8 ms·

How to Email Early Stage Investors

249 points by craigcannon 10y ago

skapadia 10y ago
If the recipient only sees the subject line, what increases chances of having your email opened? For people that habitually open and read email OR use a preview mode for efficient scanning, subject lines may not be as important.
liveshops_ 10y ago
This is awesome. I love quick, succinct communication. I have thought of early state funding as more "who you know," and it's good know I can email people!
gogopuppygogo 10y ago
Most importantly you should research your investors before you just email them. It's better to reach 20 interested investors than 200 people with money who won't invest in your company.
- erikb 10y ago
  Huge point, I think. Instead of crafting a huge email, spend a lot of time finding the right investors to approach first. "This is the only guy with money I know of" is not really a successful starting point to write someone.
payne92 10y ago
Also: email from a founder, don't use a "investment banker", or other intermediary. Don't insist on a phone call or in-person meeting as the next step. If you can't explain it with email, video, etc. to an investor, you'll have a hard time explaining it to customers. Use bios, Angellist, Crunchbase, etc. to profile investor prospects. Don't email a tech investor a movie pitch, unless you have a very unique connection to that investor. Don't insist on an NDA (yes, it still happens)
walden42 10y ago
The list of common mistakes includes "Spending a lot of time trying to get a warm intro. You’re better off just following these rules and emailing me directly." That goes contrary to a lot of advice other VCs say, which is that getting introduced to a VC is the most common way to get funded. Supposedly most cold emails don't turn into VC funding. Is this no longer the case?
- sytse 10y ago
  My take on this. This is advise for early stage investors (e.g. mostly angels and micro VCs). For A-round investments I think a warm intro is still needed.
  - ci5er 10y ago
    Why?
    - sytse 10y ago
      Most VC's get approached a lot, they use this as a filter. Most angels get less dealflow. Some famous ones (Ron Conway) have set up a team (SV Angels) to deal with it.
- downandout 10y ago
  I think he was referring specifically to himself. However, he isn't that wrong. There are a few that want warm intros, and one that actually won't even talk to you without one [1]. But if you view your fund raising strictly in terms of dollars raised per hour spent, you'll find that simply contacting more people is the vastly more productive route in most cases. [1] https://lowercasecapital.com/prospecting/ https://lowercasecapital.com/prospecting/
- dahart 10y ago
  It may be a matter of degree. My experience is that warm intros do help for early stage investors, but they aren't a requirement. Maybe a simpler way to look at it is that a warm intro often helps any introduction no matter who it is, but if you're polite, direct, and charming, you'll be fine either way. Since it was qualified as "a lot of time", I'd suggest spending "a little time" trying to get a warm intro, if that doesn't work quickly, just email cold while keeping the posted advice in mind.
DelaneyM 10y ago
The first sentence should always be the ask. Give the recipient enough information in their [iOS alert | Gmail excerpt] to read it when they're in the right frame of mind to think it over. Professional email is not flirting. Guys flirt by first trying to get your attention and interest, then follow up with an invitation. I assume this gives him an opportunity to bail if he's not getting a welcome vibe, but that doesn't apply here. See how much information you can pack into the first few words, so they can open it when they're ready. Follow that with the context and data they need to keep reading when they're ready to consider it. End with your own introduction, because you're the least interesting part of your letter (except insofar as you're a part of the venture).
- HappyTypist 10y ago
  Applies equally to all forms of communication. I pay a conscious effort to put the most important point in the excerpt. "Hi $name, interested in grabbing coffee? Bla bla bla I met you bla bla, bla bla talk about bla bla."
  - philsnow 10y ago
    Except in some very particular situations (maybe you're looking for investors in your coffee roastery tech startup), getting coffee is a means to an end, the "end" being the same thing as the "ask" that DelaneyM is referring to. "Hi $name, interested in grabbing coffee?" buries the "ask" until during the coffee chat. It can be tough to do, but I think a lot of very busy people would actually appreciate you just coming out and asking for what you want, even in the first sentence.
