Don't ask for introductions to investors

The post reads as if investors are these unicorn creatures who hold the balance of power - they must be pitched with optimum precision otherwise you'll go no where.<p>The reality is investors need deal flow and want to learn about new companies, especially associates and non-partners.<p><i>"if the nicest thing they can say about your company is that it “sounds interesting”, the intro isn’t going to go anywhere."</i><p>Depends on who's writing "sounds interesting", frankly. If it is a successful founder of a portfolio company or entrepreneur who exited with a nice return for the fund, that might be a great seal of approval.<p>Which leads me to the main reason I still agree with the premise of not asking for introductions - and that is a VC/investor's contact network acts as a gatekeeper for good deals. And so if I'm in that privileged position, I don't want to use up my social capital helping friends with bum-deal companies get introductions. So please don't ask me to.<p>Sadly, that wasn't really mentioned in the article.

&#62; <i>"Furthermore, investor styles differ.  Some give you tons of room to maneuver; some like to work closely with you.  Some offer tons of help and advice; others are just about the cash.  Some will want regular updates; others don’t like to be bothered ... figure out what kind of investors you want, and what kind of investors will want you.</i>"<p>Obviously that sounds like a great thing to consider but how exactly does a new entrepreneur figure that out? It might be possible if you're after the Fred Wilson's and Mark Suster's of the VC world (just read their stuff) but it wouldn't be as easy for many others. How would you suggest someone begins?

Specificity with referrals is definitely the way to go.<p>I'd make one minor change to Step 4 - instead of "And are there any other investors you can think of that I should be talking to?" (which is a closed question, easily answered "No" without a lot of thought)<p>try asking "Which other investors can you think of that I should be talking to?" They can still reply "No, your list is great", but the open question prompts their mind to find an answer, which is more likely to lead you to another investor who could match but you didn't know about before.