A warm path is the clearest route between you and someone you want to reach — based on real relationships, shared history, and social proximity. Not just a mutual connection on LinkedIn, but an actual person in your orbit who knows your target well enough to make a credible introduction.
Warm paths use signals like past coworkers, shared investors, mutual advisors, school overlap, team connections, and repeated interactions. The result is a ranked view of who can open the intro fastest — without asking ten people and hoping someone knows someone.
Warm paths convert at roughly 30× the rate of cold outreach. They shortcut gatekeepers, save time, and remove the awkward back-and-forth that happens when you're guessing who to ask. Teams use them to reach customers, investors, and partners in days instead of months.
The key distinction: a warm path isn't just proximity on a network graph. It's a real, trusted relationship where the introduction will actually land. Connections ≠ relationships. Proximity ≠ trust.
Via works backwards from your target — not forwards from your existing contacts. You name the person or company you want to reach, and Via surfaces the specific people in your orbit who have a real connection to them, ranked by relationship strength. You see exactly who to ask, and why the path is strong.