    - Mz 10y ago
      I think he meant: Even if you are flirting, tell her what you want in the first few words. Makes sense to me.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
DTrejo 10y ago
I wrote up these tips on emailing to help my friends and relatives email better: http://dtrejo.com/how-to-email http://dtrejo.com/how-to-email Summary: - Keep it under 250 words. - Ask only one question, directly before your signature. - Ask a single yes/no question. - Extra Credit: Show you did your research - If you really want a reply: follow up in a useful way. NOT: "Did you get my email?"
the_economist 10y ago
I suggest emailing up-and-coming VCs who are more eager for any kind of dealflow. Look for people/funds who just raised their first fund. They are hustling, likely not drowning in leads like Michael Siebel is, and willing to do just about anything to make their LPs happy including spending countless hours evaluating investment opportunities from complete strangers.
- callmeed 10y ago
  So, how do you find such people?
  - HappyTypist 10y ago
    Look up recent funds and cold email them.
    - ci5er 10y ago
      Maybe I'm old, but why not call them? "I'm looking for 5 on a 25 pre - can I have 15 minutes of your time face to face?"
      - hooo 10y ago
        A lot of people would find that annoying: - it forces them to stop what they're doing - it puts them on the spot forcing some kind of response
        ci5er 10y ago
        Your point is that the answer to the $5M ask is "no"? Fine, I guess. Do I care? I've got a company to build. Or is your point that I might hurt somebody's feelings?
      - morgante 10y ago
        Unless you're a hot company, the power imbalance favors the VC. This means you should be communicating on their schedule, not yours. Email is async and hands down beats phone calls (which are synchronous). Also, a lot of people really just hate phone calls. I won't even talk to recruiters on the phone—if they try to call me, I tell them to send me an email.
mbm 10y ago
Aside from subjective or "trust me, this works!" commentary, what does the data say about getting replies from investors? A better title for this would be "How to Email An Early Stage Investor." It would be interesting to mine emails from well-known investors and see what the data shows for first emails from individuals who were ultimately funded.
ejcx 10y ago
Just want to say to those of you who don't have great communication skills, and know it. This recipe pretty much applies to all cold emails, or any email with a party that you want something from and don't know well. Job interviews, consulting cold emails, VC, someone who has the keys to your destiny and does not know it yet. The most important things are, in my mind: 1. If possible, make the email actionable for the other party. 2. Don't waste the other party's time. 3. The more you write, the more opportunity you can shoot yourself in the foot. Remove sentences you don't need. This has been my ticket to opening new doors so many times. Make it easy for people to help you.
- HappyTypist 10y ago
  These principles apply to ALL business emails. Short, actionable, respectful emails with precisely the context needed (and nothing more) is what you need. I have received personal replies from CEOs of major publicly traded companies, with some Google-fu and a quick email.
  - Taylor_OD 10y ago
    I'm in sales/tech recruiting and I learned long ago that my two to three sentence email will get far more responses than the three-5 paragraph emails most people send.
- adentranter 10y ago
  Any Advice if they don't reply to your first email? Twitter? Facebook? Find a Mutual Friend to introduce you?
  - ams6110 10y ago
    Maybe try once more then assume they are telling you something. Move on.
- erikb 10y ago
  Don't waste people's time is the kind of advice that is hard to follow, though. How would you know? If you spend two days writing a 2000 word essay to someone you obviously think that it's important.
3pt14159 10y ago
> Not using your @company.com email. Really? Who the fuck cares? If I reach out on twitter nobody bats an eye - but use zachaysan@gmail.com and everyone loses their minds. I used to use my @company email for my startup that was acquired. Now I can't find any email exchanges I know I remember having. I'll use zach@venn.lc for stuffy clients, but I thought YC partners were kinda above this kind of outdated thinking.
- HappyTypist 10y ago
  I don't think everyone or many people cares, but some people might. It's such a simple effort ($10.69 + $5/mo for Gapps) it's silly to not do it.
- tlb 10y ago
