Relationship Science (RelSci) rolled out a freemium offering for their social networking service this week.  A free edition provides ten profile views while the Professional edition is priced at $49.99 per month and supports contact synching, relationship finding, news alerts, power searching, and a mobile app.  The full feature set is shown on their pricing page.

While the professional edition does not yet support networking, the feature is in development for single users.

RelSci is designed for investors (e.g. PE, VC, Wealth Managers), fund raisers, and business development professionals.  It works best at companies where relationships are highly prized for reaching top executives, directors, and donors.  The firm marries your contact network with a database of 5 million “movers and shakers” across 1 1/2 million organizations.  The enterprise edition allows users to leverage the relationships across their firm, providing a powerful research and networking tool.

Along with standard company and executive profiles, you will find nonprofit board and association memberships, nonprofit and political donations, investments, and news alerts.  What you won’t find is emails and direct dial phone numbers.  The system is designed for introductions, not cold calling.

The product offers an elegant user interface combined with powerful prospecting tools.  Along with standard prospecting, there are screens which assist with trip planning, donor searching, and identifying potential investors.

So how does RelSci stack up vs. LinkedIn Sales Navigator?  A recent DiscoverOrg survey found that one quarter of top level executives are not LinkedIn members so RelSci has a distinct advantage there.  Furthermore, RelSci brings in intelligence not found within LinkedIn such as rich company profiles (LinkedIn’s are basically warmed over marketing materials from the website and Facebook), donations, and investments.

However, Sales Navigator offers InMail with recommended names to drop while RelSci forces users to request introductions through their network.  This could be a potential bottleneck at firms where the strongest networks go through top level execs and the firms’ rainmakers.

Also, if your focus is more directors and managers, you many not find sufficient depth within RelSci.  An ABM strategy could stall out due to lack of executive depth in RelSci.  For those companies, I’d recommend a full sales intelligence offering (e.g. Avention, Hoover’s, DiscoverOrg, RainKing) in conjunction with free LinkedIn.

RelSci offers powerful screening and visualization tools tied to an elegant user interface.  For professional networkers aiming at the upper echelons of companies and boards, RelSci is a superior option to LinkedIn.