| name | warm-path-finder |
| description | Find the right human at an investor (the partner / principal / senior investment manager who owns your deal) AND map the warm-connection paths to reach them. Use when a founder says "who at <firm> should I talk to", "how do I get a warm intro to <investor>", "find a connection to <fund>", "who can introduce me", or is stuck going from a target firm to an actual person and a path in. Works from the founder's own authorized data (Gmail, exported LinkedIn connections, contacts) + public sources — never scrapes private data or guesses personal emails. |
Warm path finder
Targeting tells a founder which firms. This skill closes the gap everyone gets
stuck on: which specific human to reach, and who can warmly introduce them.
It does two jobs:
- Pinpoint the person — the partner / principal / senior investment manager
who actually owns your sector and stage at the target firm (pitching the
wrong person wastes the shot). See
references/finding-the-person.md.
- Map & rank warm paths to that person — surface every legitimate route
from the founder's network, score by trust × reachability, and hand the best
one to the
warm-intro skill. See references/connection-mapping.md.
Read shared/references/outreach-ethics.md first. The whole skill lives or dies
on staying inside what's authorized and public (see the data-source tiers
below). Same anti-hallucination rule as the other research skills: a person or a
connection you assert must come from real data or live research, with a source —
never invent a partner, a title, or a mutual contact.
The hard line on data (read this before doing anything)
| ✅ Allowed | ❌ Not allowed |
|---|
| The founder's own authorized data: their Gmail, their Google/phone contacts, a LinkedIn connections export they downloaded | Reading the founder's LinkedIn graph via API or scraping (no API exists; scraping breaks ToS and risks a ban) |
| Public info: X/Twitter bios, firm team pages, portfolio lists, podcasts, conference speakers, Crunchbase/AngelList people | Crawling login-walled content at scale |
| The founder manually checking shared connections / DM-open status while logged in | Guessing or buying personal email addresses to blast |
If a step would cross this line, stop and tell the founder.
Step 1 — Pinpoint the right person
For a target firm, identify the specific decision-maker, not "the firm." See
references/finding-the-person.md. In short:
- Find the partner/principal who leads your sector & stage — via the firm's
team page, who led the round for portfolio companies like yours (search
" partner"), their public thesis/posts.
- A senior associate / principal / senior investment manager who covers your
space can be the better first target than a famous GP — they're more reachable
and looking to source. Note who sources vs. who decides.
- Capture their public footprint: firm bio, LinkedIn URL, X handle, recent
writing/podcasts. This is research input, not contact-harvesting.
Step 2 — Search the founder's own authorized data first (Tier 1)
This is where the real warm paths hide, and it's 100% authorized. Ask the
founder which they can provide, then mine it. If they don't know how to get the
data, point them to references/exporting-your-data.md (step-by-step LinkedIn
export + Gmail/contacts, EN + 中文).
- Gmail (if connected): search their history for anyone already linked to the
target firm or person — past threads, shared recipients, intros they've
received. An existing thread is a warm path.
- Exported LinkedIn connections CSV: have the founder export it themselves
(LinkedIn → Settings → Data Privacy → Get a copy of your data → Connections).
Then cross-reference names/companies against the target firm and its portfolio.
- Contacts: Google/phone contacts for the same matching.
Match on: people at the firm, people who are portfolio founders of the firm
(highest-trust introducers), and people who share an employer/school with the
target person.
Step 3 — Map public-network paths (Tier 2)
For paths not in the founder's own data, find them in the open:
- Portfolio-founder paths (best): a founder the firm already backed vouching
for you is the strongest intro. Find portfolio cos near your space; the
founder may know one, or know someone who does.
- X/Twitter: locate the firm's partners/managers, their public thesis, and
whether they're reachable (open DMs / active repliers). The founder confirms
DM-open status on the profile; you draft the message.
- Shared communities: accelerator alumni, university/employer networks,
angel syndicates, founder Slacks/Discords, mutual advisors.
- Events: who from the firm is speaking where — a live intro beats a cold DM.
See references/connection-mapping.md for how to mine each surface.
Step 4 — Score and rank the paths
For every path found, score it so the founder spends their best shots well.
Rank by trust × reachability (see the rubric in connection-mapping.md):
- Trust: how much does the target person trust the introducer? (portfolio
founder > close peer/colleague > acquaintance > weak tie)
- Reachability: how easily can the founder actually ask this introducer, and
how likely are they to say yes and follow through?
Output a ranked shortlist, not a dump. The best connector is the one the target
actually replies to and who genuinely rates you — not the most senior name.
Step 5 — Hand off
- If a warm path exists → pass the top path + the named introducer to the
warm-intro skill to write the ask + forwardable blurb.
- If no warm path in the founder's own network (common for first-time /
cross-border founders) → don't jump straight to cold. Widen the surface:
accelerators, scouts, syndicates, operator angels, communities, give-to-get,
build-in-public all manufacture warm intros — see
references/expand-warm-surfaces.md, and vet any scout/FA channel with the
fundraising-agents skill.
- Only once warm surfaces are genuinely exhausted → the strongest direct route
(an open-DM partner who posts about your space, a firm's submit page) → hand to
cold-email / cold-call, anchored on the specific person and thesis.
- Always note the contact route + DM-open/submit status you found, and a
reminder to re-verify it right before reaching out.
Output format
- The person: name, title, why them (sector/stage fit), public footprint,
source links, confidence flag.
- Ranked warm paths: introducer → relationship → trust×reachability score →
how the founder knows them (Tier 1/2 source).
- Recommended next move: the single best path, and which skill to use next.
- Coverage note: which data the founder did/didn't provide (e.g., "no
LinkedIn export yet — here's how to get it and what it would unlock").
Bilingual / China market (中文)
If the founder is raising in the China market, read
shared/references/china-market-playbook.md and use
references/zh-talk-tracks.md. LinkedIn is effectively gone in China and WeChat has no clean contact export, so
do not ask a China founder for a LinkedIn CSV. Instead have them fill the
focused contact sheet (references/contact-sheet-template.csv) from their
phone contacts export, CamCard/名片全能王 export, alumni rosters, and WeChat tags
— then mine that. Full how-to (中文) is in references/exporting-your-data.md.
Online paths: 脉脉 (Maimai), 微信好友/群, 校友圈; X applies only for 欧美 investors.
Refuse / push back when
- Asked to scrape LinkedIn or read the connection graph via API — explain the
authorized export route instead.
- Asked to guess or obtain personal emails to mass-contact — refuse; route to a
warm path or a public submit form.
- Asked to assert a "mutual connection" that isn't backed by the founder's data
or a real source — never fabricate a relationship.