  You can make your @company.com email forward to your personal gmail, you know. Like Michael, I find it convenient, when receiving a lot of email from people I don't know well, to have the domain name of their company right in their email address. For example, if I later remember something I want to tell them or someone to connect them to, having their email address autocomplete is nice.
  - 3pt14159 10y ago
    Yeah I do it, but then when I search I'm missing emails I sent.
    - abrichr 10y ago
      https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22370?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22370?hl=en
- morgante 10y ago
  Using company.com makes for better metadata, in two directions. It makes it easier for them to immediately look up your company just from scanning their inbox. If they later come across your company separately, it makes it easier to find your message and to follow up on the email thread (they probably don't remember your name).
lpolovets 10y ago
(I'm an early stage VC.) I fully agree with this advice -- especially the part about weak warm intros being far inferior to good cold emails. I'd much rather see a good cold email than an intro through a mutual connection that barely knows me and the other party. One additional piece of advice that I'd add: make your emails personalized. People would be surprised (or maybe not) at how many cold emails I get that start with sentences like "Dear Sir or Madam, let me tell you about my company [which is in a space that you haven't shown any interest in]..." Adding in one or two sentences about why you emailed me specifically instead of the 500 other early-stage investors is very helpful. I'm not fishing for compliments, but instead some insight about whether I'm a good fit for some particular reason, or if you're just copy-and-pasting the same email template 500 times.
- btrautsc 10y ago
  Re: I fully agree with this advice -- especially the part about weak warm intros being far inferior to good cold emails. I'd much rather see a good cold email than an intro through a mutual connection that barely knows me and the other party PSA for startup founders reading: this is the type of investor you want. Seek out investors willing to do the work. So many VCs will publicly gripe about inbound messages, unsolicited pitches, etc. I have heard many VCs explicitly say they will not meet with someone who isn't warm intro'd. They will beg you to follow them on Snapchat or Quora to create brand for deal flow one minute then bemoan the people who want to actually have a conversation. Leo's POV is refreshing.
- tlogan 10y ago
  A question ... What is decision your decision process whether to answer or not? Do you answer honestly when opportunity is just too small?
  - lpolovets 10y ago
    Initially I felt like I ought to reply to every cold email, but quickly realized that that wouldn't scale (replying to cold emails took 2 hours a week, then 3, then 4..) The litmus test I currently use is that if it seems like someone put more than 5 minutes of effort into an email, then I will reply. Sometimes emails fall through the cracks because I get swamped with work, but I'd say I reply to ~0% of "template" emails and ~75% of emails where the sender spent at least a few minutes thinking about the content and personalizing it. Replies vary from "let's meet up" to "this doesn't fit my fund's focus areas" to "I'm not sure if the current version of the company is big enough for a VC business." I try to be honest if I have something constructive to say.
faizshah 10y ago
Anybody have similar advice for cold emailing professors/researchers? I never had any luck emailing professors whose lectures are on youtube for book recommendations or researchers in a field where I'm looking for something similar to what they study.
- kriro 10y ago
  The best advice for very busy professors is to find the correct researcher working on their team (scan papers for the one that seems to be coauthor in the field you want to ask about). Most of the time it'll get delegated to them either way and if it's interesting enough it'll eventually reach the professors.
- abrichr 10y ago
  Professors, like VCs, don't have the time or the inclination to help you out of their good will. You need to give them a reason to help you, i.e. make them feel like you are helping them.
erikb 10y ago
There are many articles like this, but I think it's often hard to follow the guidelines. This one is really clear though.
Muted 10y ago
Michael has also talked about how to pitch investors in a similar, clear way. [0] It's part of the "how to start a startup" series. [0] https://youtu.be/SHAh6WKBgiE?t=1227 https://youtu.be/SHAh6WKBgiE?t=1227

