These people can introduce you to VCs–if you do your homework first

As discussed in the first part of this article, not all introductions are made equal. There is a pecking order, so be aware of whom are the best people to get intros from. We will go through each one of these sequentially.

Understand that basic human motivations are complex and there is often more than meets the eye. Someone making an intro will play into two boxes:

1. Passive needs: VCs need deals, so they have FOMO. They also need to generally maintain relationships. This is balanced against time constraints for filtering (reading has exponentially diminishing utility against volume). High-quality intros start by creating FOMO. Low-quality intros start with “I don’t have time for this shit. Silicon Valley Series 3 is starting,” and end with “Press archive.”
2. Active needs: VCs need to win good deals. Social capital matters. Who is making the intro? Maybe the founder making the intro is raising and your target wants super-prorata? They surely are going to suck up to that CEO and respond to you since it helps them here and now.

The pecking order

I am going to go through each of these categories of who to target, but remember you never actually know who has real relationships with people that defies category.

1. Limited partners of the fund

These are “Golden Tickets” if you’ve read Willy Wonka. Intros from these guys pretty much guarantee a meeting. This category is a little unrealistic since you won’t be reading this if you have this pull.

VCs have bosses; they are their investors. They are called LPs. I have had LPs make intros to VCs before and guess what, I had meetings. You don’t know these guys in all likelihood, but if you do, hit them up.

2. Founders that exited, are a big deal, and the VC made money with

All VCs will very proactively go after introductions that have come from a founder who made their investors’ money. VCs are fund managers and they are stock pickers. Founders who have made money for both themselves and their investors are deemed to have an idea of what the next good stock will be. But more than this, they want to reinvest in these founders. If they don’t treat them well (such as taking intros) they might not be able to give them more money.

If you don’t have a strong network with these guys, the issue is they are proportionally famous to the amount they exited for and so they probably won’t talk to you, or at least without a lot of effort. It’s not likely you are going to just add them on LinkedIn and get a coffee.

3. Founders the VC wants to invest in

Next, better than founders VCs made money from are those they hope to make money from. Getting into the best deals is really hard. Since you are just trying to get an intro, you probably find this funny, but yes, VCs have to sell really well to get into the best deals.

If founders are up and coming hot, they are probably pretty busy. You may not be able to access them, but if you can, savvy. The VC will take any meeting if it can help them to get into the deal. I say this too lightly—the VC will not necessarily meet with you but they will at least respond to emails more politely than usual.

Other investors

Is one introduction to an investor enough?

How do I find people to make an introduction?

How do I ask for the introductions to the investor?