Comment by janellehmtam

I’d argue that for the majority of founders, they’re both important - knowing someone gets you in the door, but having a compelling pitch and story (with the metrics to back it up, which assumes you’ve done the hard work to build a solid business) is what you need to get to a term sheet. Of course, there are always exceptions - like the extraordinarily well connected founder who’s had a successful prior exit might be able to raise purely on the basis of relationships and reputation.