249 points by craigcannon 10y ago

If the recipient only sees the subject line, what increases chances of having your email opened? For people that habitually open and read email OR use a preview mode for efficient scanning, subject lines may not be as important.

liveshops_ 10y ago

This is awesome. I love quick, succinct communication. I have thought of early state funding as more "who you know," and it's good know I can email people!

gogopuppygogo 10y ago

Most importantly you should research your investors before you just email them. It's better to reach 20 interested investors than 200 people with money who won't invest in your company.

erikb 10y ago
Huge point, I think. Instead of crafting a huge email, spend a lot of time finding the right investors to approach first. "This is the only guy with money I know of" is not really a successful starting point to write someone.

payne92 10y ago

Also: email from a founder, don't use a "investment banker", or other intermediary. Don't insist on a phone call or in-person meeting as the next step. If you can't explain it with email, video, etc. to an investor, you'll have a hard time explaining it to customers. Use bios, Angellist, Crunchbase, etc. to profile investor prospects. Don't email a tech investor a movie pitch, unless you have a very unique connection to that investor. Don't insist on an NDA (yes, it still happens)

walden42 10y ago

The list of common mistakes includes "Spending a lot of time trying to get a warm intro. You’re better off just following these rules and emailing me directly." That goes contrary to a lot of advice other VCs say, which is that getting introduced to a VC is the most common way to get funded. Supposedly most cold emails don't turn into VC funding. Is this no longer the case?

sytse 10y ago
My take on this. This is advise for early stage investors (e.g. mostly angels and micro VCs). For A-round investments I think a warm intro is still needed.
- ci5er 10y ago
  Why?
  - sytse 10y ago
    Most VC's get approached a lot, they use this as a filter. Most angels get less dealflow. Some famous ones (Ron Conway) have set up a team (SV Angels) to deal with it.
downandout 10y ago
I think he was referring specifically to himself. However, he isn't that wrong. There are a few that want warm intros, and one that actually won't even talk to you without one [1]. But if you view your fund raising strictly in terms of dollars raised per hour spent, you'll find that simply contacting more people is the vastly more productive route in most cases. [1] https://lowercasecapital.com/prospecting/ https://lowercasecapital.com/prospecting/
dahart 10y ago
It may be a matter of degree. My experience is that warm intros do help for early stage investors, but they aren't a requirement. Maybe a simpler way to look at it is that a warm intro often helps any introduction no matter who it is, but if you're polite, direct, and charming, you'll be fine either way. Since it was qualified as "a lot of time", I'd suggest spending "a little time" trying to get a warm intro, if that doesn't work quickly, just email cold while keeping the posted advice in mind.

DelaneyM 10y ago

The first sentence should always be the ask. Give the recipient enough information in their [iOS alert | Gmail excerpt] to read it when they're in the right frame of mind to think it over. Professional email is not flirting. Guys flirt by first trying to get your attention and interest, then follow up with an invitation. I assume this gives him an opportunity to bail if he's not getting a welcome vibe, but that doesn't apply here. See how much information you can pack into the first few words, so they can open it when they're ready. Follow that with the context and data they need to keep reading when they're ready to consider it. End with your own introduction, because you're the least interesting part of your letter (except insofar as you're a part of the venture).

