Cold outreach in many industries is frowned upon. It’s seen as the lowest-grade channel for growing sales and, for some, the channel of last resort. However it is a vital channel in a fundraising process for an early stage startup and one that, with the right approach, can drive fantastic results. There was a time when some VCs and Angels would try to dissuade cold outreach, with some claiming they would only speak to warm introductions.
[Harry Stebbings @HarryStebbingsAt event the other day & heard VC tell founders, “don’t cold email, we won’t look at it.”
Combination of shock & horror felt by me here. Understand founders need to target for stage, geography & sector preference but other than that, to me, this VC was wrong.
[email protected]:38 PM ∙ Apr 5, 2019625Likes41Retweets](https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings/status/1114311446127624192?s=20)
(note Harry is no longer at stride, but runs his own fund 20VC Fund)
Investors who are not open to cold outreach are letting down the venture ecosystem, and missing out on great returns. It’s against the very nature of venture capital and excludes under-represented founders, I could write a lot more about this but Del Johnson has already put together an excellent piece on it.
Thankfully there are many investors who are open to cold outreach, and I think the number is increasing. But having a list of investors is only the first step.
Honing your research and crafting outreach which builds trust quickly is an art which unfortunately isn’t taught in many schools. But not to worry - I’m going to share my playbook for building trust quickly.
Typically it takes time to build trust. When many Founders think about how this translates to written outreach to an investor, they write more. They pour their whole story into the email. This may occasionally work, but the vast majority of investors are time poor. As a species our attention spans are shortening (at an alarming pace). The conundrum then is how to build trust as quickly as possible, or in as few words as possible.
The key to building trust quickly is to give.
You’re thinking ‘How do I give when I’m reaching out to ask for money?’
I’m not talking about sending them a gift (though I have seen that done). The most valuable asset to the best investors is their time. For them it’s more valuable than money. You can give them the gift of time by:
For more on building trust quickly, see this Farnam Street blog piece.