Why “Warm Intros” Are More Dangerous Than Entrepreneurs Realize
Lots of people make intros, but do they always know the right way to make them?
When I first began teaching entrepreneurship nearly a decade ago, I remember one of my students showing me an app he’d built and I had no clue what to tell him. I didn’t know much about his market, and I didn’t want to give him bad advice, so I made an introduction to someone I thought might be more helpful.
Take a moment to consider how often the above scenario occurs in the startup world. Back when I was building startups, I had hundreds of advisors and mentors make “warm intros” for me where they personally connected me with someone they thought might be helpful. I’ve also personally made hundreds of similar warm intros since I began advising startups. With this in mind, I have to assume thousands of the same types of intros get made every day.
On its surface, the interactions don’t seem problematic. Heck, they probably seem downright helpful. After all, intros are examples of experienced entrepreneurs supporting less experienced entrepreneusr by making helpful connections. What could be bad about that?
