Start with the people you can reach

You can know which channel you want to test, and still have no idea who to approach first. In fact, that's probably where you are right now.

Your phone contacts, or Twitter followers, or LinkedIn connections will contain friends, former colleagues, previous customers, interviewees, suppliers, event acquaintances, public commenters, and people you once promised to have coffee with, so this is where we'll begin. Because somewhere in there may be a customer, somebody who knows one, (or absolutely nobody relevant, but we'll come to that scenario in a bit).

Starting with people you can reach doesn't mean pitching all of them, or asking them all for money (which might, quite rightly, make you want to cringe all the way inside of yourself). Instead, you're looking for the shortest credible path to the buyer you chose in the last chapter, which may lead straight to somebody with the problem, through a person who can make a relevant introduction, or through somebody who controls access to the community, event, or partnership you selected.

It's just business - nothing to be embarrassed about.

By the end of this chapter, you'll have one named path to a buyer and one request you could make (no cringes necessary). You only need to draft the request here; the full conversation and follow-up belong in Founder-led sales.

Bring back the people you've already found

You made a ten-person list in Your first customer, so we won't do that all over again. Let's instead bring that record back, along with your validation interviews and the evidenceSomething observed, said, or done that bears on the decision, kept with its source and date. A reply can evidence access; a conversation can reveal a buyer's problem; a purchase supplies commercial evidence. One action shouldn't be made to prove more than it does. behind your chosen distribution channel, then add anybody else you've crossed paths with who has a credible connection to the buyer.

That can include personal and professional contacts, previous customers, people you've interviewed, people you've met in communities or at events, and somebody your contacts could introduce. The relationship can be old or slight; its age matters less than whether you can explain why this person belongs on the path now.

You can export these from your phone book, your social media connections, from memory... if you have a 'see anything' agent like GrokBot, OpenClaw, Hermes, or Instinct, save yourself the hassle and get them to pull all the contact data into a spreadsheet.

For each name, write down what you know and where it came from, and a quick note on any kind of relation they might have to the product you'd like to discuss with them. Better yet, give your agent a brief and the context and have them do it for you.

Let the customer evidence choose the person

A familiar person is easier to contact, while a suitable buyerSomebody who matches the selected customer, has a current reason to care about the problem, and can make or influence the relevant purchase. Familiarity alone doesn't make somebody suitable. has a current reason to care. Those qualities sometimes appear in the same person and often don't, but those who have a personal relationship with you will already be invested and will care more than a cold contact. Choose your potential buyers using the evidence from your earlier work, then decide whether an existing relationship can help you reach them.

Give each person one job

The same person may know the market, know a buyer, and control access to other people, although your first request should still have one job. This table separates the routes so you can ask for something the person can reasonably provide:

Sometimes a person can't take you to the buyer but can answer one question that blocks the path, such as who normally approves this purchase or whether an introduction would make sense; ask that question. “Can I pick your brain?” asks them to discover the agenda on your behalf, which is a lot of work for a phrase that sounds so breezy (plus if you believe LinkedIn, everyone hates that phrase). Try inviting people for coffee instead: you might end up buying a lot of coffees, but it's a small price to pay for a big lot of insight.

Say why you're asking, then ask for one thing

A good request names why this person came to mind, explains what you're working on, and asks for one bounded action. Stripe Atlas makes a similar case for concise, researched first contact with one small ask, and recommends treating colleagues or beta users as possible prospects or introducers when the fit is real. Its detailed sales guide is written for B2B founders, so apply the principle without pretending every business buys the same way. (Stripe Atlas, accessed September 2026)

For a possible buyer, make the commercial purpose visible. If you want to know whether they'll consider the product, say that; inviting them to “catch up” and revealing the pitch halfway through makes the relationship do the work the message should have done. And if it's not a good fit for your contact, that's a slightly awkward half hour that didn't have to happen.

