I explore how venture capital firms (VCs) become more influential in their co-investment networks. While we know that well-connected VCs perform better, we do not fully understand how less-connected VCs can improve their position. Using data from US VC investments (2010-2021, 4.5 million connections), I study three ways VCs can become more central: joining deals with influential VCs, investing in their portfolio companies, or getting them to invest in your portfolio companies. The results show that getting top VCs to invest in your portfolio companies is most effective way to increase network influence. This boost happens whether or not the company connecting the VCs is successful, suggesting that connections to prominent VCs matter more than immediate financial returns. I employ k-shell decomposition and dynamic network analysis to track changes in investors’ positions and quantify influence, Granular Instrumental Vari- ables and Triple Difference analyses to study the different connections’ impact.