Precursor VenturesA classic pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm

When an Investor Passes But Gives You Advice 💡 #shorts #venturecapital #startup

24 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this short video, a representative from Precursor Ventures explains how founders should respond when an investor passes on their company but still offers guidance. The speaker emphasizes that founders should not be expected to do extensive work on introductions—simply make a straightforward intro to the suggested person. They note that many of Precursor’s best investments have originated from weak or indirect connections, underscoring that a strong personal endorsement isn’t required. The advice stresses low‑effort, honest introductions and clarifies that the investor will not be grading the founder’s effort behind the scenes.

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I will sometimes tell people, I'm passing on your company, but do you know who you should go talk to? You should go talk to person X, but I shouldn't make the intro cuz I already made a decision. You should find, mm-hmm, the best path you have into person X because I think they'll be interested in what you're doing. And that's probably the ideal way to do it. But I don't know, I always go back and look at our performance. Some of the best companies we've invested in have come from very weak connections. Yeah. It's funny, I tell all of our portfolio company founders, I don't expect you to do any work on these intros. If somebody wants to get in touch with me and you know the person, just make the intro. I'm not secretly grading you behind the scenes. But if you're like, this person is my best friend, this person worked at our company, this person is one of the smart— if you have something positive to say, by all means do it. But I don't expect you to take the pitch meeting and give me a memo. Yeah. Before I take the meeting, just make the intro.