How To Cold Email Investors

Most powerful people actually do read their own emails and dms. Why? They’re always looking for new opportunities.

But they typically don’t actually need whatever you’re offering and don't have much time, so they end up skipping over many messages. It’s your job to minimize the likelihood of this happening.

Most people send terrible cold emails — they oversell, don’t understand their audience, and aren’t concise.

Here’s the formula I've used to send cold emails that have brought in new partners, investors, team members, and more. I included an example below that helped us land our first term sheet.

5 Things that Grab an Investor's Attention

These tactics are applicable for all types of audiences, but let’s play out that we’re sending an email to a potential investor.

1. Make It Short

The goal of a cold email is to start a conversation — not to get the investor to write a check. To get a reply, you need to first make sure your email actually gets read.

Most VCs get hundreds of emails each day. If yours takes more than 30-60 seconds to read, it won't get read. Time yourself reading it out loud before you send. It should be 4-5 brief sentences.

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