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“Talented founders will figure out how to get a warm intro” is such utter BS. The only way to “get” a warm intro is already being a part of other elite networks. There’s vanishingly few ways for talented but non-networked founders to “earn” a warm intro.

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Tyler Tringas

@tylertringas

Jun 9, 2022

Do these folks really want hustling founders to hound their past colleagues, childhood friends, and neighbors for a warm intro? No. They just only want to deal with opportunities that come pre-vetted from their existing network. Pure laziness being passed off as a filter.

Tyler Tringas

@tylertringas

I get why this happens. We run an open application form at apply.calmfund.com. We’ve seen inbound apps increase more than 2x this year and are struggling to give each one proper consideration and timely replies. We could “solve” this by requiring warm intros…

3:34 PM · Jun 9, 2022

Replying to

But my goal is to keep building systems, capacity, and our investing team to try to keep up. I’d rather be open accessible and a little slow than closed off to those outside elite networks.

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So what can be done about it? On investor side, GPs should offer meritocratic application processes but ultimately LPs need to refuse to back GPs who rely on warm intros only. For founders, the way to bypass this filter is to have irrefutable traction, just have to get started twitter.com/tylertringas/s…

Tyler Tringas

@tylertringas

Jun 10, 2022

To be clear, this is not actionable advice to founders. Warm intros are a fact of the ecosystem now and the best approach is to either try to play that game or play a different game altogether

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Tyler Tringas

@tylertringas

Jun 10, 2022

Replying to @pt

I’m not really making a point about what founders should do (agree, work the system & don’t complain is right). My point is capital allocators and investors are setting up a very dumb system for seeing great opportunities.

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And if even 60 minutes seems like a lot, bear in mind this form now guides founders through all the question we would ask on a standard application form AND an entire hour-long initial call. From there we do our own research dive & need 1 call with founders to send a term sheet twitter.com/MichaelRouveur…

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