Warm Path Finder

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:

1. 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.
2. 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)

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.