HappyTypist 10y ago
Applies equally to all forms of communication. I pay a conscious effort to put the most important point in the excerpt. "Hi $name, interested in grabbing coffee? Bla bla bla I met you bla bla, bla bla talk about bla bla."
- philsnow 10y ago
  Except in some very particular situations (maybe you're looking for investors in your coffee roastery tech startup), getting coffee is a means to an end, the "end" being the same thing as the "ask" that DelaneyM is referring to. "Hi $name, interested in grabbing coffee?" buries the "ask" until during the coffee chat. It can be tough to do, but I think a lot of very busy people would actually appreciate you just coming out and asking for what you want, even in the first sentence.
  - Mz 10y ago
    I think he meant: Even if you are flirting, tell her what you want in the first few words. Makes sense to me.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]

DTrejo 10y ago

I wrote up these tips on emailing to help my friends and relatives email better: http://dtrejo.com/how-to-email http://dtrejo.com/how-to-email Summary: - Keep it under 250 words. - Ask only one question, directly before your signature. - Ask a single yes/no question. - Extra Credit: Show you did your research - If you really want a reply: follow up in a useful way. NOT: "Did you get my email?"

the_economist 10y ago

I suggest emailing up-and-coming VCs who are more eager for any kind of dealflow. Look for people/funds who just raised their first fund. They are hustling, likely not drowning in leads like Michael Siebel is, and willing to do just about anything to make their LPs happy including spending countless hours evaluating investment opportunities from complete strangers.

callmeed 10y ago
So, how do you find such people?
- HappyTypist 10y ago
  Look up recent funds and cold email them.
  - ci5er 10y ago
    Maybe I'm old, but why not call them? "I'm looking for 5 on a 25 pre - can I have 15 minutes of your time face to face?"
    - hooo 10y ago
      A lot of people would find that annoying: - it forces them to stop what they're doing - it puts them on the spot forcing some kind of response
      - ci5er 10y ago
        Your point is that the answer to the $5M ask is "no"? Fine, I guess. Do I care? I've got a company to build. Or is your point that I might hurt somebody's feelings?
    - morgante 10y ago
      Unless you're a hot company, the power imbalance favors the VC. This means you should be communicating on their schedule, not yours. Email is async and hands down beats phone calls (which are synchronous). Also, a lot of people really just hate phone calls. I won't even talk to recruiters on the phone—if they try to call me, I tell them to send me an email.

mbm 10y ago

Aside from subjective or "trust me, this works!" commentary, what does the data say about getting replies from investors? A better title for this would be "How to Email An Early Stage Investor." It would be interesting to mine emails from well-known investors and see what the data shows for first emails from individuals who were ultimately funded.

ejcx 10y ago

Just want to say to those of you who don't have great communication skills, and know it. This recipe pretty much applies to all cold emails, or any email with a party that you want something from and don't know well. Job interviews, consulting cold emails, VC, someone who has the keys to your destiny and does not know it yet. The most important things are, in my mind: 1. If possible, make the email actionable for the other party. 2. Don't waste the other party's time. 3. The more you write, the more opportunity you can shoot yourself in the foot. Remove sentences you don't need. This has been my ticket to opening new doors so many times. Make it easy for people to help you.

HappyTypist 10y ago
These principles apply to ALL business emails. Short, actionable, respectful emails with precisely the context needed (and nothing more) is what you need. I have received personal replies from CEOs of major publicly traded companies, with some Google-fu and a quick email.
- Taylor_OD 10y ago
  I'm in sales/tech recruiting and I learned long ago that my two to three sentence email will get far more responses than the three-5 paragraph emails most people send.
adentranter 10y ago
Any Advice if they don't reply to your first email? Twitter? Facebook? Find a Mutual Friend to introduce you?
- ams6110 10y ago
  Maybe try once more then assume they are telling you something. Move on.
erikb 10y ago
Don't waste people's time is the kind of advice that is hard to follow, though. How would you know? If you spend two days writing a 2000 word essay to someone you obviously think that it's important.

3pt14159 10y ago

> Not using your @company.com email. Really? Who the fuck cares? If I reach out on twitter nobody bats an eye - but use zachaysan@gmail.com and everyone loses their minds. I used to use my @company email for my startup that was acquired. Now I can't find any email exchanges I know I remember having. I'll use zach@venn.lc for stuffy clients, but I thought YC partners were kinda above this kind of outdated thinking.

