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how to get warm intros to investors when you don't know any

how to meet an investor when nobody you know can introduce you

7 min read2 nov 2026

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You have a list of investors, and one person at the top of it: a partner at a venture firm. You have never met them, and neither has anyone you know. You can still get a warm intro. Find a founder that partner has already invested in, give that founder a short note to forward, and let them ask the partner whether they want to meet you. Paul Graham wrote in "How to Raise Money" (2013): "If you want to approach a specific firm, get an intro to a partner from someone they respect." For the general method, see "How to ask for a warm intro to someone you don't know". If you can't reach any of those founders, ambient, a private network of verified founders, can find a founder who knows that partner. More on that at the end.

why the intro matters more in 2026

Paul Gompers, Will Gornall, Steven Kaplan and Ilya Strebulaev surveyed 885 venture capitalists at 681 firms for "How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?" (NBER, 2016). Over 30% of their deals came through their professional networks, and another 20% were referred by other investors. Another 8% came from companies they had already invested in. Only 10% came from companies contacting them directly. The survey has limits: it is from 2015 and 2016, the authors say it probably leans toward more successful investors, and it shows where deals come from, not whether an intro will get you funded.

At least one investor says cold email has gotten worse since then. The seed investor Hunter Walk wrote "A Strong Cold Email Always Beats A Weak Warm One" in 2018, and for years he tried to answer every cold email. On September 24, 2026, he wrote that AI-written mass pitches had made reading email from strangers "just awful", and that they are "poisoning the channel for people actually doing thoughtful outreach". He said he "might need to discard this principle" of answering everyone. He hasn't stopped yet ("Until then, I'll try my best"), but your cold email now arrives in an inbox full of those AI-written pitches.

Sending more emails doesn't fix this. DocSend, a document-sharing company, studied the fundraising of 200 startups in 2015. TechCrunch's Kim-Mai Cutler reported "no correlation between the number of investors contacted and the amount of money raised". Contacting more investors did bring more meetings. It's old data from one company's users, so treat it as a hint, not a rule.

who can introduce you, in Paul Graham's order

Graham wrote: "The best type of intro is from a well-known investor who has just invested in you." So the day any investor says yes, ask which other investors they would introduce you to. He goes on: "The next best type of intro is from a founder of a company they've funded." After that come "other people in the startup community, like lawyers and reporters." That's one investor's opinion from 2013, not a study. If you have no investor yet, the best person to ask is a founder that partner has already funded.

how to find a founder who knows that partner

  1. Check that the firm fits you. On its website, see whether it invests at your stage, in your sector and in rounds the size you're raising. Make sure the partner still works there and hasn't invested in a competitor of yours. An intro can't fix a bad fit.
  2. Open the firm's list of companies it has invested in. Pick companies similar to yours, never competitors. Their funding announcements usually say which partner led the round, so you can see which founders really know the partner you want to meet. A firm's logo on a company's website doesn't prove that.
  3. Look for something real you share with that founder: a past job, a community, a customer. If you share nothing, say so, and start with something they can check in two minutes, like your revenue or a demo. That founder is recommending you to their own investor, so they need to believe in you first.
to a founder you haven't met
Hi [first name], we haven't met. I'm building [one sentence: what, for whom]. Your post on [specific thing] changed how we [what you did]. We're raising [round and amount], and [partner] at [firm] is top of our list because [real reason: a deal they did, a post they wrote]. Would you look at a two-minute demo or a one-page memo? If you like it, I'd be grateful for an intro. If not, no reply needed.

[a]mbient

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who not to ask

Don't ask an investor who said no to you. The investor Alex Iskold wrote in 2015 that the next investor will ask them one question first: "are you investing?" When the answer is no, he says, that investor is likely to say no too. In his words: "The only investors who should be introducing you to other investors are YOUR investors." So find someone else, and never ask anyone to hide that they said no.

the note they can forward

The partner reads your note before they ever meet you. Send the founder two separate messages: one written to them, and one they can forward without changing it. Expect them to ask the partner first and connect you only after a yes. That way, they never push an intro on an investor who doesn't want it.

your message to the founder
Would you be willing to ask [partner] if they'd like to meet me? I've written a short note below that you can forward as it is. It's completely fine to say no.
the note they forward
[Company] is [product] for [specific customer]; it [concrete outcome]. [Your strongest proof, with a date: revenue, retention, a signed pilot]. [Why you're the right founder, in one line]. We're raising [amount] to reach [milestone]. We want [partner] in particular because of their work on [specific theme]. Deck: [link]. Worth 20 minutes?

Keep the note under 100 words, and replace every bracket with a fact. Don't count a free pilot as a paying customer.

If the investor goes quiet after the intro, that isn't always a no. Stripe's investor guide (updated October 2026) suggests a first follow-up after five to seven business days and a second follow-up one to two weeks after that, each with something new to say. After that, move on. Stripe warns that more follow-ups with nothing new can feel like pressure.

if you have to send a cold email

Some investors still read cold email. If a firm has a pitch form on its website, it is inviting you to use it. Michael Seibel's Y Combinator guide "How To Cold Email Investors" (2019) is still worth reading. He says your email should take 60 seconds or less to read. It should say what problem you solve, how you solve it, whether you've launched and how you're growing. Leave out your origin story and any jargon, and don't ask for an in-person meeting right away. Add one true reason you picked this partner. Walk has asked whether cold senders should be scored on their own reputation, "so you don't need an intro, but you do need a footprint". So make sure an investor can find your public work. Use cold email as your backup, not your plan.

when you can't reach those founders: ambient

ambient is a free, private, text-native network where verified founders help each other solve problems and open doors. For an investor intro, it works like this:

  1. You text ambient's AI agent and get verified as a founder.
  2. You say who you need to meet, and what you can offer another founder.
  3. Before ambient starts looking for someone, you help another founder or invite a founder who gets verified.
  4. ambient finds a founder who knows that person and shows them a short note you wrote about your company, with no names in it.
  5. If they can help, you confirm it's the right investor, and then that founder emails the investor with your note.
  6. If the investor says yes, ambient introduces you to the investor by email. Nobody can promise the investor will say yes.

How do you get in? You can't buy your way into ambient, and you can't pitch your way in. A founder who's already in ambient invites you, or you text ambient and get verified. Before ambient looks for someone to help you, you help another founder or invite a founder who gets verified. That's how strangers become each other's unfair advantage.

Do both at once: work through your own list of founders, and text ambient for the investors you can't reach that way. Tap "> access" at textambient.com.

sources

[a]mbient

textambient.com

where founders become each other's unfair advantage

Free, for verified founders, entirely by text. > access opens a text to ambient with your code. Send it, sign in with LinkedIn, and name one bottleneck and one skill. A founder check follows, usually within 24 hours.

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