What are warm investor intros, and how can UK startup founders get them?

For many founders, getting a “warm intro” feels like an unspoken rule of startup fundraising. You’re told you need one, but no one really explains what it means, how to get one, or whether it’s even fair.

Many people believe that warm intros only come after years of networking. That if you’re not already embedded in the venture investing world, you’re at a disadvantage.

I don’t fully agree with that view. In my experience, the “warmness” of an intro has very little to do with how long you’ve known someone. It comes down to one simple question:

Does the investor trust the person making the introduction?

That distinction matters more than most founders realise.

In this post, I’ll explain:

• What a warm intro really is
• Why trust, not friendship, determines whether it works
• Why many platform-driven “LinkedIn intros” miss the mark
• And how structured matching creates trusted warm intros at scale

‍

Warm intros: what they are (and what they aren’t)

What counts as a warm intro in fundraising?

A warm introduction is when a startup is referred to an investor by someone the investor already knows and trusts.

It doesn’t always have to come from a personal friend or ex-colleague. In fact, the most effective warm intros are professional, not personal.

Warm intros work when:

• The introducer is a trusted source
• The introducer understands the investor’s profile
• The startup is a strong fit

If those conditions are not met, the intro is unlikely to lead anywhere meaningful.

‍

What isn’t a warm intro?

To me, there is a difference between a personal favour and a trusted introduction.
For instance, if a friend calls and says, “Hey, speak to this founder, they’ve got a cool business,” I’m likely to take the meeting and help out a friend. But that doesn’t mean I’ll invest. That call would happen because of the friendship, not because of investment alignment.

That is very different from a professional introduction from someone who knows exactly what I’m looking for in startups — my stage focus, sector interests, cheque size, and risk profile. If that person sends me a deal, I prioritise it because I trust their judgement. I know they understand my criteria. Many “friendly” intros fail because the introducer does not understand investor fit. Without that alignment, the intro quickly loses value.

‍

Why warm intros matter (and why cold outreach often fails)

Investors receive hundreds of pitch decks each month. So a good warm intro signals curation, not just connection. It tells the investor that someone has already filtered the opportunity.

So, a trusted network can cut through noise and increase confidence in deal quality. According to the British Business Bank’s 2024 UK Business Angels Market report, around 80% of UK angels and syndicates rely primarily on trusted networks for deal flow.
That statistic matters because it shows how investors actually make decisions. They don’t rely on random inbound emails. They prioritise deals that come through sources they trust. In other words, trust influences what gets reviewed first.

Cold outreach can still work. Some founders raise successfully through it. But it’s high-friction, time consuming and inefficient. You’re competing in a crowded inbox without context. And most founders waste months chasing intros that were never aligned in the first place. Warm intros reduce that friction because they carry built-in credibility.

‍

The downside of relying on personal networks

Warm intros built purely on personal networks alone can exclude founders who are not already connected to investor circles.

This often affects:

• First-time founders
• Regional founders
• Underrepresented founders

But even for founders who have managed to build a strong network, relying on it alone has limits. A personal network is rarely large enough, diverse enough or aligned enough to support every round.

Over time, constraints appear:

• Time: It can take years to build meaningful investor relationships, and even longer to build trust.
• Concentration risk: You may end up pitching the same small group repeatedly.
• Fit drift: The investors you know may not match your stage, sector, or cheque size as your company evolves.
• Fatigue: Repeatedly going back to the same contacts can weaken future opportunities.

The traditional model creates an invisible barrier to capital. It rewards who you happen to know, not necessarily who is the best fit.

‍

How to get warm investor intros without a network

Trusted middle layer platform

A deal sent to an investor via ThatRound is effectively a professional warm intro — pre-vetted, relevant, and qualified. Because of this, our funding partners trust ThatRound’s process in the same way they trust a known introducer.

We currently see a 92% response rate on funding applications from startups, because we’re surfacing opportunities that fit.

Behind that fit is structured data and intelligent matching. We use detailed investor criteria and startup information, combined with AI-driven analysis, to assess alignment at a nuanced level — not just stage and sector, but preferences, traction signals, and sector specific investment behaviour.

This trust transforms a platform submission into a professional warm intro, not just a cold application. And this is built through structure, transparency, and alignment, not social networks.

“After doing a few hundred outreach mails for a pre-Seed round and getting the kind of standard 1% engagement rate to pitch, we discovered ThatRound and tried it... within two weeks we had four pitch calls, and more going in the diary.A great system to use and acts like a warm intro...and that's the best kind of intro!”— Ciaran O’Toole, Co-Founder, Songbox

‍

Summary

Warm intros aren’t about who you know. They’re about trusted connectors making relevant recommendations.

That’s what we’re building at ThatRound, a structured marketplace where trust is built into the system through data, filtering, and clear matching, not old school networking. By removing reliance on personal networks, we’re giving every founder the same starting line.

So if you’re raising, you don’t need to navigate it in the dark.

Join ThatRound, see which partners match your stage and sector, and apply through a trusted, structured warm intro pathway.

‍