Most VC hate coldemails from entrepreneurs. Reasons vary: i)cold pitches are often poorly prepared; ii)skeptical VC will say to themselves “why couldn’t you find a warm relationshipto fund this” or “why am I seeing this and not someone else;” and iii) some VC insist that you actuallygo out and find a connection to intro you to them directly, which is bullshit.
At Blossom StreetVentures we love cold emails from entrepreneurs and my email is all over theplace including here (sammy@blossomstreetventures.com). Here’s a few things to keep in mind whenmaking your pitch to me or any other VC, cold:
Youropening paragraph is everything. Your email to any VC should be nomore than 1 paragraph and include only one attachment. That attachment shouldn’t be anything morethan a 10 to 15 page pdf deck. Your paragraph is way more important than thedeck because it’s the first thing a VC sees, so take one sentence to say whatthe business does, one sentence sharing the numbers you’re most proud of(revenue, users, growth, cash efficiency), and one sentence that includes yourask (for instance you’re raising $1mm at a $10mm pre). Based on that one paragraph, a VC will decidewhether to move on to the deck.
Thedeck should be simple. The deck should be concis. Stretch to 15 pages if you must. Your key slides are as follows: i) what the company does; ii) the problem your big market isfacing; iii) historicalfinancials/major numbers; iv) teamincluding your email address; v) customerswon to date and key metrics of the value you provide them, or any other majormilestones; vi) your ask. As you can see that’s only 6 bullet points,which means 6 slides is adequate.
Remembers thepurpose of your email isn’t to get funding – no VC funds a company based on aninitial email. Rather, the purpose ofyour email is to get a conversation. Keep it short, keep it simple, and your coldemail will be well on its way to that all important first conversation.
Visitus at blossomstreetventures.com for more SaaS data and blogs. Thank you for your readership.
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