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Sharing my personal experience in reaching out to random people: A few months back, after reading lots of posts on HN here of people sharing their experience i

by karterk 15y ago

Sharing my personal experience in reaching out to random people: A few months back, after reading lots of posts on HN here of people sharing their experience in "cold emailing" people, I reached out to quite a few people on the web - people whom I thought would be able to offer valuable insights on some thing I'm building. And, I was surprised how many people actually diligently replied to my email, and spent a lot of time offering suggestions etc. A few things I learned in the process: * Making the email as short and as highly targeted as possible made a difference (anecdotal, not measured) * When somebody replied saying that they will look into it in a day or so, I did not immediately reply back saying "Thank you" etc. Instead I waited for a day or two and then replied. The second email actually served as a gentle reminder and I got a response immediately after that. * In many cases, I specifically looked for people looking at a specific problem which what I was building helped to alleviate. This naturally increased the response rates. * Lastly, people are generally wary of people selling things. So, I suggest genuinely trying to seek people's insights and guidance rather than directly sell them your idea. If people liked your idea, they themselves will go out of their way to do that. And for what it's worth, I am going to shamelessly use this opportunity to offer the same: if you are looking for design related feedback on what you are building, say hello (email in profile!)

prawn 15y ago
Great tip about the second email!
graeme 15y ago
This really, really works, and these are great tips. A couple of other factors: * Write when someone is less likely to be flooded with other emails. This is obvious but non-trivial. We are most likely to want to email people when they are busiest, because they have recently done something to get everyone's attention. * Do some research to figure out the best means of communication. For Patrick, and for most people, it's email. On the other hand, Nassim Taleb, an author, despises email. He is very active on his Facebook page. And, a good chunk of the work I did last year stemmed from a cold call to a company's receptionist. They are small, and so I was only one step away from the person who could instantly make a decision. If an email would have been better, she would have told me so rather than passing the phone over. You probably already know who the 3-5 people are in your field who could make a difference to your work. It only takes 5-30 minutes to write a good email, and there's no downside. So go say hi.

by karterk 15y ago

prawn 15y ago

Great tip about the second email!

graeme 15y ago

This really, really works, and these are great tips. A couple of other factors: * Write when someone is less likely to be flooded with other emails. This is obvious but non-trivial. We are most likely to want to email people when they are busiest, because they have recently done something to get everyone's attention. * Do some research to figure out the best means of communication. For Patrick, and for most people, it's email. On the other hand, Nassim Taleb, an author, despises email. He is very active on his Facebook page. And, a good chunk of the work I did last year stemmed from a cold call to a company's receptionist. They are small, and so I was only one step away from the person who could instantly make a decision. If an email would have been better, she would have told me so rather than passing the phone over. You probably already know who the 3-5 people are in your field who could make a difference to your work. It only takes 5-30 minutes to write a good email, and there's no downside. So go say hi.