Short video advice (Kaushik + a partner at Equity Ventures) on the best way for founders to get introduced to venture capitalists. Presents a ranked hierarchy of introduction sources (from worst to best): cold outbound, introductions from other VCs (same stage), seed/super-early VCs, angels, and—best—introductions from founders (especially portfolio founders), because founders have been vetted and their referrals carry high trust.
Chapters
If someone offered you an introduction to a venture capital investor, wait and don't take the intro. Hi, I'm Kaushik.
I'm a partner at Equity Ventures. I lead early stage rounds in tech companies. I've met over a thousand founders trying.
To raise rounds and this is my.
Content series on things I wish founders knew.
Okay, now you are a founder and you're trying to get access to venture capitalists. Keep listening to know which is the best kind of introduction you can get. If you do want to approach a venture capital investor, you. You want to go via the introduction link that the VC has the most trust with. And there's a hierarchy to this. So hear me out. At the very bottom, the worst thing you can do is do a cold.
Outbound to a vc.
The likelihood of the VC to respond is quite low. The likelihood of them taking you seriously is even lower. Number two is getting another vc, especially.
A same stage vc, to introduce you.
Now think about it.
If another series A investor is introducing me to a founder and is saying.
Hey Kaushik, you know, do you want.
To meet this founder who's raising his or her series A?
My first instinct is why aren't you leading this round?
Because this is very much in scope.
Of your fund and so this is not good enough for you. So that's why it's good enough for me. So that introduction is not going to be very fruitful. Now the zone of acceptable introductions at the lowest level is seed investors or super early stage investors funds, for example.
I have very deep relationships with and I trust and I get to see their deals before most others or at.
Least hope I do. So I take their introductions very seriously. But still, it's not the best guide. Now just about this I would say are introductions from angels who invested in the company. For example, I have super strong relationships.
With about 10 angels who I bring.
On in every company I invest in.
But also I make sure that I stay on top of the companies that they're investing in.
And I happen to see them before.
A lot of other VCs do.
The best kind of introduction is a founder introduction. When a founder from my portfolio is saying, hey Kaushik, do you want an.
Introduction to so and so?
Who's building X and Y? It doesn't matter what they're building. I know that this is someone who.
I've invested time and money in and who's gone through a diligence process.
And so this is someone who I rate super highly. So when they offer me an introduction and they speak highly of someone. I know that this is going to.
Be someone who is going to be worth my time and this is going to be a really high signal introduction.
So if you're a founder and you're.
Looking to get introductions to venture capitalists.
Don'T hang out with people who are claiming to know VCs because VCs don't take them seriously. Get introductions to venture capitalists from other founders. Whether they're successful or not doesn't matter. Let them introduce you to their VCs and those will be the highest converting.
Form of introductions, Mark my words. If you like this content, please follow and share it with someone who might find it useful.
