Cold Email

---
name: cold-email
description: Write short, personalized cold fundraising emails to investors (VCs, angels) plus a polite follow-up sequence. Use when a founder says "write a cold email to an investor", "draft an outreach email to <fund/partner>", "help me email a VC", or wants to improve an existing cold email. Enforces real personalization and truthful traction — refuses spray-and-pray.
---

# Cold email to investors

Write a cold email that earns a reply by being **short, specific, and obviously
researched**. The bar: the investor should feel you wrote it *for them*, it
should be skimmable in 15 seconds, and the ask should be trivially easy to say
yes to.

Read `shared/references/outreach-ethics.md` first. If you can't ground the email
in something true and specific about this investor, it isn't ready — go research
(use the `investor-targeting` skill) before drafting.

## Gather before drafting

Ask the founder for whatever is missing:

1. **Who** you're emailing — name, firm, and the specific reason they fit
   (a recent deal, a stated thesis, a portfolio company like yours). This is the
   personalization hook; without it, stop.
2. **One-liner** — what you do, for whom.
3. **Traction** — the 1–2 hardest, truest proof points (revenue, growth, users,
   notable design partners/LOIs). Use the founder's numbers verbatim.
4. **The ask & the raise** — stage, how much, and what you want from *this*
   email (usually a 20–30 min call, not "let's talk").
5. **Credibility** — anything that de-risks the founder (relevant background,
   notable existing investors/advisors — only if real).

## The anatomy (keep it ~75–125 words)

See `references/email-anatomy.md` for the deep version. The shape:

1. **Subject line** — 3–6 words, concrete, no hype. Offer **two A/B options**.
   Good: "Seed round — <category> for <customer>" / "<Mutual context> + our
   <metric>". Bad: "Game-changing opportunity!!!"
2. **The hook (1 sentence)** — the specific, true reason you're emailing *them*.
   "I saw you led <company>'s seed — we're building the <X> version for <Y>."
3. **What you do (1 sentence)** — crisp, jargon-free, the wedge.
4. **Traction (1–2 sentences)** — the proof that you're worth 20 minutes.
   Numbers > adjectives.
5. **The ask (1 sentence)** — one specific, low-friction request. "Open to a
   20-min call next week?" Optionally offer the deck/data instead of attaching.
6. **Signature** — name, role, company, one link (site or deck). No giant
   attachments on a cold email.

## Hard rules

- **One specific personalization per email.** No find-and-replace
  `{{firstName}}` mail merge. If you're drafting for several investors, write a
  distinct hook for each; share only the middle.
- **Truthful traction.** Never inflate. Don't imply investors/customers you
  don't have.
- **Short.** If it doesn't fit on a phone screen without scrolling, cut.
- **One ask.** Multiple asks = no reply.
- **Plain text feel.** No images, no heavy formatting, no tracking-pixel theater.

## Follow-up sequence

Most replies come from follow-ups, not the first email. Draft a polite,
value-adding sequence (see `references/email-anatomy.md` for templates):

- **Follow-up 1 (after ~4–5 business days):** brief bump + one *new* piece of
  info (a fresh metric, a new customer, a milestone). Not "just checking in."
- **Follow-up 2 (after ~7 days):** shorter still; restate the one ask, add a
  graceful out ("if it's not a fit, no worries — a pointer to who might be
  right would mean a lot").
- **Then stop.** Two or three touches total. More is harassment and hurts your
  name. Honor any "not now / not a fit" immediately.

## Output format

Deliver:
- **2 subject-line options**
- **The email body** (ready to paste)
- **Follow-up 1 and Follow-up 2** drafts
- A one-line **personalization checklist**: the specific true fact you used, and
  a reminder to re-verify it before sending.

## Bilingual / China market (中文)

If the founder is raising in the **China market** or asks for **Chinese**
output, use `references/zh-talk-tracks.md` and first read
`shared/references/china-market-playbook.md`. Don't just translate the English —
China's primary channel is **WeChat (微信), not email**, etiquette and forms of
address differ, and a warm path matters even more. The zh file gives WeChat
opener + email versions, follow-ups, and a personalization checklist in Chinese.

## Refuse / push back when

- The user wants one generic email to blast to a list → offer instead to write a
  reusable *frame* plus per-investor hooks, and point them to the volume note in
  the ethics file.
- The traction described seems inflated or fabricated → ask for the real numbers.
- There's a warm path available → suggest the `warm-intro` skill instead; a warm
  intro beats the best cold email.