I worked with Steve in the 90's. Can't comment on the rest of his articles but you have a good point. Not whether it is relevant in this particular case or not

I worked with Steve in the 90's. Can't comment on the rest of his articles but you have a good point. Not whether it is relevant in this particular case or not (people will most likely read the entire piece because it's short and it's by Steve Blank) but as a general rule in any writing such as this you have to draw people in, make them curious, and make them want to read the entire piece you have written. You can't rely that without the correct first paragraph or sentence that they won't bail on you before you get to your conclusion or are able to make your point. I guess a good headline might also take care of this. "How to get meetings" is just a so so headline. It's like "how to make more money from your clients". Sounds bland. Personally as far as this statement which Steve made: "“I’d like to have coffee to bounce an idea off of you and in exchange I’ll tell you all about what we learned about xx.”" I would have flipped and restated "I'd like to tell you what we learned about xx if I can have a small amount of your time to get your thoughts on yy". In other words leading with the benefit at the start of the sentence. Saying "I'd like to have coffee" as the first part of the sentence might act like a trigger that makes the person not even read the rest of the sentence or the email. You have to grab people's attention when you have it.