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With Paths, founders can identify specific connections within their network that can make introductions to specific investors. With advanced filters, users can setup create various granular views, eliminating the need for months of research to understand the most valuable relationship chains.
Paths and relationship intelligence within the platform is based on industry transactions data, making these less speculative and more reliable.

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Paths Feed

The Paths feed is the core user interface to view various types of relationship paths. The paths interface consists of cards that show three levels of detail:

Your Link to Connector

The first part of each card shows how the user is connected to the connector.

Connector's Link to Investor

The second part of each card shows how the connector knows the investor.
The feed supports Compact and Detailed views. Compact shows each pathway as a condensed row — investor name, connector, and top-level strength signal at a glance. You can toggle to the Detailed view when actively evaluating pathways: Each card expands to show full evidence types, strength signals on both links, and the Draft Intro action. Each link in the pathway chain has an evidence type that showcases your link to the connector, or the connector’s link to the investor. Some common evidence types are shown below:
Evidence TypeWhat it means
Raised fromConnector has previously raised capital from the investor.
Co-investmentsConnector has previously co-invested with the investor.
Founders can filter the Paths feed based on three broad criteria:
Founders can filter the Paths feed for specific investor groups. By going into Filters > Investors, you can limit the Paths feed to show introduction pathways for investors in a given pipeline, or for investors that carry a given tag, or for select investment firms.
Founders can filter the Paths feed for specific types of connectors:
  • Specific Connectors — Allows you to filter for a given individual within your network. This shows how a given individual can introduce you to investors within your network. 
  • Relationship Owner — Allows you to filter for only those connectors that have been imported from a specific user’s profile within your org (I.e. only the CEO’s network).
  • Connectors by Role — Allows filtering for all connectors that are “Founders”, or are “Investors”. 
Founders can filter the Paths feed to include only those relationship chains that stem from specific connections that they have shortlisted within Metal as “Close Connections”. This allows users to eliminate noise within their Paths feed.
The above filters provide deep insight into how specific individuals within your network can introduce you to relevant investors.
By observing thousands of raises, our observation has been that founders typically don’t lack the network to build access to investors. Instead, they lack insight into which of their connections are best positioned to make introductions with which investors.

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Top Connectors

At the top of the Paths feed, the Top Connectors section highlights connections within your network that can introduce you to many relevant investors within a given pipeline. This helps users immediately and seamlessly identify who within their network is best positioned to make multiple introductions. Each card for Top Connectors shows:
  • Relationship Tag — How well you know the Top Connector based on your identification,
  • Investors Reachable — Which specific investors they can introduce you with.
Click View Pathways on any connector card to filter the Paths feed to relationship chains stemming from that connection.
Within Filters, users can alter the “qualifying criteria” for Top Connectors. As an example, users can define “Top Connectors” as anyone that can make introductions with “5 or more” investors in a selected pipeline.