Founders of countless Internet startups are looking for investors, partners, and customers. In many ways, they are very much like job hunters. With that in mind…
If you were looking for a job and had the email address of a hiring manager at Google, would you send the following note? (All these examples are almost fictitious.)
Hi. I need a programming job. See my resume attached and call me.
Should you send the following note to Facebook?
I am very talented and can make you lots of money. If you are interested, we should talk now about giving me a job. Send me your Skype name. I can talk to you at 2:00 p.m.
How about these?
I don't know what your company does, but I need to work for you. Look over my stuff at my Website, and then let me know when I can start.
Review this information about my online gaming startup. If you can't understand it, I will understand. But thanks for your time.
Finally, how about sending this one to MySpace?
I have attached copies of everything I have ever done. Read through it all, and let me know what kind of job you will give me.
Believe it or not, I get at least one email every day from an Internet startup that pretty much duplicates the above statements. Come on, guys!
Now that Twitter is around, I also get 140-character queries like "check this out n let be prtners." (That was a real one!) I know people are getting used to communicating in sometimes illegible sound bites, but is this online branding startup serious?
I will immediately file virtually all of these communications away. OK, I lied. I file all of them away.
Last week, a social media startup sent me an email that had 130 megabytes of attachments (pdfs, docs, etc.). The CEO of the startup asked me to review them and give my thoughts and recommendations. Filed away!
At least that one was short. The messages I hate the most are the rambling texts with a hundred links and no real information -- unless I am willing to click and read everything on the Web. And if I do feel adventurous (and willing to face the threat of Trojans invading my machines), I will often find that the URLs are wrong or down or outdated by years. I got two Trojans last week by following links provided to me by startups. Sending me a virus always inspires me to do business with someone.
If you want someone to give you money or advice or work with you to drive the success of your startup, then your emails and/or messages need to make you look professional, respectful, and educated. Otherwise, the CTO of a billion-dollar company isn't going to respond to you at all. The angel investor is going to blacklist your email address. About the only people who will respond quickly are founders of other Internet startups who want to partner with you and use your startup to fix the problems in their startups.
You usually have one chance to communicate the amazing opportunity your Internet startup can deliver. Don't blow it by being lazy. Be professional, articulate, and brief yet thorough. Explain who you are, what your startup does, what market it is in, why your product or service is unique, and why you are contacting the particular individual. Ask if that individual would like to learn more.
Don't ask for money, referrals, or reviews, and don't ask the individual to join your board. Save that for future communications when you have a professional relationship. Thank them for their time and consideration.
— David Croslin is CEO of the consulting firm Innovate the Future. He has reviewed thousands of companies as a consultant and as a member of the mergers and acquisitions teams at HP and Verizon.
As far as Twitter, Facebook, etc? Absolutely! You have an opportunity to get free face time with millions of people. So, why not? But, you need to deliver value, not baloney.
If you want to use Twitter to promote your startup, then write up a brief whitepaper on your market and show in how your product beats the rest. Again, deliver value. Then Tweet about the value and questions answered in the paper, not just about your technology. People will get it then.
Facebook is a little more difficult because of how Facebook is used. But, if you have the funds, open a business account and create a wall that again delivers value to your potential customers, partners and investors.
Use email. Use mail, Use one-on-ones. Never eat alone. Never travel without having non-stop meetings from dawn to dusk. Use sites like LinkedIn to find people in your travel destination and connect with them. You never know where it will lead and you don't need to sit in a hotel wasting time.
Thanks for some great thoughts and great questions.
Some great advice! Along the same lines, when I was much younger, my dad told me 'go to a meeting, shut up and listen. While everyone else is trying to show, you should listen and think. Finally, come out with an answer that solves the complete problem, not just a small piece'. I still live by that advice.
Excellent summary! If you want to be respected and have someone give you a job, or money or customers, then take the time to deliver a professional message. I still think a lot of it is just plain being lazy.
Couldn't agree more! I try hard to see the diamond in the rough among the sometimes difficult to comprehend messages I get. But, I agree with you - get out there, bash code and deliver a great app.
Excellent comparison! I agree that the two are very much alike. From my point of view I get way too many communications each day to spend a lot of time trying to figure out why in the world someone is contacting me. I don't want to be rude and send them a note requesting that they start over. But, I also can't squeeze knowledge from a poorly delivered message. If someone is going to contact me, not the other way around, then at least tell me why you are contacting me. I get emails that are well written and describe their startup fairly well. But, then there is no closing query or statement. So, I am left wondering 'what did you want'?
Will I potentially miss the next Zuckerberg? Sure. Do I think that will actually happen? The odds are so close to zero that I don't worry about it.
I don't think the emails were from actual spammers. Especially since I receive lots of these types of communications all the time. Part of it is I think the senders are trying to approach me like we are buddies sitting together in a bar over a drink. Please understand I get a LOT of very well written emails and messages that someone obviously spent a lot of time on. But, when discussing mistakes that startups make, this is big one.
Yes, the 'job application' versions of the sample messages are fictitious. But, I have received equivalent messages related to peoples startups many times. My key point was would you be more professional if you are looking for a job than when you are trying to get someone to give you $500K investment in your startup?
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
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