Why cold investor outreach is a must (unless you're Elon)

Strangely, founders raising capital are often advised against cold outreach to investors. As if depending on your personal network and going to tedious events to get intros is a good enough plan.

It is true that getting an intro to an investor is great, and is much better than having to reach out to the same investor without it. Still, investor outreach is a must for almost all founders.

Compare this to the world of B2B sales. In B2B sales, inbound leads are much easier to deal with than an outbound lead. Nevertheless, almost all companies with a B2B business model have an outbound sales strategy. First, because it enhances their sales and pipeline. But also because with outbound, you control who you reach out to.

If you’re Elon Musk, you don’t need to worry about reaching out to anyone - if he announces a new company tomorrow, investors will line up at his door.

But most of us, especially in the current startup market, need to work our way to the capital we need. Reaching out to investors consistently means having a consistent stream of investors to engage with, not only for their immediate capital, but also for the network they open us to, and for the learnings we get from talking to them.

So if you’re raising capital, start reaching out to investors. Don’t worry, they expect it, even if some of them might not be nice when they reply, and even if many ignore you. Go through the motions till you get it right, and raise the capital you need.