How to Write an Effective Fundraising Introduction Email

The Quiet Part Out Loud
Written By Chris Neumann

It’s a start of a new year, which means thousands of founders the world over are kicking off fundraising rounds. One of the critical components in a high-velocity fundraising process is the introduction email. An impactful company overview (aka introductory passage) is key to that.

A strong introductory passage confidently and concisely presents your company, the problem you’re solving, and the key milestones you’ve already hit (which demonstrates your velocity, the one metric that matters most). It can be used in a request-for-introduction email from someone offering a warm intro, to reengage with an investor you’ve previously met or even as a cold email (since a strong cold email always beats a weak warm one).

Let’s dig into what makes an effective introductory passage and how to use it in different types of fundraising communications.

 

The Introductory Passage

An effective introductory passage delivers a confident, concise introduction to your company. In 2 - 3 paragraphs, it should answer the following questions:

  1. What does the company do? (1-2 sentences)

  2. Why does this matter? (1-2 sentences)

  3. Who are the founders? (1-2 sentences)

  4. What has the team accomplished so far? (3-5 bullet points)

Here is an example:

Acme.ai has created the world’s first AI-driven LEGO brick sorter to help LEGO enthusiasts quickly find the piece they’re looking for from a large inventory of bricks. More than 5 trillion hours each year are wasted by LEGO enthusiasts looking for specific bricks at a cost of $500 billion to the global economy.

In less than 6 months, our team has:

- Built a working prototype that can identify specific LEGO bricks within collections of up to 10,000 pieces

- Signed 20 paid pilots worth $100,000 with some of the world’s leading LEGO clubs

- Built a waiting list of more than 20,000 LEGO enthusiasts

Our founding team includes the world’s top LEGO AI researcher, computer vision experts and the former head of global sales for LEGO.

Other than the accomplishments (3 bullet points), each of the above questions is answered with a single sentence. The point here is not to explain everything about the company, but to give enough context for the reader to understand the basics of the company and quickly decide whether or not they want to learn more.

If your introductory passage includes more than 3 full sentences for any of the above questions or spans more than 3 paragraphs, it’s likely too long — either you’re including details that aren’t critical or you’re over-explaining something that could be said more concisely. The most likely outcome when an introductory passage is too long is that the reader gets bored and gives up before they get to the end.

 
 

While an extra sentence or two might not seem like a big deal, the reality is that you’re fighting against the paradox of time when trying to secure fundraising meetings, so every detail counts (even when you’re getting a warm introduction).

For most founders, it takes a considerable amount of time and effort to distill the company down to only a few sentences — particularly if you’re not sure which are the important parts (“everything is important!”). When writing an introductory passage, leverage your investors, advisors and friends to help you get it right.

Now, let’s look at how to use an introductory passage in fundraising.

 

The Request for Introduction Email

Plenty of posts have been written about request-for-introduction emails, the emails used to facilitate warm introductions. This post by Arjun Dev Arora provides a great overview of effective RFI emails and the key components they should have. You might also find this post about why I won’t promise you an introduction helpful to understand why they’re so important when fundraising (particularly when you’re targeting Silicon Valley VCs).

Once you’ve written your introductory passage, building a request-for-introduction email is pretty straight forward. The structure is as follows:

  1. Opening phrase (addressed to the introducer)

    • Why are you requesting the introduction?

  2. Opening phrase (addressed to the recipient)

    • Introductory passage

    • Link to deck

    • Call to action (CTA)

Let’s build on the above example:

Hi Mary,

Thanks for offering to connect me with Bob at LEGO Enthusiasts Ventures. Given their firm’s focus on startups in the LEGO ecosystem and, in particular, his recent investment in NinjagoDelivery.ai, I think that they would be a great fit for Acme.ai’s Seed round. Below is a forwardable email that you can send for double opt-in:

Hi Bob,

My name is Chris and I’m the CEO and Cofounder of Acme.ai. Acme.ai has created the world’s first AI-driven LEGO brick sorter to help LEGO enthusiasts quickly find the piece they’re looking for from a large inventory of bricks. More than 5 trillion hours each year are wasted by LEGO enthusiasts looking for specific bricks at a cost of $500 billion to the global economy.

