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Outbound VC dialing  

By Mark Suster; if you get an email that looks like:

Hi [entrepreneur],

I hope all is well. I'm an investor at [Big Name, Large Fund VC] and recently came across [Your Company].

It looks as though you've built a very interesting business, and I'd love to spend some time getting a better understanding of your future plans for the company and if there is an opportunity to partner with [My Firm].

In case you aren't familiar, I've attached a brief overview on our firm. [It's big, well known & we've invested in all of these really cool companies]

Do you have time for a half hour conversation over the next week or so? What fits your schedule?

Looking forward to speaking,

Name

Then:

He's an analyst, which means he's very junior - probably 24. He's on a fishing trip. No reason not to call him but I wouldn't get too excited about it. Sorry.

We got a few of those calls at Woobius, and yeah, they all amounted to exactly nothing.

Even if you're talking to a partner, funding is nowhere near being in the bag. But if you've been contacted by an Analyst who's just fishing for information, then the right response, as Mark puts it, is a polite no or "yes, if".

Read Mark's full article here.

More from the library:
Commit to being an entrepreneur
Side projects
Should you really be a startup entrepreneur?