I am blessed with good inbound deal flow.  I’d say I have great deal flow but Airbnb, Slack and Uber didn’t pitch me  Deals come from people I know (warm) but mostly people I don’t (cold).

If you’re writing me cold and want to maximize the likelihood that I respond, write a very clear and cogent email — who you are, what your company does and why you think I’m a good fit.  This last part is important.  If you haven’t bothered to research what I do and deals I like, then it shows me you’re not invested in me as a potential investor.  And please attach a deck.  There is some commonly held wisdom that says a founder should pitch her/his deck in person or on a videoconference or call rather than simply email it to the investor.  That’s bunk.  I tune out when a founder insists on a call before the grand reveal.  Show me the deck already!  Who has time for “cute” games?

I do try to respond to every email but sometimes email falls through the cracks.  Feel free to ping me a second time.  Make it easy by forwarding along your first email.

Keep your introductions short and sweet.  Here’s a good example:

Hi Mark,

We built the first XYZ platform for ABCs. In one click, we can _______. We’ve built XYZs for over 1,000 ABCs with 9,000 more on our wait list.

We’re raising a seed round to support and sustain our rapid growth. If you’re interested, let me know when you might be free for a meeting. I’d love to have you on board as an investor and partner in helping our company reach its full potential.

To see some examples, here are links to two XYZs we’ve built: ______ and _______.

All the best,
John Doe

What makes this good?  The first paragraph clearly explains the value proposition AND shows traction.  The second paragraph makes the “ask.”  The third paragraph shows two work examples if I want to dig deeper.  No deck attached but it came shortly afterward.

Did it work?  Yes I wrote a check.