Which referral sources produce a venture firm's best deals?

David Tisch · published Feb 27, 2023

Referrals from founders in your own portfolio are the strongest feedback loop an investor can get, alongside Sequoia as the outside firm whose deals he takes most seriously

Portfolio founders know exactly who the firm is and are choosing to send deals to them; Sequoia is simply good at this business

56:02 20VC: How Multi-Stage Funds Changed The Game For Seed Rounds, Why Signalling Risk is BS, The Three Most Important Variables for Founders When Raising Rounds & A Debate on Portfolio Construction: Does Ownership Matter with David Tisch

Sri Batchu · published Jul 26, 2023

The founders you invest in become one of the best sources of future deal flow, which is underappreciated by new angels

A founder who has found you helpful will refer people they've worked with and vouch for, which is the highest quality kind of lead

45:53 20Growth: Biggest Growth Lessons from Instacart and Opendoor, Why 70% of Growth Experiments Should Fail and How to Fail Fast, How to Hire a Growth Team; Secrets and Tips & Why Operator Investors WIll be the Best Investors in 10 Years with Sri Batchu @ Ram

Immad Akhund · published May 12, 2025

Deals referred by thesis-driven funds are a strong positive signal

They know their space extremely well and therefore tend to be good at picking within it

53:55 Thesis driven fund referrals are a strong positive signal

Beezer Clarkson · published Oct 18, 2023 · hedged

Managers break through from fund one to institutional backing by getting a flywheel going where the best entrepreneurs bring them deals — proprietary access rather than proprietary deal flow — which LPs then want to join

Successful companies cause other entrepreneurs to route deals to you, LPs observe that access and fund you, and enough LPs invest believing returns persist once the flywheel starts

23:00 Proprietary access flywheel from portfolio entrepreneurs drives institutional lp backing

Max Altman · published Nov 21, 2025

Deals referred by other VCs are rarely good; the best deals come from founder referrals

If a deal were genuinely great, the referring fund would take as much of it as possible themselves rather than share it, as Saga does with Profound

32:11 Vc referrals are adversely selected founder referrals win

Max Altman · published Nov 21, 2025

CTOs in portfolio companies are the best sources of deal referrals

They are less flashy than founders and connected to deeply technical people

32:58 Portfolio ctos are the best referral source

Paul Graham · published Mar 2009

Personal referrals remain the dominant channel for deal flow, and the way to earn referrals is to actually make investments and prove yourself a good investor.

Insiders are reluctant to refer deals until you've done a couple of investments, since some seemingly nice people turn out to be flaky, high-maintenance investors; events like Demo Day account for only a fraction of matches.

source Personal referrals are the dominant deal flow channel earned by proving yourself through actual investments