@Theodore Dorval this doesn't work. The LPs that are going to back you are people thank know Thedore and trust you. It's unlikley for random individuals that to back you because you have not developed years of trust with them. Also, asking this question in a general form or even asking a friend for referals like this is not effective because it requires too much work for them. They have to think about someone in their network, then they have to maybe contact them etc.. It's a lot. You need to the work for them. You should try to get trusted people to make referrals to their trusted netwokr by helping them target to the right individual.

Appreciate the honesty, Mike — that's fair, and I needed to hear it plainly.

Here's my real situation: I don't have a traditional friends-and-family network with investable capital. I came into this from a different path — no prior fund, no built-in family office relationships. What I do have are two strong relationships (a commercial finance veteran and a family office contact) who've trusted me enough to hand me real deal flow, but I haven't yet turned that trust into specific LP introductions.

Given that, I want to do the work the right way — identify specific people, not just ask "know anyone," and make it easy for the people who trust me to make a warm, targeted intro instead of an open-ended favor. Would it help to walk through this with you or the team directly — figuring out who in my existing circle might actually know a fit, and how to frame that ask well?

You don't need one. When I say people that you trust, it doesn't mean family or close friends. Same with prior FOs. I'm certain that there are ex-colleagues and people in your network that could be interested in this. Please watch this video: https://youtu.be/LAi9OLY3go0

That reframes it for me, Mike — appreciate it. I hadn't been counting ex-colleagues or people from my working life as part of this, but that actually opens things up. I'll watch the video and start putting together a real list with that wider definition in mind.