Ask HN: How are founders finding investors without warm intros in 2025?
It feels like getting investor intros is still one of the biggest bottlenecks for early-stage founders.
I’ve seen countless threads saying “you need warm intros” - but in reality, not everyone has that network on day one. Cold emails and DMs often go unread, and accelerator “investor lists” feel outdated or generic.
So I’m curious:
1. How are you finding and reaching out to investors without existing connections?
2. Have any particular strategies, tools, or outreach methods worked for you recently?
3. Is personalization or timing more important in getting actual replies?
Would love to hear what’s been working (or not) in 2025’s fundraising environment
11 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 31.8 ms ] thread- Find meet ups in your major metropolitan area.
- Your 2nd and 3rd degree networks are bigger than you imagine, you can absolutely get a warm intro.
- Forgo all investment and bootstrap.
That said, I’ve seen a lot of early-stage founders outside major hubs (or first-time builders) struggle to access those same circles. For them, even getting visibility with the right investors is tough.
Warm intros are always best, but it feels like founders today need a mix — network where you can, and use smarter tools or systems to fill the gap when geography or timing works against you.
Often that’s because spam filters tend to filter out unsolicited emails. DM’s work similarly.
Getting a warm intro requires resourcefulness. That’s a skill investors value. If a warm intro is too much work, then building a startup will be too.
Of course if you build something interesting investors may look for you…and you will need a good spam filter to filter distractions. Good luck
That said, I think the line between “resourcefulness” and “access” is thinner than it seems. A lot of early founders are putting in the effort - they’re just not starting from networks where investor intros are even possible.
Warm intros are ideal, but discovery shouldn’t depend entirely on who you already know. Sometimes a founder just needs a way to start genuine conversations - even if it begins cold.
But early traction itself often needs a bit of capital or network to get started - kind of a chicken-and-egg problem for first-time founders. That’s why I think discovery and outreach still matter early on, just to get those first few conversations going before traction compounds.
Unfortunately, without existing connections, you have to put in a lot of effort helping people in your networks so you can ask them to help you. If you haven't been putting that work in by providing real help/value/relief to those in your network for years, it is an uphill battle to get a warm intro to an investor of all things.