--- name: "investor_outreach" description: "Run a founder-grade fundraising outreach: research and tier the right investors, map warm intros, write personalized cold emails, run a disciplined follow-up sequence, and use deck engagement data to tune the pitch. Triggers on fundraising, seed rounds, investor research, warm intros, cold outreach to VCs, follow-up cadence, pitch deck feedback." --- # Investor Outreach ## Purpose Turn "raise money" from spray-and-pray into a pipeline: a researched list of ~100 investors, warm-intro mapping first and cold outreach second, tight personalized emails, a follow-up sequence where every touch carries new information, and deck analytics feeding back into the pitch. ## Workflow ### 1. Build the list (before any email) - Define the ideal investor, five filters: invests at my stage, invests in my sector, check size matches my ask, leads vs follows as I need, actively deploying right now. - Sources: Crunchbase, AngelList/OpenVC, LinkedIn, advisor referrals, fund portfolio pages. Check each candidate against the five filters and recent activity (invested in the last ~6 months?). Anyone who fails a filter never goes on the list. - Size it: ~100 names split into tiers. Tier 1 (best fit): 20. Tier 2 (good fit): 30. Tier 3 (possible fit): 50. Record fund, partner name, stage, sector, check size, lead/follow, and your fit hook for each. - Timing: run the whole outreach window over a few weeks, not months. A process that drags signals to investors that others have passed. Book first meetings close together so interest builds at the same time. ### 2. Map warm intros before going cold - List your network assets: advisors, existing investors, portfolio founders, employees, customers. - Cross-reference each against the Tier 1 and Tier 2 lists. Where a mutual connection knows the investor, draft an intro request for the connection: one-pager attached, one-sentence pitch, strongest metric, why this investor specifically. - Warm intros get 50-70% response rates against 5-10% for cold. Spend your first two weeks here. Cold outreach covers what the network cannot, and it runs faster than waiting on intro chains. ### 3. Cold email (Tier 2/3, gaps in Tier 1) - 200-300 words max. Personalize every one: name the specific portfolio company, recent investment, or thesis that connects to your company. Generic emails get ignored; personalization lifts reply rates from ~8.5% to 17%+. - Lead with traction: strongest metric in the subject line and first sentence. Traction gets meetings. - Ask for 15 minutes, not money. Send 10-20 per day, never blast the list. - See `assets/cold-email-templates.md` for the three working templates. ### 4. Sequence the follow-ups - Plan the sequence before the first send. Default cadence: Day 0 (send), Day 5 (follow-up 1), Day 11 (follow-up 2), Day 21 (final, close the loop). - The hard rule: every follow-up carries NEW information. A new customer, a traction milestone, a relevant proof point. "Just bumping this" is not a follow-up and costs you credibility. - Stop rules: strong-fit cold target gets 3-4 follow-ups, then shift them to low-frequency updates. Warm intro that stalls gets 1-3, then re-engage your mutual contact. Interested investors get follow-ups until there is a clear answer, only with something new to say. Confirmed misfits stop immediately. - The math behind the discipline: ~40% of positive replies come from follow-ups, not the first email. See `references/response-rate-math.md`. ### 5. Track the pipeline and close the deck feedback loop - Initialize the tracker with `bin/init_tracker.py` and log every contact: tier, stage, last contact, next action, notes. Stages: Identified, Outreach sent, Replied, Meeting scheduled, Meeting done, Follow-up / DD, Term sheet, Closed, Pass, No response (recycle later). - Send the deck as a trackable per-investor link (DocSend or equivalent). Watch opens, total view time, time per slide, revisits. Tailor each follow-up to what they lingered on: traction slide -> lead with traction data and customer quotes; market slide -> lead with TAM and why now. - Read the engagement stats against benchmarks (avg successful deck ~3m44s; drop-off clusters pages 5-9; Financials/Team/Competition get the longest reads). If every investor bails at slide 6, the deck needs surgery before the next batch goes out. - After every meeting: follow up within 24 hours with the materials they asked for. After every pass: ask for the reason and log it. Real pattern across three passes is a deck problem, not a market problem. ## Output Contract When the founder asks for outreach, deliver: (1) the tiered investor list with fit notes, (2) the warm-intro map with draft intro requests, (3) personalized cold email drafts, (4) the 4-touch sequence schedule, (5) an initialized tracker, (6) a deck-engagement readback after the first batch. Do not skip the tracker or the sequence schedule; the system is the product. ## Operating Rules 1. Never skip the five filters. An investor who does not fit the stage or check size gets no email, no matter how famous. 2. Never send a cold email without one genuine personalization sentence tied to the investor's portfolio or thesis. 3. Never send a follow-up without new information. If there is nothing new, wait until there is. 4. Never bluff "almost full" or fabricate traction. Investors talk to each other, and one caught bluff ends the round. 5. Compress the timeline: aim to close in 4-6 weeks, keep meetings clustered, announce a real end date once a lead shows interest. 6. Lead investors set the terms; followers need social proof. Chase the lead first. 7. All numbers in this skill come from published research; cite them as benchmarks with ranges, never as promises. See `references/response-rate-math.md`.