“Just circling back on my previous email. Any thoughts?”
My thoughts are often: this email sucks.

🤑 Funding Friday: how to cold email investors?

With the omnipresence of AI automation tools we, venture capital investors, are really flooded by mass emails from founders. Yes, there are tools to send messages at scale but no, that doesn’t mean you should actually do this. I will smell the AI and disregard your emails directly.

I like emails that require a bit of effort. And I think many investors do too.

So, how to stand out as a founder with cold emailing investors? I’m sorry if this sounds like open doors but given the amount of shit emails I get on a daily basis, I believe it’s still worth to mention:

1. do your homework -> some investors are not in scope (not the right stage, ticket size, geography etc) -> accept it and don’t email them. Focus on the ones in scope. Also, pick the right person in the investor team and email them personally
2. write a clear blurb -> briefly say what you do, what differentiates you, where you are (traction), where you are (HQ) and what you need (funding need, advice)
3. personalize your message -> what makes you relevant for this specific investor? Why do you want them?
3. attach a pitchdeck -> this gives more detail and helps the investor to form an opinion (is this relevant? is this interesting?). No-one will request a deck, why add an extra step in this process?
4. add a call-to-action -> probably you want to have chat with the investor, so ask for a 30 min meeting (don’t propose 10 min, either there’s is no interest, or there is enough interest for 30 min)
5. follow-up -> after a reasonable amount of time (not after 2 days, maybe 7-10 days) follow-up. Following up personally is also a sign of effort.

Hope this helps to convert more investors. You can cold email me at thomas@goldeneggcheck.com. Again, I will smell the AI and disregard your emails directly 😉

Read more insights in Startup Funding book, the book about investor readiness, fundraising and deal terms that I wrote together with venture capital lawyer Sjoerd Mol to help founders to nail their fundraising process. Order Startup Funding via bol.com, Amazon or your local bookstore.