Since this week's Twitter fight is about VC cold emails, here are some thoughts on cold mails - which I love, have opened many doors for me and I often respond to.
A few things I've learned
- the most famous, interesting, powerful people all read their own email
- they're almost universally good at responding to it quickly
- they're always very, very curious.
- they have very little time. Anything with friction gets done "later"
- the most famous, interesting, powerful people all read their own email
- they're almost universally good at responding to it quickly
- they're always very, very curious.
- they have very little time. Anything with friction gets done "later"
An ideal cold mail from you is
1. Short and grabs attention.
2. is super clear on who you are.
3. Has some value prop for the receiver .
4. Has a specific ask.
1. Short and grabs attention.
2. is super clear on who you are.
3. Has some value prop for the receiver .
4. Has a specific ask.
1. Short: Self-explanatory. Anything over a couple of paras and it gets sorted into the "later" bucket. The receiver isn't rude, they just don't have time for it when checking their email on the way to work. And "later" may never happen.
2. Who are you? This is the critical part. Why are you worth paying attention to? There are two approaches to this
2a.Demonstrate credibility through your past institutions/roles. If someone gets a cold email from an exec at a large company, they'll immediately pay attention.
2a.Demonstrate credibility through your past institutions/roles. If someone gets a cold email from an exec at a large company, they'll immediately pay attention.
2b. Show off a body of work. Link to your Twitter/a paper you wrote/a Github repo/your blog which is interesting and shows why you're worth paying attention to.
I used to do 2b for years until I could start doing 2a.
I used to do 2b for years until I could start doing 2a.
3. Value prop for the receiver. What's in it for them? Everyone wants to help with general advice but it's hard to respond to everyone.
Easy ways - ideas for their companies, a thoughtful response to something they wrote or said. Or just "my work might be fun for you to read"
Easy ways - ideas for their companies, a thoughtful response to something they wrote or said. Or just "my work might be fun for you to read"
4. CTA: What should the receiver do? Generic "help me with advice" is really hard unless you really stand out with #2. Same with "Would love your thoughts on my post". It gets filed into a "todo" bucket.
...
...
Have a specific ask which is low friction. Examples
- "follow me on Twitter"
- "here's a live demo account you can click into to see what I've built"
- "a PDF of screenshots" (no Docsend!)
Key is - it's low work!
- "follow me on Twitter"
- "here's a live demo account you can click into to see what I've built"
- "a PDF of screenshots" (no Docsend!)
Key is - it's low work!
That's it!
P.S Best email to cold email is sriram@sriramk.com but people know I always respond to responses to my newsletter ;)
P.S Best email to cold email is sriram@sriramk.com but people know I always respond to responses to my newsletter ;)
P.P.S this applies to any industry - Hollywood, journalists, finance. Some of them are trickier to find email addresses for but that's part of the game.
P.P.P.S If you love this, you might like my newsletter
-->sriramk.com/newsletter
(yes, yes, shameful plug )
-->sriramk.com/newsletter
(yes, yes, shameful plug )
