Guidelines for Intro Requests
When requesting introductions, a detail-oriented and data-driven approach delivers the best results. Users running VC-backed companies have to request introductions on a daily basis. It pays off to view intro requests as a learnable skill that can be graded on a scale.
In a previous post, Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures has written extensively about double opt-in introductions that are now the norm in the technology industry. Brad Feld from the Foundry Group has published a similar post on how to request introductions. In a recent post, Alex Iskold of 2048 Ventures has shared useful tips on how to ask for introductions.
Let’s first take a look at how introductions work in the technology sector:
In the above flow, the first potential drop-off point is when the recipient decides to not forward the request to the investor. This is often referred to as “forwarding conversion”. A second drop-off point is when the recipient forwards the request, but the investor decides to not take the call. This is referred to as “opt-in conversion”.
John requests Adam for an introduction to Investor X
Adam forwards the request to Investor X
Forwarding conversion depends on how compelling the recipient perceives your request to be. Is this a Company that the investor is likely to be interested in? Is the communication representative of the top cohort of founders?
Investor X opts in to the introduction
Opt-in conversion depends on the level of interest that your introduction request is able to generate with the investor in question. This depends on a broad range of factors, including how well your Company fits with the stage and the sector of the investor in question.
With double opt-in introductions, founders need to optimise forwarding and opt-in conversion rates.
Forwarding Conversion
The percentage of intro requests that are actually forwarded to the target investor.
Opt-In Conversion
The percentage of forwarded intro requests whereby the investor opts in to the introduction.
To optimise both of the above, users should put in significant effort to make introduction requests that are well-researched and highly personalized.
Well-Researched Intro Requests
Through the language of the introduction requests, users can demonstrate their level of research by indicating what makes the investor a strong fit. The below table outlines various ways to do this:
Similar Investments
Users can reference a given investor’s prior investments that are particularly similar to their business. See details here on how to identify similar investments efficiently.
Sector Focus
Users can indicate the percentage of the investor’s total investments in their parent sector (I.e. Consumer, or B2B Software). This information is easily available within investor profiles on the Metal platform.
Stage Focus
Users can reference the percentage of the investor’s total investments in the user’s specific stage (I.e. preseed, seed, Series A, etc.). This is easily visible within investor profiles on Metal.
Generally, response and success rates tend to be highest for introduction requests that demonstrate a high level of research on a particular investor.
Personalized Requests
Users should avoid mass or bulk emails, and instead should personalize each request. This takes time and effort, but yields much stronger results. The two most common types of personalizations are noted below:
| Specific to the Person | Include some piece of content in the intro request that is unique to the recipient, or the user’s relationship with them. |
| Company Specific | Include some aspect of the recipient’s company to make the request personalized. |
With recent developments in automated workflows, it becomes particularly important to avoid the communication being perceived as mass or AI-driven automated outbound. The below section provides various templates to illustrate well-researched, targeted and personalized introduction requests.
Useful Templates
Scenario: Via Metal, the user looked up the portfolio founders for her target investor. Via the LinkedIn and Gmail integration, the user was able to identify a few portfolio founders that she knew from her prior work experience.
Intro Request -- Example #1
It’s been a few years; I hope you’re well. I noticed you started Company X and raised a seed round from ABC Ventures. I recently launched Bonotos, offering accounting software for month-end closing, and we’ve achieved within 10 months.
ABC Ventures seems like a great fit for us. They focus on seed investments (30%+ of total portfolio) and , and recently invested in Optima which operates in our space and offers accounting software for a different but adjacent problem.Would you be open to potentially introducing us to ABC Ventures?
Scenario: Via Metal’s intro pathways functionality, the user identified a portfolio company (Company X) of one of her existing investors that has raised capital from Investor X. The user decides to write to their existing investor to request an introduction with Company X (with the goal to use that conversion to learn about the process with Investor X and to land a potential introduction).
Intro Request -- Example #2
Thanks for offering to make potential introductions for our upcoming raise. As per our preliminary research, we have identified Investor X as a particularly strong fit. They have made and have been particularly active in our sector.
I noticed that one of your portfolio companies, Company X, has previously raised from Investor X. If possible, we would love an opportunity to chat with the founders at Company X to learn about the process, and to potentially get an introduction with Investor X.Would you be open to seeing if the founders at Company X are open to connecting with us over a quick 15-min call?