HappyTypist 10y ago
I don't think everyone or many people cares, but some people might. It's such a simple effort ($10.69 + $5/mo for Gapps) it's silly to not do it.
tlb 10y ago
You can make your @company.com email forward to your personal gmail, you know. Like Michael, I find it convenient, when receiving a lot of email from people I don't know well, to have the domain name of their company right in their email address. For example, if I later remember something I want to tell them or someone to connect them to, having their email address autocomplete is nice.
- 3pt14159 10y ago
  Yeah I do it, but then when I search I'm missing emails I sent.
  - abrichr 10y ago
    https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22370?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22370?hl=en
morgante 10y ago
Using company.com makes for better metadata, in two directions. It makes it easier for them to immediately look up your company just from scanning their inbox. If they later come across your company separately, it makes it easier to find your message and to follow up on the email thread (they probably don't remember your name).

lpolovets 10y ago

(I'm an early stage VC.) I fully agree with this advice -- especially the part about weak warm intros being far inferior to good cold emails. I'd much rather see a good cold email than an intro through a mutual connection that barely knows me and the other party. One additional piece of advice that I'd add: make your emails personalized. People would be surprised (or maybe not) at how many cold emails I get that start with sentences like "Dear Sir or Madam, let me tell you about my company [which is in a space that you haven't shown any interest in]..." Adding in one or two sentences about why you emailed me specifically instead of the 500 other early-stage investors is very helpful. I'm not fishing for compliments, but instead some insight about whether I'm a good fit for some particular reason, or if you're just copy-and-pasting the same email template 500 times.

btrautsc 10y ago
Re: I fully agree with this advice -- especially the part about weak warm intros being far inferior to good cold emails. I'd much rather see a good cold email than an intro through a mutual connection that barely knows me and the other party PSA for startup founders reading: this is the type of investor you want. Seek out investors willing to do the work. So many VCs will publicly gripe about inbound messages, unsolicited pitches, etc. I have heard many VCs explicitly say they will not meet with someone who isn't warm intro'd. They will beg you to follow them on Snapchat or Quora to create brand for deal flow one minute then bemoan the people who want to actually have a conversation. Leo's POV is refreshing.
tlogan 10y ago
A question ... What is decision your decision process whether to answer or not? Do you answer honestly when opportunity is just too small?
- lpolovets 10y ago
  Initially I felt like I ought to reply to every cold email, but quickly realized that that wouldn't scale (replying to cold emails took 2 hours a week, then 3, then 4..) The litmus test I currently use is that if it seems like someone put more than 5 minutes of effort into an email, then I will reply. Sometimes emails fall through the cracks because I get swamped with work, but I'd say I reply to ~0% of "template" emails and ~75% of emails where the sender spent at least a few minutes thinking about the content and personalizing it. Replies vary from "let's meet up" to "this doesn't fit my fund's focus areas" to "I'm not sure if the current version of the company is big enough for a VC business." I try to be honest if I have something constructive to say.

faizshah 10y ago

Anybody have similar advice for cold emailing professors/researchers? I never had any luck emailing professors whose lectures are on youtube for book recommendations or researchers in a field where I'm looking for something similar to what they study.

kriro 10y ago
The best advice for very busy professors is to find the correct researcher working on their team (scan papers for the one that seems to be coauthor in the field you want to ask about). Most of the time it'll get delegated to them either way and if it's interesting enough it'll eventually reach the professors.
abrichr 10y ago
Professors, like VCs, don't have the time or the inclination to help you out of their good will. You need to give them a reason to help you, i.e. make them feel like you are helping them.

erikb 10y ago

There are many articles like this, but I think it's often hard to follow the guidelines. This one is really clear though.

Muted 10y ago

Michael has also talked about how to pitch investors in a similar, clear way. [0] It's part of the "how to start a startup" series. [0] https://youtu.be/SHAh6WKBgiE?t=1227 https://youtu.be/SHAh6WKBgiE?t=1227