The Subtle Art of Getting Warm Intros in Tech
The perfect blurbs, striking gold on tone, word frugality, and effortless coolness, plus The Clean Email technique.
In today’s issue, I’ll teach you how to craft an effortlessly cool and forward-ready professional email to get warm intros to anyone you want to meet.
Your target people might include:
the hiring manager for a role you’re interested in
a leader at a targeted company
a current or former employee of a company of interest
a VC (if you’re a founder seeking funding. PSA — VCs rarely respond to the Contact Forms on their websites. It’s annoying, but it’s the game).
anyone who can help unlock valuable knowledge, resources, or intel.
Let’s dive in.
It all starts with the blurb.
The blurb is that one-paragraph pitch you send to your mutual connections when you want to get an intro to someone they know.
In tech, blurbs are table stakes to get a warm intro to someone you’re trying to meet. Getting warmly introduced dramatically increases your odds of getting in contact with your target person.
When you ask someone to warm intro you, you're asking them to lend their credibility and reputation. If you don’t put your best foot forward, it might affect your relationship with both parties (and the likelihood of future intros).
Make your friend look good, and they'll do it again.
Make them regret it, you're on your own in the future.
Crafting the perfect blurb requires a healthy mix of structure and woo.
The architecture of a blurb includes the essential content and components, social norms, hygiene factors, and logistics.
The art of the blurb is the intangible way you maximize interest, sound effortlessly cool, and minimize wordiness.
If you nail your professional blurb, you’ll remove that last piece of friction standing between you and a warm intro to any person you’re trying to network with.
Architecture of a blurb
The content must convey three things:
how you will add value to the target company or person
how you are positioned to add that value (given your experience)
why you’re a sure bet (to forward on)
The structure needs to include:
your name and LinkedIn (hyperlinked, ideally)
a high-level summary
key accomplishments
links (achievements / press releases / written thought leadership in a topic relevant to the person or company of interest)
proof that you’ve done some homework (if you’re reaching out about a specific role, include a link to the JD to make it clear you’ve found a target)
a clear call to action (CTA), ie why the intro? The less time they have to spend figuring out what you want (and how it benefits them), the faster and more likely you’ll get a response.
General guidelines
❌ Regurgitating your entire resume (“I started my career back in….”)
✅ Highlight 1-2 relevant experiences (“Most recently, I led…”)
❌ Generic, non-specific intent or call to action (“I’d love to learn more about…”)
✅ End with a clear, specific call to action (“I’d like to get introduced to X person to discuss Y”)
Tone
The warm intro is the first interaction you’ll have with this target person, and it’s just words at the end of the day. Make it count.
The right tone is a mix of:
🦸🏻 confident
🌈 optimistic
😯 intriguing
👉 direct
tip: If you use Grammarly Premium, you can assess the tone of your writing (I find it to be quite accurate).
Word choices
❌ Avoid being lofty / overly formal or too informal.
✅ Write how you’d speak to a respected colleague
❌ This isn’t a conference bio. No third person. (“Erika Gemzer is an experienced product leader..”)
✅ Be a person! (“I’m a digital health product leader with…”)
Length
There is no “perfect length” for a warm intro via email because emails can be any length. However, there is a limit to the reader’s attention span. The more you write, the more the reader will skim.
Skimming is bad for you because it means you lose control of the narrative. You have no control over how they skim or what they actually read.
To avoid being skimmed, be frugal with words.
A good rule of thumb is no more than 2 paragraphs, 10 sentences, 1 minute read time, or 1200 characters — whichever applies first.
Tip: some resources I use to check characters and read time:
Check characters: https://charactercounttool.com/
Check read time: https://niram.org/read/
From blurb to warm intro
If you’re going to ask for help from your connections, you need to do three things well:
Make it easy for them
Respect social norms
Make your mutual connection look good
Some ways to do this:
Be proactive. Offer the blurb before being asked for it. In your initial request to the sender, ask for the intro and let them know that if they are OK to intro, you’ll send the blurb over in a clean email.
Make it “Forward-ready, even on Mobile”
Send the blurb in a clean, new email. (not in an email chain)
Use a forward-able subject line that will make sense to the forwarded recipient
❌ “Long time no see!”
✅ “Healthtech PM interested in X company”
More on the concept of a Clean Email:
Reward people for helping you. Be a follow-up machine.
At a minimum: follow up once concluded (“Hey Carl, thanks for the intro. I met with Jenny and interviewed, and I’m excited to share that I’m taking a job at X company!”)
Better: follow up along the way (“Hey Carl, thanks for the intro. I had an amazing conversation with Jenny and I’m going to interview next week. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks again!”)
Blurb Examples
Example 1: Asking for a job chat
In this example, I focus on what I can offer the company and then provide some evidence that I can bring that value to bear. I then end with a clear CTA.