I can relate to this on a deep level, because apart from being an introvert, I also happen to have a stutter (though they're mutually exclusive. I would've been an introvert even if I didn't have a stutter). So, I try to avoid talking to anyone new, because that triggers the stuttering. Being a startup guy makes this much harder as I have to meet new people now and then. I love meeting new people, but the talking becomes unbearable, and I usually find a way out of the conversation to avoid awkwardness. A lot of my feelings can be summed up by the movie, Rocket Science.
Some of my good friends, have suffered, from the problem of stutter. To the best I know (we never discussed this), they overcame it, by simply stop getting embarrassed about it. Its hard to acquire that feeling in one go. It needs to be cultivated.
And BTW, Do you know, Hrithik Roshan (Indian Movie Star) has been struggling through an acute stuttering problem, since he was a child. In an interview of his I saw, he was saying he practices on his vocals for about an hour or two daily. Also he occasionally did stuff like: Once he had to do a stage show in Dubai, he shut himself in a cabinet, and screamed at top of his voice. The reason he did it was, so as to not alarm the other people in the hotel.
I hate (love?) to be the pedant here, but your stutter and your introversion aren't mutually exclusive. They're orthogonal.
As to the stuttering, I think I understand. I don't stutter, but I do have a horrible time hearing when there's much ambient noise. It makes many otherwise neutral to vaguely unpleasant events unbearable.
