5 Proven Ways to Get Warm Introductions With Investors (We’ve Tried Them All)

When I started fundraising, I hit a wall almost immediately. Every founder I knew kept saying the same thing, "You need a warm intro." But no one ever explained how to actually get one, especially if you don’t have VCs in your contacts or a well-connected advisor on speed dial.

So, in a digital age (and having survived a global pandemic!) do warm intros still have the same gravitas as before? And what exactly are these seemingly game-changing intros and do they really help founders accelerate fundraising? Let’s take a deeper look together

What Is a Warm Introduction (And Do I Really Need One)?

Quite simply, a warm introduction is when someone the investor trusts introduces you to them directly. Think of it as a recommendation that opens the door. A cold email might go unread, but a warm intro gets attention. And yes, you really do need one. Warm intros are the gold standard in early-stage fundraising; companies introduced by a trusted referrer are 13x more likely to receive funding. I’ve seen this firsthand on Angels Partners, both as a founder and an advisor to other startups.

Who Can Give Me a Warm Introduction?

So here’s the twist and a pretty surprising truth: You probably already know someone who knows someone. Warm intros can come from many different members of your community, including:

• Other founders (especially in an investor’s portfolio)
• Angel investors or syndicate members
• Advisors or mentors
• Lawyers or accelerators
• Platforms like Angels Partners (yes, us - we’ll show you how)

The trick is knowing how to map those connections. That’s where most founders get stuck. I did too, until we created the tools that did the heavy lifting for me.

Use Angels Partners to Find and Request Warm Intros

At Angels Partners, we’ve created a range of tools to accelerate your fundraising and connect founders with relevant and active investors. As part of our range of services, we have a dedicated tool that generates warm introductions, so you don’t have to spend countless hours sending out individual emails - we take care of that for you! Our Warm Introductions product helps founders to:

• Search and filter over 90,000+ investors by industry, stage, location and size
• See who those investors have already backed
• Find mutual connections (including other founders in our network)
• Request intros directly, with customizable messaging
• Track your outreach and responses in one place

Reaching out to investors has never been easier with our Warm Intros product. You can use filters to build a smart target list, check mutual connections (you can see if you share any links through past deals, co-investors or Angels Partners community members) and send a warm intro request using email templates that can be personalized.

Don’t just focus on big VCs. Use Angels Partners to find angel investors who are active, accessible, and often more responsive to warm intros.

Reverse-Engineer Investor Networks Using LinkedIn

When combined with your Angels Partners shortlist, you can look up each investor on LinkedIn, check shared connections and reach out to those people (friends, co-founders, advisors) to ask for a warm intro.

Here’s a template that you could use:

“Hey [Name], I noticed you’re connected to [Investor Name]. I’m currently raising a pre-seed round and think they’d be a great fit. Would you feel comfortable making an intro?”

Is this time-consuming? Yes. Is it effective? Also, yes. But it works better when paired with Angels Partners, where you can pre-qualify investors instead of wasting time chasing bad fits.

Tap Into Founders in the Investor’s Portfolio

This is one of the most underrated strategies. Investors trust their portfolio founders, so when a founder recommends you, it carries real weight. On Angels Partners, you can instantly see which startups an investor has backed and reach out to those founders. You can join our founder community and connect with these startups, expand your network and exchange investor introductions.

Join Warm-Intro Friendly Communities

As you can see, a lot of it comes down to who knows who. Joining founder communities, accelerators and pitch platforms that are built for intros can increase your chances of connecting with an investor. Some of these include:

• Angels Partners (again, it’s literally built for this)
• On Deck
• Y Combinator Startup School
• SaaStr Community
• Slack groups like Indie Hackers or Founders’ Café

Inside these communities, you can often find intros from alumni, investor office hours and even pitch events where warm intros are part of the process. 

Be Direct but Smart with Cold Outreach (With a Warm Twist)

Some founders feel that cold outreach is not an effective method to connect with investors, however, if it’s done strategically, it could certainly heat up the game.

At Angels Partners we’ve streamlined and curated the process so that founders can find well-matched investors, reach out with a soft signal of credibility (like, “I saw you invested in [Startup], we’re solving a similar problem”), all while keeping the email short, specific and respectful.

What If I Don’t Know Anyone? Am I Out of Luck?

Not at all. I’ve helped founders with zero network land warm intros by leveraging Angels Partners’ mutual connection mapping. Other ways include attending online demo days and pitch, posting fundraising updates on LinkedIn to draw inbound interest and writing “Build in Public” posts that engage investors.

Most importantly, you don’t need to fake connections. You just need the right tools and a strategy that compounds.

Final Thoughts: Warm Intros Aren’t Magic, They’re a System

We’ve tried cold emails. We’ve waited for replies. We’ve chased VCs who ghost.

And we’ve also seen how fast things change when you get the right intro to the right investor at the right time. That’s what we builtAngels Partners for. So founders like you and me don’t have to guess, or go it alone.

Want More Fundraising Tips?

Check out more articles on the Angels Partners blog, such as:

• How to Secure a Lead Investor 
• The Changing Landscape of Venture Capital 

And if you haven’t yet, create your free profile and start sending your first warm intro request today.

You’re closer to your next “yes” than you think.