For an introducer, name the person or kind of buyer, explain why you think the match may be relevant, and supply a short note that can be forwarded as written. The connector should be able to decline without explanation, and the buyer should be asked whether they want the introduction before both parties are connected. This is commonly called a double-opt-in introductionAn introduction made after the connector and the intended recipient have both agreed to it. The founder supplies enough context for the connector to ask; the connector checks that the buyer wants the introduction before connecting both parties.; investor Fred Wilson described the practice as a way to avoid forcing an unwanted meeting on the recipient. (Fred Wilson, November 3, 2009)

A forwardable note can be this small:

I'm working on [product] for [specific customer] who are dealing with [problem or event]. You mentioned [name or type of person] because [relevant connection]. If you think the match is sensible, would you be comfortable asking whether they'd like an introduction? Here's a short note you can forward: [two or three sentences with the purpose and requested next step]. No problem if the timing or fit isn't right.

The note gives the connector enough context to make a judgment and leaves them in control of their relationship. If they agree to forward it, the buyer's yes gives you permission for the introduction; it doesn't give you evidence that they want the product.

Don't make the relationship pay for the test

Warm access can make a request easier to send and harder to interpret, particularly when the other person has a reason to be agreeable. Friends may act from kindness; a former report or mentee may feel that saying no carries a cost; a supplier who depends on your work may have a financial reason to oblige. In those cases, use a smaller request, acknowledge that refusal is fine, and avoid treating compliance as enthusiasm.

Repeated asks have their own cost, so record who you've approached, what you asked for, what they provided, and whether you agreed to return; this stops one generous person from becoming your unofficial distribution department. Stripe Atlas's networking guide similarly advises founders to distinguish direct asks from relationship-building and to account for differences in power, reciprocity, and somebody's ability to decline. (Stripe Atlas, accessed September 2026)

When the relationship makes a free answer likely and an honest no unlikely, choose another route for demand evidence. The person may still help you understand the market, provided you keep that contribution in the correct row of your record.

Put the dog-groomer paths side by side

Return to the booking platform from the last chapter, which takes a customer's deposit when they book an independent dog groomer. The illustrative subscription is $39 a month, the product has a working demonstration and no customer results, and the founder needs one paid account. Three people are already reachable:

The known groomer goes first because the person matches the buyer and has already described the problem; being known makes the route easier, though the evidence makes the choice. The pet-shop owner may supply the next credible path, while the friend's broad offer would scatter the message among people with no known connection to the customer. A thousand unrelated contacts still make an address book, however optimistic the spreadsheet looks.

Keep the warm-introduction numbers in proportion

Warm introductionsAn introduction made through a person who has a relationship with both sides. “Warm” describes the access route; it doesn't promise a reply, meeting, sale, or close rate. are often recommended because some trust and context can travel with the connector, although that recommendation doesn't come with a universal close rate. A figure such as 50% tells you very little without a source, customer, sample, denominator, or definition of “close,” so it shouldn't become a promise or a target.

LinkedIn's Deep Sales Playbook offers narrower B2B context from a reported base of 973 sellers: 19% of the sellers it classified as “deep sellers” said more than half of their warm outreach received replies, compared with 8% of “shallow sellers,” while 1% of deep sellers reported the same reply band for cold outreach. These are self-reported reply bands from salespeople, not purchases by solo-founder customers, so take with a pinch of salt. (LinkedIn Sales Solutions, accessed September 2026)

Your own record is more specific because it can tell you whether the person matched your buyer, how you reached them, what you requested, whether they agreed to the next action, and whether money eventually followed.

Know when you've exhausted the network

Your network is exhaustedThe point at which you've reviewed the people and relationships you can reasonably recall, followed credible introduction paths, and can no longer name a suitable buyer or somebody who knows one well enough to make a relevant introduction. It isn't a fixed contact count or waiting period. for this task when you've reviewed the people and relationships you can reasonably recall, followed the relevant introduction paths, and can no longer name a matching buyer or somebody who knows one well enough to make a credible introduction. There is no minimum number of contacts or weeks you need to endure first.

At that point, return to the channel chosen in the last chapter and use it to find suitable strangers. The standard stays the same: a person belongs on the path because the buyer and problem evidence support the choice, and the approach needs a legitimate reason to arrive.

