4 ms·

Helpful to understand what the responses mean, but what should you do when you hear this? Do you say: Can you introduce me to someone who would be better suite

• biot 14y ago
  If an investor tells you they're already invested in your space? Always ask for the referral. The worst that can happen is that they'll say "no" a second time. But who knows? What you're doing may actually be more impressive to them than their current investments and they'd be happy to recommend someone else to you.
• salsakran 14y ago
  NEVER ask a VC who said no for a referral. You're better off going to the next investor cold (or just do the leg work and get to them from a different direction) than via an introduction that reads "here's this deal I passed on".
• danshapiro 14y ago
  Let's think through this conversation: "Bob, let me introduce you to footwear.me." "Are you an investor?" "No, I invested in shoes.tv because I thought they were the best company in this space." It's going to be a really lame intro, probably worse than if you cold-called the person. So unless you're desperate, I wouldn't ask. A better plan would be to pump them for competitive information. "Oh, shoes.tv! They're really neat. What was it about them that made you pull the trigger on the investment? Do you think that footwear companies are hot right now? What other companies did you look at? What do you think of their product so far?" If you're friendly and open, you might get some useful (non-confidential) information about the space, and how investors in the space think about it.