Essay · ~8 min read

The Art of the Cold Outreach for Founders

Carlos E. Espinal · Medium Free Intermediate

Carlos Espinal is a seed investor who reads cold pitches for a living, and this essay lays out exactly what he needs in the first few lines to decide whether to keep reading. It's written from the receiving end of the inbox, which makes it a useful mirror for what your own cold email should say and how it should sound. Read it right before you send anything to an investor or a hard to reach contact.

• Cold outbound is low conversion by nature, so don't judge it on one email's outcome.
• The first few lines need to answer who you are and why you're relevant to this specific reader.
• A warm introduction always beats cold outreach, but cold outreach is what's left once your network runs out.