The reachable-route record brings the names from your earlier work into one path, assigns each person a role, and gives you space to draft the request. Once you can name the buyer, explain every step between you and them, and draft one request that the recipient can understand and decline, you're ready for Your website: make the first read count.

Prompt: map my shortest credible path to a buyer

This prompt works after you've completed your first-customer and distribution records. Give it only people and relationship facts you know; I don't know yet is a complete answer when the evidence isn't there.

I need to map the shortest credible path from people I can already reach to one
suitable buyer.

Purpose
Use my existing customer evidence and relationships to choose one named buyer
path and draft one appropriate request. Keep access, customer fit, permission,
and evidence separate.

When to use this
I have chosen a customer and first distribution channel. I may know a suitable
buyer directly, know somebody who could introduce one, know somebody who
controls access to a relevant route, or have no credible path in my network.

My context
- Product or service: [what I sell]
- Selected customer: [the specific group]
- User, buyer, and approver: [who uses, pays, and approves]
- Problem and current reason to care: [evidence and source]
- Positioning: [how I explain the product]
- Offer, price, and customer action I need now: [details]
- Proof I have: [results, demonstration, references, reviews, or none]
- First distribution channel already chosen: [channel]
- Relationship or permission limits: [anything relevant]

People I can reach
For every person, give their name, how I know them, what I know about their
connection to the selected buyer, the source and date of that information, and
anything I've already asked them for. Include only facts I know.

1. [person and evidence]
2. [person and evidence]
3. [person and evidence]
4. [optional]
5. [optional]

Your task
1. Extract only the facts I supplied. Keep sources and dates with them.
2. List assumptions and missing information. Don't invent people,
   relationships, customer problems, authority, permission, results, or
   quotations.
3. Check customer evidence before ease of contact. Don't treat a familiar but
   unsuitable person as a prospect.
4. Assign each relevant person one role for this request:
   - suitable buyer or user;
   - relevant introducer;
   - access gatekeeper; or
   - somebody who can answer one specific missing question.
   Leave people with no credible role out of the current path and explain why.
5. Compare the plausible paths using buyer relevance, current reason to care,
   relationship, permission, steps to the buyer, and the evidence each request
   could produce.
6. Flag any risk that kindness, hierarchy, financial dependency, or repeated
   requests may make refusal difficult. Recommend a smaller or different
   request when needed.
7. Recommend one shortest credible path. If no credible path exists, say that
   my network is exhausted for this task and return me to my chosen channel.
8. Draft one request for the first person in the path. It must say why they came
   to mind, explain what I'm working on, make the commercial purpose clear when
   they are a buyer, ask for one bounded action, and make refusal easy.
9. For an introduction, draft a short standalone note the connector can
   forward and require the buyer's opt-in before the connection is made.
10. State what the request could evidence without predicting a reply,
    introduction, trial, purchase, or other result.
11. Treat any benchmark as context only. Give its source, date, customer,
    measured action, sample, and denominator; don't invent a target.

Output
# My reachable path to a buyer
## Facts from my earlier work
## People and roles
## Assumptions and missing information
## Plausible paths
## My chosen path
## Relationship and permission checks
## My drafted request
## Forwardable note, if needed
## Evidence this request could produce
## People outside the current path
## Decision record
## Next review

Use standard Markdown and write the record in my first person. Keep facts,
assumptions, missing information, and recommendations separate. Don't invent
customer evidence or claim that familiarity, a reply, or an introduction proves
demand.

Sources

• Stripe Atlas. “Your first 10 customers.” Accessed September 15, 2026.
• Stripe Atlas. “Networking for founders.” Accessed September 15, 2026.
• LinkedIn Sales Solutions. “Deep Sales: The B2B Sales Playbook to Boost Revenue in 2024.” Survey base: 973 sellers; accessed September 15, 2026.
• Fred Wilson. “The Double Opt-In Introduction.” November 3, 2009; accessed September 15, 2026.