How Email Can Land You a Million Dollar Investment

“Good luck hearing from him” and “No chance they’ll even open your email” are just some of the things you might hear when sharing your plans of reaching out to a millionaire investor. 

Fortunately for you, super successful people do open emails and their responses could mean thousands in investments for your startup just like they did for Dhruv Ghulati, Adam Lyons, Tim Ellis and many more who dared to send their pitch.

So what does a good pitch look like and who are the investors you should be emailing? We’ll answer these and many other questions in this article!

Investment stories worth reading: 

• Founders of Ghulati, Lyons, and Ellis/Noone received more than 4 million combined from Mark Cuban thanks to their email pitches.

• The startup Brex secured investment by buying billboards across San Francisco and then cold-emailing founders in the area.

Biggest investors you should know about

Before diving into any explanations or giving you any advice, we know you are curious about one thing – who are the investors worth emailing? And while we can’t vouch that any of the investors we’ll mention below will give you their money, they do have a track record of believing in and backing up ideas pitched to them.

1. Mark Cuban
   • Known for: Investor on “Shark Tank”, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, tech entrepreneur
   • Notable investments: Unikrn, Cyber Dust, SharesPost
2. Peter Thiel
   • Known for: Co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, early investor in Facebook
   • Notable Investments: Palantir Technologies, Facebook, SpaceX
3. Richard Branson
   • Known for: Founder of the Virgin Group, including Virgin Galactic and Virgin Atlantic
   • Notable investments: Virgin Galactic, Virgin Health, Virgin Voyages
4. Naval Ravikant
   • Known for: Founder of AngelList, angel investor in multiple startups
   • Notable investments: Uber, Twitter, Postmates
5. Chris Sacca
   • Known for: Founder of Lowercase Capital, former investor on “Shark Tank”
   • Notable investments: Twitter, Uber, Instagram
6. Ron Conway
   • Known for: Founder of SV Angel, early investor in many tech companies
   • Notable investments: Google, Facebook, Twitter
7. Jim Clark
   • Known for: Co-founder of Netscape, founder of Netscape, and investor
   • Notable investments: Netscape, Amazon, Google
8. Michael Moritz
   • Known for: Partner at Sequoia Capital, early investor in Google
   • Notable investments: Google, Yahoo, PayPal
9. Barry Sternlicht
   • Known for: Founder of Starwood Capital Group, involved in real estate and investment
   • Notable investments: Starwood Hotels, Vistana Signature Experiences
10. Evan Williams
    • Known for: Co-founder of Twitter and Blogger, early-stage investor
    • Notable investments: Twitter, Medium, Odeo

Note: Many of the listed investors have an active social media presence as well as contact forms and emails on their websites you can use to personally reach out to them. If you’re wanting to send a more formal or detailed inquiry, consider reaching out using their investment firm or professional network.

Google search result stats for popular investors

After seeing all these investor names, some ultra popular and some completely new, you might be thinking “The number of people trying to cold email these investors must be astronomical”, and we don’t blame you as we had the same assumption. Surprisingly though, according to Ahrefs data for the keyword “[investor name] email”, we found the volume of US and global searches for these top investors to be very low.

For instance, the US search volume for Mark Cuban is only 1000 per month, while for Evan Williams and Jim Clark there are virtually no searches.

“[investor name] email” searches
Keyword	US volume	Global volume
mark cuban email	1000	2100
richard branson email	90	350
peter thiel email	60	150
naval ravikant email	40	100
barry sternlicht email	20	30
chris sacca email	10	10
michael moritz email	10	10
ron conway email	10	20
evan williams email	0	0
jim clark email	0	0

So, what does this mean for you and your email pitch? 

Well, on one hand, if an investor has a proven track record of responding to cold email pitches but a low volume in searches, it could mean that the competition is scarce, and you stand a good chance of having your pitch at least read.

On the other hand, if an investor has publicly stated that they receive tons of pitches yet the Ahrefs data show almost no search volume, there is the possibility that founders are using different avenues to find investor emails.

What are these other avenues? We cover them all in the next section!

Where to find investors’ emails

1. Angel investor networks

• AngelList: A popular platform where startups and investors connect. Many angel investors list their profiles here, and you may find contact details through direct messaging or further networking.
• Gust: Another platform that connects startups with investors. You can explore investor profiles and, if interested, engage directly through the platform.
• Local angel investor groups: Many cities have angel investor groups (e.g., New York Angels, Tech Coast Angels), and their websites often provide contact information or ways to reach out to members.