In less than 6 months, our team has:

- Built a working prototype that can identify specific LEGO bricks within collections of up to 10,000 pieces

- Signed 20 paid pilots worth $100,000 with some of the world’s leading LEGO clubs

- Built a waiting list of more than 20,000 LEGO enthusiasts

Our founding team includes the world’s top LEGO AI researcher, computer vision experts and the former head of global sales for LEGO.

You can learn more about Acme.ai from this deck. ← (link to deck in Docsend)

We are scheduling initial meetings for our Seed round from January 27th through Februrary 7th. Please email me if you’d like to learn more.

I look forward to speaking with you,

- Chris

Time for some rapid-fire questions (aka “RFI FAQs”):

1. Do I have to personalize every introduction?

If you want to maximize your conversation rate, then yes. Andy McLoughlin of Uncork Capital refers to this as “show me you know me”:

The best advice to remember…is to “show me you know me”. Show the investor that you’ve done the work and this is why you are pitching to them.

Is it possible to secure an initial meeting without personalizing the request-for-introduction? Absolutely. But I can tell you firsthand that an email which demonstrates the founder has at least a passing understanding of who I am and what I invest in significantly increases the chances I’ll opt in — especially if I’m on the fence.

On the other hand, one of the worse things you can do is use a standardized intro that pretends to be personal (or worse, personalization that is factually incorrect). I get plenty of both each week and they go straight to the trash.

2. Do I have to include the deck?

Yes.

It used to be that founders could send a “teaser” or otherwise hold off until after the initial meeting, but for most VCs that’s no longer the case. It’s just not worth it for most people to spend 20-30 minutes on a call that they could have known wasn’t a fit by glancing at the deck.

3. PDF or DocSend?

There was a time not long ago when the question of whether to send a fundraising deck as a PDF or a Docsend link would evoke a holy war, but that debate is largely settled.

Always use DocSend.

VCs are now used to it (and, if they really want to download a copy of your deck, there are plenty of tools to do so). As a founder, the analytics, email capture and built-in data room (Docsend Spaces) provide far too much value for you to use anything else.

4. Can I include a calendar link instead of asking the investor to email me?

I don’t recommend it. Read this post to understand why.

5. Do I really have to personalize every introduction..?

Look, I get it. Researching each and every investor you want to talk to and coming up with something personal to say (especially when you’re targeting 100 - 150 potential investors) takes a lot of time. But this is an enterprise sales process and you’re trying to raise hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars. If you’re not optimizing the conversion rate at the top of your funnel, you’re only hurting your chances of success.

In the words of Benjamin Franklin,

“By failing to prepare,

you are preparing to fail.”

 

The Cold Email

The structure of a cold email is similar to that of a request-for-introduction email, except that you fold the “personalization” into the main email:

  • Opening phrase (addressed to the recipient)

    • Introductory passage

    • Why are you requesting the introduction? (This can also go at the start)

    • Link to deck

    • Call to action (CTA)

Here is a cold email based on our earlier example:

Hi Bob,

My name is Chris and I’m the CEO and Cofounder of Acme.ai. Acme.ai has created the world’s first AI-driven LEGO brick sorter to help LEGO enthusiasts quickly find the piece they’re looking for from a large inventory of bricks. More than 5 trillion hours each year are wasted by LEGO enthusiasts looking for specific bricks at a cost of $500 billion to the global economy.

In less than 6 months, our team has:

- Built a working prototype that can identify specific LEGO bricks within collections of up to 10,000 pieces

- Signed 20 paid pilots worth $100,000 with some of the world’s leading LEGO clubs

- Built a waiting list of more than 20,000 LEGO enthusiasts

Our founding team includes the world’s top LEGO AI researcher, computer vision experts and the former head of global sales for LEGO.

You can learn more about Acme.ai from this deck. ← (link to deck in Docsend)

Given your firm’s focus on startups in the LEGO ecosystem and, in particular, your recent investment in NinjagoDelivery.ai, I think that LEGO Enthusiasts Ventures would be a great fit for Acme.ai’s Seed round.

We are scheduling initial meetings for our Seed round from January 27th through Februrary 7th. Please email me if you’d like to learn more.

I look forward to speaking with you,

- Chris

 

Ideally, there’s significant overlap between your introductory passage, your fundraising communications and your sales collateral, but that’s a topic for another time. For now, here are some additional posts specifically around fundraising request-for-introduction emails:

Good luck!

Chris Neumann
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