Business

Pricey social site makes matches for Wall St. titans

In this economy, even Wall Street’s masters of the universe need help making their sales pitch.

Relationship Science, a social networking startup that leverages relationships within the clubby world of Wall Street, is crafting new ways to convert business connections into dollars.

Next week the New York company is rolling out more sophisticated products to help its clients — who pay a minimum of $3,000 a year — take advantage of its proprietary database.

One new feature will deliver a tailored news feed to customers. The product employs a fancy algorithm to create headlines based on news and events that touch on contacts.

For instance, the news feature can create a headline letting users know which of their contacts recently purchased a new company or sold shares.

Relationship Science is also working on a mobile app that will link up to a user’s existing Rolodex.

Founder Neal Goldman said the company enables its clients to make connections with prospective business partners by identifying existing contacts or personal connections that may provide the easiest introduction.

Often described as a LinkedIn on steroids, Relationship Science provides a treasure trove of information on top dealmakers, power brokers and business executives.

Those can all be useful tools for someone aiming to make a connection with, say, hedge fund honcho Dan Loeb, including people he should know and companies and organizations in which he’s involved.

Relationship Science argues that it utilizes a patent-pending program that digs deeper than rivals and can filter through the Web’s typical flood of irrelevant search results.

“There are a lot of Neal Goldman’s out there, but [our program] is able to disambiguate all the results that aren’t relevant,” he explained.

That sort of elite access comes at a price, however.

The company charges customers anywhere between $3,000 and six-figures for an annual subscription, depending on the number of users.

“By providing this unique and precise news product for our customers we’re building on RelSci’s ability to make deals happen through meaningful relationships,” Goldman said.

Relationship Science raised about $60 million in funding earlier this year to build out his social connectivity platform.

The startup, which has 500 employees, has yet to turn a profit but said that it’s not looking for new funding right now.

The company is bankrolled by some of the biggest names in business, including Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, private-equity heavyweight Henry Kravis and real estate developer William Rudin.