One of the questions that I get often from entrepreneurs (especially those raising seed rounds) is to make introductions for them to investors, which I’m always happy to do. Making GOOD introductions is a key part of my strategy to helping the start-up ecosystem thrive, and hopefully helping great entrepreneurs get one step closer to the dream of building a really awesome company. I always ask founders who they want to meet and why — with the WHY being the most important question. All too often, I get a laundry list of every guy in town (which generally constitutes the team’s “strategy” of ask everyone with a pulse). Personally, I think founders are wasting a shit load of time (which they typically don’t have) and energy (that could be dedicated to actually building the business) with this strategy, and, frankly, showing that they’re strategic thinking skills are, well, non-existent. There should be a base of questions that a founder asks themselves about every potential investor — BEFORE they add them to the list of folks that they want to go after. Here is my rank ordered checklist: 1) Where are the areas that I need the most help (generally also where I have gaps in the teams skills)? Who are the folks that are known experts in those areas? 2) Using the list above, do they invest in my space? (Hint: look at the investments already made.) 3) Do they invest at my stage? (Not every institutional investor does seed deals, for instance). Do they invest with my preferred deal type (convertible note –or– priced)? 3) Are there competitive or synergistic portfolio companies? (Hint: investors love synergies among their portfolio.) 4) How many investments has the firm/investor made? Do they realistically have the time to spend working with me on my business? (Remember – you’ll need more HELP than $$ to build a great company — pick folks who optimize on the help side). 5) Does the firm prefer to lead/follow? Do I need a lead investor to get them excited? Are they betting on my seed to take a stab at the next round? (Important to know, as you’ll want to have some idea as to how fill out your dance card for a GREAT seed round and to tee you up for the series ‘A’). End result: Spend the time up front to pare down the list to the most relevant folks, and don’t waste your time running around town pitching to folks that aren’t a good fit. Time matters and it’s better spent put towards your business. Cross-posted from Gus’s blog.