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- Cold Email Psychology (what it is and how to use it) + Fundraising Fieldnotes 4.8.22
Cold Email Psychology (what it is and how to use it) + Fundraising Fieldnotes 4.8.22
Hey - it’s Jason Yeh 🕺🏻
This is my Friday recap of thoughts I’ve had while helping founders solve their fundraising challenges this past week (4.8.22)
If you have any questions, please reply! I try to get to every comment/question I get :)
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On to the Fieldnotes for 4.8.22…
Cold Email Psychology (what it is and how to use it)
How much effort do you put into honing your craft?
For me, the answer is “a lot.” One way I do this is by following the writing of a lot of smart people in the startup and venture capital communities. It's especially helpful when they share unique insights around investing and fundraising. Reading about that from other experts drives me to improve. And if I improve, I'm able to help more founders get funded.
What sets my work apart from my peers is my focus on unpacking investor psychology. If other experts even mention investor psychology, it’s usually as an afterthought. For me, it's a core part of my focus because solely teaching tactics is dangerous.
A founder who only reads about tactics becomes a mindless robot. They can follow very specific steps that are effective in theory but struggle to adapt when encountering slight variations.
In my opinion, a strong grasp of investor psychology is the key to raising money. With it, founders can find creative solutions to fundraising challenges on their own.
A cold opportunity to go deep on investor psychology
Last week, I received a cold email soliciting investment. That in itself is not an unusual thing. What stood out is that this cold email happened to catch my eye. It wasn’t successful in fully hooking me but the fact that it triggered my investor lizard brain was enough for me to make it the focus of this essay highlighting different aspects of investor psychology.
The Email (sanitized with identifying elements changed)
Subject: WinningCombo Investment Opportunity - $76M annual gross revenue + ~11m active users
Hello Jason,
I'd like to extend you an invite to co-invest in our exceptional portfolio client, WinningCombo… alongside such notables as Ben Horowitz, Elon Musk, Paul Graham, Brandon Beck, Whitney Wolfe Herd, The Rock, and Jon Favreau.
As background—
WinningCombo is a consumer platform where people connect with other consumers with similar interests to share buying recommendations and compete in puzzle style games.
WinningCombo has generated $76M in gross revenue in 2021 and is EBITDA positive and has 11 million-plus monthly active users.
WinningCombo is being integrated with Oculus Rift as we speak in addition to tapping large B2B opportunities in the works with the likes of Tesla, Google, Conde Nast and others.
They're closing a strong Series A round and have room for an additional ~$300K - $2.5M.
Teaser — https://docsend.com/8jflksj3kg
I'd be happy to make an intro to WinningCombo Founder/CEO if you're interested to learn more.
Best,
Omar
--
Omar Bhanji // Managing Director, RaiseHousewww.raisehouse.com // m: +1.310.237.6XY4t: twitter.com/raisehouse // LinkedIn: bit.ly/lhf3kgStay tuned for my upcoming book, Raising Capital: The pursuit of excellence
My reactions
I’m going to try something new. I’ll write my analysis but also share inner thoughts in [bracketed italics.] I think this will provide some cleaner insights...
Smart Twitter Takes
Company building (and failing) helped change me as a person for the better. 10 out of 10 would recommend
You’re not just building a startup,
The startup is also building you.— Saba (@sabakarimm)
3:20 PM • Feb 14, 2022
Metrics requirements, much like “thesis areas”, are just reasons to pass at the early stage…
1) A lot of founders ask me, “what metrics do I need for a seed round?”.
For better or worse, I don’t focus on metrics at seed and don’t know why others do.
I want to see the 1) “moat trajectory”, 2) proximity to PMF and 3) team. 🧵
— Rick Zullo (@Rick_Zullo)
10:10 PM • Feb 16, 2022
Till next week. Stay adamant and be chased.
Jason
P.S. After I hear I missed something all the besties were in… YOU THINK YOU CAN DO THIS TO ME?? (click + sound on!)
In case you missed it…
Last week's post shared multiple ways Angel Investors can help your startup:
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