How to find your connections at a specific company

When you're targeting a company (for a sale, a hire, a partnership, a fundraise), the most reliable path in is someone you already know. This is the manual workflow for finding them, and the message that turns a connection into an intro.

Step 1: LinkedIn People filter

On LinkedIn, click the Peopletab in the top search. In the left rail you’ll see filters for Current Company and Connections. Type the company name in Current Company, then set Connections to 1st (people you’re directly connected to) and 2nd(people they’re connected to). Most searches don’t need 3rd-degree.

The result is everyone in your network at or one hop from the company. Save the URL; it’s a live query you can refresh as the company hires.

Step 2: Rank by who you actually know

LinkedIn ranks results by mutual-connection count, which is not what you want. You want results ranked by which of these connections will return your text. Sort manually:

People you’ve had a real conversation with in the last 12 months → top.
People you’ve met in person more than once → middle.
People you connected with at an event and haven’t spoken to since → bottom.
People you don’t actually remember connecting with → don’t use this path.

The rule: if someone wouldn’t recognize your name on a screen-locked iPhone notification, they’re not the right intro source.

Step 3: Verify they still work there

LinkedIn lags real life by months. Before asking for an intro, open the contact’s profile and check:

Is their current role at the target company, or did they leave?
Are they posting? A profile that’s been silent for 6+ months may belong to someone who’s checked out, on parental leave, or job hunting and won’t want to make intros.
Are they in the right department to actually help? A mutual connection in finance is rarely the right path to a product team intro.

Step 4: Write the message that gets a reply

The structure that works:

One sentence of context.Reference your last real interaction (a meeting, an event, a previous project). This is what separates “hi, would you mind” from “hi, this is a real ask”.
One sentence of why.What you’re doing and why this company is interesting to you. Be specific. “Exploring a sale” is too vague; “looking for the right path to their head of product because our infra plugs into theirs” is useful.
The ask, made easy.Don’t ask “could you make an intro?” Ask “could you forward this to X?” with a forwardable paragraph already attached.
An out.A single sentence that gives them permission to say no without awkwardness. “Totally understand if it’s not the right time on your end.”

A template that works

Hey [Name], quick ask, no pressure if it’s the wrong moment.

We met at [event / context] last [month] and you mentioned [thing they said]. I’m looking to get in front of someone in [department] at [Company]: we’re building [one sentence of product] and I think [specific reason why their team would care].

Would you be open to forwarding the paragraph below to [target person]? If they bite I’ll take it from there; if not, no harm done.

── forwardable below ──
[Three-sentence pitch in your voice, ending with “happy to send over a one-pager / hop on a call / whatever’s easiest”]

Either way, hope your [thing] is going well. Thanks!

The thing this whole workflow assumes

You can do all of this if you remember who you know, where they work, what you talked about last, and what you owe them. The reason this is annoying enough to be a four-step guide is that most people don’t remember those four things consistently. That’s the problem Wend solves.