VC is a relationship business.

If you want to fundraise successfully, you have to know the people behind the funds. And for most founders I know, this is the single most frustrating part of the whole process. So naturally, most default to applying directly though the VCs websites, or sending cold emails. And sadly they won’t even get a response in this way.

So today, I want to go deep on approaching investors in the right way.

First, the HOW.

We’ll look at three ways to get in front of an investor. And of course, we could get more granular and include events, pitchings, accelerators and others, but let’s keep it simple for now.

So the three main ways:

→ Cold outreach

→ A warm intro

→ Direct outreach, if you already know them

Cold outreach is the obvious one. You send an email (or a few), you add them on LinkedIn, and you hope for a reply.

It’s also, by far, the least effective. Investors get a flood of inbound from companies they’ve never heard of. Many don’t even open it, because there’s no built-in credibility. You’re a stranger asking for a meeting. (Cold outreach can still work, but only when it’s very sharp and highly targeted. That’s a whole topic on its own, and one I’ll cover separately.)

Direct outreach is the opposite end. If you already know relevant investors through past work, your network, or anywhere else, this is the strongest position you can be in. The relationship already exists. The hard part there isn’t the outreach, it’s building those relationships in the first place, which again deserves its own issue.

So that leaves the channel this newsletter is about: the warm intro.

What a warm intro actually is

A warm intro is an introduction that comes from someone the fund already knows and trusts.

Instead of arriving as a stranger, you arrive with borrowed credibility. That’s the whole point.

When I make an intro to a fund, I’m transferring the trust that investor has in me over to you. My reputation is on the line. That’s exactly why it works, and exactly why good introducers are careful about who they vouch for.

Who makes the best introducers

Not all warm intros carry the same weight. Ranked roughly by how much an investor trusts them:

→ Portfolio companies of the fund. The strongest signal there is. A founder the VC already wrote a check to is telling them you’re worth a look.

→ Other founders the investor is close to. They’ve earned the VC’s trust and their judgment matters.

→ Mentors and trusted partners in the VC’s orbit. People the investor regularly turns to.

→ Other VCs, but with one important caveat. An intro from another investor is valuable only when that investor can’t invest themselves for an objective reason, like you’re outside their stage or sector. In that case it’s a clean signal: “not for me, but worth your time.” If they could have invested and chose to pass you to someone else instead, it reads badly. They saw the deal and didn’t want it.

→ Service providers, like lawyers and accountants who work with funds.

One more thing on who inside the fund the intro should go to if you had a choice: Always aim for a partner, ideally the partner who covers your sector. This lands you straight at the decision-makers of the fund.

How to organize your warm intros

1. List every potential introducer. Past colleagues, friends, service providers, mentors, anyone who might know people at relevant funds.

2. Build a list of 100+ relevant funds. Relevant meaning they match your stage, geography, and industry, and they’re actively investing.

3. Prepare a short, forwardable blurb and a self-explanatory deck. The blurb is 2-3 sentences your introducer can paste straight into a message, an elevator pitch plus a line on what you’re raising. The deck should make sense without you in the room to present it.

4. Reach out to your introducers and ask three things: Do they know anyone at the funds on your list? (so you share your list of pre-vetted funds) Do they know other funds that might fit? And would they be willing to make an intro?

5. Always ask for a double opt-in. This means your introducer checks with the investor first (“I’ve got an interesting company, can I connect you?”) before throwing an intro into their inbox. It protects everyone and it means you arrive already wanted, not forced on someone.

6. Track everything in a simple CRM. Who’s responsible for which intro, when it was made, follow-ups, and where each one sits in your process. Treat your fundraise like a sales pipeline.

7. Respond immediately when an intro lands. The moment someone makes an intro, you have to be the first to answer and propose a time for a call.

8. Make it dead simple for people to introduce you. The easier you make it, the more intros you’ll get. The blurb, the deck, the clear ask, the specific fund names, that’s all in service of this.

9. Mine your fund list on LinkedIn. Go through every fund on your list and check whether you share mutual contacts with anyone there. If a mutual connection looks like a credible introducer, add them to your warm introducer CRM. This is one of the fastest ways to find introducers you didn’t know you had.

Want this as a ready-to-use system?

I put the whole thing into a free Warm Intro Kit: the step-by-step checklist above, plus a fill-in-the-blank blurb template your introducers can forward in 5 seconds.

A real example

A friend of mine called me recently. The conversation went roughly like this:

“Hey Geri, we’re raising our €1.5M seed and already in conversations with a dozen funds. Could you help with a few intros if you know relevant investors in our space? Sending our CRM with the funds we’re already talking to. Any additional ones would be a bonus. I'll also share a short blurb you can copy-paste into your email, plus our latest pitch deck. Thanks a ton, beer’s on us next time!”

The call was a few minutes, and look what he did:

He told me his stage and what he was raising. He came with a clear, specific ask. And he handed me his CRM, so I knew immediately which funds were already covered and could point him to ones he’d missed, with no back-and-forth.

Once I agreed to help, he sent over the blurb and deck, and I could paste them straight into my intros. The whole thing took me under 30 minutes that I was more than happy to spend for a friend.

TLDR

Warm intros come down to three things. Find people who can lend you their credibility. Make it stupid simple for them to introduce you. And when an intro lands, move fast and own it.

PS: A special offer, just for July.

I'm opening 10 spots for a Pitch Dry Run & Deck Review.

You pitch me live, exactly like a real investor meeting, and I give you direct feedback on your delivery, story, and content in the moment. After the call, you get a full written deck review, slide by slide, plus the list of investor questions you should be ready for.

Most deck feedback comes from other founders or mentors. I sat on the investor side, reviewed thousands of decks, and decided which ones move on, and which don't. You'll get that same filter before a real VC applies it.

Talk soon,

Geri

Gergana Stoichkova | VC Compass Thanks for reading! Let's connect! ​​

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