I've seen this in other areas too. For instance, banking recruiting at top schools has this crazy process of facetime and attending dinners, and showing up to

I've seen this in other areas too. For instance, banking recruiting at top schools has this crazy process of facetime and attending dinners, and showing up to lots of events. Does it correlate with success? Possibly, but weak at best. But the banks need some kind of first filter. It's virtually impossible for a VC to take every proposal seriously. They need some kind of filter, and anything marginally better than "Read every tenth one that comes in" helps them out. Getting it via someone establishes reciprocity with the intermediary, and establishes that someone can find an intro. (This could be useful in selling)