Hello, my friend,

Since I started this podcast & newsletter, I got to meet so many great founders and VCs all over in the US and UK. Another interesting thing is that I started to get a lot of pitch decks from founders raising anywhere between $250k to $3million Seed rounds.

I read almost all of them, thanks to my OCD of keeping my inbox clean. But, I have seen more of those emails are 1000 words essays. So, generally I would skim through it and look out for any bullet point, fact/figure, or something else rather than reading it in depth.

I talked to my friends at Playfair VC last week. They also said that cold inbounds are very important to them. So, I asked them how do they screen so many emails?

This edition is my learnings from reviewing those emails and conversations with VCs on how to cold outreach investors. I'll try to make it step by step and actionable so you dont have to read an essay.

Keep it short, keep it succinct:

An average VC's attention span is less than a minute. In less than 60 seconds they flip through your deck / email and decide if its worth spending another few months or not.

Treat it like an appetizer

Your email should tell a small story with important details. It should be your 60 seconds pitch. This should include

• Your introduction: 2 lines max. Please try to make it relevant. Your hobby might be a good thing to share when you are sitting with friends. Not here. Specifically tell who you are and why you are working on this problem (your experience / background). Your words reflect you, remember that.
• If its a warm intro, please mention the names explicitly but also keep it in mind, most warm intros are not actually warm intros. I know 40+ partners and GPs are funds. I can barely make 5-8 warm intros.

And please, dont crack lame jokes.

Safe the best for later:

The goal for this email is to get the partners to meet you. Remember the 60 seconds attention span. Avoid doing these:

• Attaching a loom video of your product's clunky MVP. No one asked for it, they wont watch it. Save it.
• Press releases and external links. Some publication named your startup a superstar. This is great for linkedin, but not for this email.
• Dont try to number drop TAM of $50 trillion or something like that. VCs do their due diligence. They have easily seen the same idea at least 10 times in the recent past. These inflated numbers are not helpful

Instead, keep it very high level. Leave the room for them to ask question. The goal is to build interest, not get a term sheet.

Personalized it but do your homework

Personalize your opening. Research about the investor, find their thesis, if you connect with something mention that. I wrote an article or a post about 'Treating your 1000th customer like your first 10 customers'.

That rings a bell. I remember that. This founder did that perfectly.

When personalizing the emails, abstain from doing these:

• Cracking weird jokes. You dont know each other. Act sober.
• Dont make it too casual or too formal. You are not in school and also not texting your friend at 12 in the midnight

Here is another example of very casual but dont follow up this message with a generalized pitch deck.

Figure the right metrics to share

Not all metrics are important for every kind of conversations. Pick the right metrics and choose the right format. What do I mean by that?

• Stick to high level information and use the figures / metrics that actually make sense to the investors.
• In the example above, $600k in Contracts is a very good thing to mention. That shows the founders are focused on sales from day 1. This could also be the number of free or paid users, revenue, LOI sign ups, etc.
• Mention the fundraising ask and traction. Something along the lines of "we are raising $1m for our pre-seed and have $250k in commitments from angels."
• Be careful with market sizing. Ideally, this email should not contain the market size. Most founders use this number to attract the investor interest but this could be a major turn off. Like if the number is too big, you are inflating it. If the number is small, all of a sudden you are unattractive to the investors.

Figure out the right CTA

The goal for the email was to have a meeting. Its exactly like the marketing funnel where you have moved passed the awareness and consideration. Not the goal is to convert. Here are a few tips from the VCs that I picked up:

• Clearly mention what you want to do next? Do you want to have a call with investors or you are sharing a pitch deck. Go with the former. Share your calendar so they can book some time.
• Dont share your generic pitch deck. This cant be emphasized enough. Generic pitch decks are the worst. And sending it through docsend is not helpful.
• Keep the conversation open. Do end it with, you are happy to explain on zoom, or would love to provide more details. Rather than 'thanks, bye'
• And then comes the CTA / Footer:
  • Please save your 300 words footer, company images, your fancy titles, your awards, publications, etc. Not the right time and not the right place for that
  • CTA = Book a call with you. Thats it. Period. You arent raising $1m on this email. You are presenting yourself. Get them on the call. And then let them ask questions (I'll write a separate one on that topic)