You probably don’t know investors personally – most Founders don’t either.

So when asked to find a mutual connection to an investor, you probably think “I don’t have any” and that’s just not true. The key is to find what type of connection you have.

Here are the most common connections we can make with investors:

• Common Person. Even if we don’t both know the same person (mutual friend) we may be following someone similar on social media that we can refer to. The connection doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to show some familiar ground.
• Industry. Presumably you and the investor are interested in the same industry, so sharing some news or interesting facts that the investor may appreciate could be good common ground.
• Location. Just being in the same general area as an investor is an opportunity to connect. Perhaps they live in San Francisco but you can see they grew up in the Midwest where you live. You’d be surprised at how well people relate to the places they’ve lived and worked.
• Interests. People love having common interests, whether it’s a sports team you both follow or a love of cooking. Whenever you can open with some common interests with an investor, even if it’s well outside of work (even better!) it gives you something to connect on.

Any of those categories can be a wonderful place to open up your investor email with a mutual connection, so explore all of them before making the contact.