Founder introduction template

One fact you can open, and one thing you want them to do. If the first line would still be true for the next fifty people, it is not about them.

One fact you can open, and one thing you want them to do. If the first line would still be true for the next fifty people, it is not about them. A company name in that line is not research, and a stack of links is not an ask.

One reason, then one ask

The first line has to be a fact you can open: their site, a job post, a filing, something on the CRM record. If the sentence would still be true for the next fifty rows, it is not a reason yet. A company name in the first line is not research.

Ask for one next step. A reply, a short look at one problem, or an introduction. A stack of links is a brochure, and the brochure can wait until they answer.

Keep, and cut

Read the draft out loud once. If you run out of breath before the ask, it is too long for a first note.

Then read it once on a phone. The fact and the ask should be visible before they have to scroll.

• Keep one fact that is true of this person and not of the next fifty.
• Keep one ask.
• Cut any reply rate, open rate, or revenue figure you did not measure on your own sends.
• Cut the sentence that would still be true if you swapped the company name.

Where the writing usually goes flat

The draft sounds like a person when the situation is specific and the sentences are short enough to read on a phone. It sounds like a template when every row shares an opening, a cadence, and an ask, with the name swapped.

Leave out any reply rate, open rate, or revenue figure you did not measure on your own sends. A number from a forum makes the email less believable, not more. If you need a proof point, use a fact from their world, or a result you can open the source for.

Build the note from the record

Open the thing you are about to mention. Their site, a job post, a filing, a note already on the CRM. If you cannot open it, you do not have it, and the sentence should come out. A company name in the first line is a merge field. It is not a reason.

Then decide the one thing you want. A reply, a look at one problem, or an introduction. Put that in a sentence they can answer without a call. The links, the deck, and the second offer can wait until they have answered.

Read it once, as they will

On a phone, in one pass. If the ask is not in the first screen, move it up. If a sentence would survive with the name swapped, take it out. Then send it to a few people you can actually read the replies from.

The second draft is for the fact you checked and the one thing you want. It is not for a better adjective. If the fact is wrong, no amount of polish repairs the note.