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How to write cold emails to investors

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Re: How to write cold emails to investors

#3
How not to write cold emails to investors -- lessons from a serial founder whose companies have raised $150MM+.

TL;DR Don't chase. Be chased.

1. Don't write cold emails to investors. You automatically give the investor the upper hand by chasing them. It's counter intuitive, but it comes off as desperate. VCs write checks into companies that they have a fear of missing out, or that other VCs are backing, not those that end up in their inbox (e.g. Sacca & Pinterest: https://twitter.com/sacca/status/620344394189647872?lang=en)

2. Take the time that you would have spent emailing investors and build product. Get traction.

3. Get investors to email you.

Re: How to write cold emails to investors

#4
post #3

How not to write cold emails to investors -- lessons from a serial founder whose companies have raised $150MM+. TL;DR Don't chase. Be chased. 1. Don't write cold emails to investors. You automatically give the investor the upper hand by chasing them. It's counter intuitive, but it comes off as desperate. VCs write checks into companies that they have a fear of missing out, or that other VCs are backing, not those tha…

so how do you get the word out? And how do you make your product enticing enough to be chased?

Re: How to write cold emails to investors

#5
post #3

How not to write cold emails to investors -- lessons from a serial founder whose companies have raised $150MM+. TL;DR Don't chase. Be chased. 1. Don't write cold emails to investors. You automatically give the investor the upper hand by chasing them. It's counter intuitive, but it comes off as desperate. VCs write checks into companies that they have a fear of missing out, or that other VCs are backing, not those tha…

unrelated but https://www.makespace.com/ returns 502 for me

502 ERROR The request could not be satisfied. The Lambda function returned an invalid entry in the headers object: The header must have a value field. We can't connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner. If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation.

Generated by cloudfront (CloudFront) Request ID: DFzajQj3Qn2NiP4mPERWYWVljBFZz7W3GtFt8maH2FaBgpyaDjY-YA==

Re: How to write cold emails to investors

#6
post #4
post #3

How not to write cold emails to investors -- lessons from a serial founder whose companies have raised $150MM+. TL;DR Don't chase. Be chased. 1. Don't write cold emails to investors. You automatically give the investor the upper hand by chasing them. It's counter intuitive, but it comes off as desperate. VCs write checks into companies that they have a fear of missing out, or that other VCs are backing, not those tha…

so how do you get the word out? And how do you make your product enticing enough to be chased?

There are plenty of startup pitch/demo events in the major markets. I imagine they've all gone virtual now, so no need to hop a flight to SF (or wherever) to get your few minutes on stage during open mike night.

Re: How to write cold emails to investors

#7
i get a lot of cold pitches.

1. don’t play coy. lots of people don’t actually say what they are doing.

2. guess the next questions and reply to them. “can i see your deck?” often comes next, so attach the deck. explain your current state of traction. funds raised so far. link to demo. screenshots.

3. if you cut and paste, make sure you aren’t changing fonts etc.

4. don’t use bulk emailer or anything that adds clicktracking. if you are mass emailing, i can tell.

5. don’t use whatever investor database that everyone else does. about 1/3rd of the stuff i guess lists “because of your investments in X, Y and Z...” where x,y,z are always the same three obscure companies that happened to be at the top of my crunchbase profile at one point.

Re: How to write cold emails to investors

#8
post #4
post #3

How not to write cold emails to investors -- lessons from a serial founder whose companies have raised $150MM+. TL;DR Don't chase. Be chased. 1. Don't write cold emails to investors. You automatically give the investor the upper hand by chasing them. It's counter intuitive, but it comes off as desperate. VCs write checks into companies that they have a fear of missing out, or that other VCs are backing, not those tha…

so how do you get the word out? And how do you make your product enticing enough to be chased?

To answer the second question: get revenue with a good growth.

Re: How to write cold emails to investors

#9
post #4
post #3

How not to write cold emails to investors -- lessons from a serial founder whose companies have raised $150MM+. TL;DR Don't chase. Be chased. 1. Don't write cold emails to investors. You automatically give the investor the upper hand by chasing them. It's counter intuitive, but it comes off as desperate. VCs write checks into companies that they have a fear of missing out, or that other VCs are backing, not those tha…

so how do you get the word out? And how do you make your product enticing enough to be chased?

To the second question: build something that a specific set of people love

Re: How to write cold emails to investors

#10
post #4
post #3

How not to write cold emails to investors -- lessons from a serial founder whose companies have raised $150MM+. TL;DR Don't chase. Be chased. 1. Don't write cold emails to investors. You automatically give the investor the upper hand by chasing them. It's counter intuitive, but it comes off as desperate. VCs write checks into companies that they have a fear of missing out, or that other VCs are backing, not those tha…

so how do you get the word out? And how do you make your product enticing enough to be chased?

Customers / users and sales.
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