | You want enrichment to trigger from a saved list. | “For companies in [List Name], return stage, investors, founders, board members, funding rounds, valuation, and founded date.” |
| Usage monitoring | You want to manage quota. | “Check current usage and remaining quota for this MCP connection.” |
Interested in learning more? Reach out to your dedicated Crunchbase representative or our sales team at sales@crunchbase.com.