2. LinkedIn

• Investor profiles: LinkedIn is a great place to find angel investors. Many investors list their emails or allow direct messaging. You can use search filters like “angel investor” or “venture capitalist” and narrow results by location or industry.
• Mutual connections: If you share mutual connections with an investor, you might ask for an introduction or referral, which can be more effective than cold outreach.

3. Networking events and conferences

• Startup events: Attending startup events, pitch competitions, and angel investor conferences can help you connect with investors directly. Many investors share their contact information after presentations or networking sessions.
• Accelerators and incubators: Programs like Y Combinator or Techstars often have networks of angel investors. Participating in or attending these programs can help you get in touch with angels and their emails.

4. Investor directories

• Crunchbase: This platform provides detailed information about investors, including their contact info in some cases. You can search for specific investors or filter by industry, location, and investment history.
• Investor databases: There are several paid databases that offer investor contact information. For example, PitchBook or CB Insights provide detailed data on angel investors and venture capitalists, including their contact details.

5. Company websites and blogs

• Investor pages: Many angel investors have personal websites or blogs where they share insights on startups and investing. These websites often include a contact section with an email or contact form.
• Firm websites: If the angel investor is part of a larger angel group or investment firm, the company website may provide their email or at least a professional contact form.

6. Lead generation tools

• Hunter.io: You can use tools like Hunter to find email addresses based on a company’s domain. If you know the firm an angel investor is associated with, you can search for emails tied to that domain.
• Clearbit: Another tool that can help you find professional emails of investors by searching through various data sources.

7. Referrals and introductions

• Warm introductions: Often, the best way to get an angel investor’s email is through referrals. If you can network with entrepreneurs or other investors who have already worked with angels, you can ask for a personal introduction.
• Accelerators and mentorship programs: Many startup accelerators and mentorship programs provide access to angel investors, often including direct email introductions as part of their offering.

How much money have email pitches earned their senders?

We’ll be honest… giving an exact estimate on how much investment money email pitches have earned their senders is virtually impossible as estimates can vary depending on the investor, the specifics of the startup, and other factors. But what we can do is give you a general guideline for what to expect, by providing some general estimates based on common trends in the startup ecosystem and anecdotal evidence from successful pitches.

The table below shows the usual investment ranges for different funding stages:

Investment stage	Range
Small angel investments	$10,000 to $100,000
Seed funding rounds	$100,000 to $1 million
Larger series A and beyond	$1 million to $10 million+

If your pitches have failed to get attention and investments in the mentioned ranges, consider redoing them by following the advice we share in the next two sections of this article.

How well do email pitches work?

Email is an old form of communication. In fact, it’s probably older than most founders/entrepreneurs looking for investors. Yet, this communication form is still very effective and even favored by hotshot investors. Yes, even Mark Cuban himself said that he prefers email pitches as opposed to the ones received over the phone, as an email pitch gives him an opportunity for “more comprehensive responses” and to “search for it always”.

That said, using email to find angel investors does come with its drawbacks. You see, as email is an accessible and cost-effective communication channel, it’s also the go-to solution for sending spammy or simply irrelevant cold emails, causing even the relevant and non-malicious ones to often be viewed as spam.
Attesting to the inefficiency of the email practice is the statistic provided by backlinko.com, stating that only 8.5% of cold emails receive any response.

Cold email pitches that got results 

An email pitch should do one thing and do it well – get a reply while using as few words as possible. Long, essay-looking pitches that cover everything from your startup’s inception to the team retreat you took last year will likely get closed just as fast as they were opened. 

So, how do you build the perfect cold email pitch? Well, unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all recipe you can follow. Instead, what you can do is study pitches that worked and put your own twist on them.

Below, we included and ranked a few great cold email pitches that made some of the world’s biggest angel investors believers in small startups:

Mapistry – $2.5m seed funding round

Hi Jason,

My name is Allie, and I am the CEO of Mapistry. Mapistry is a SaaS application for environmental regulations at industrial facilities.

Environmental regulations are notoriously confusing and complicated, yet the technology used to manage them is usually no more sophisticated than excel spreadsheets and email. This system leaves manufacturing companies vulnerable to multi-million dollar lawsuits and severe damage to their brand.

Traction & numbers:

• customers include Fortune 500 companies like 3M, Republic Services, Tesla and Procter & Gamble
• growing 15% month over month
• September revenue: $67K
• fully ramped, our existing customer base corresponds to a $4M run rate.
• United States TAM: S3.7B (S1T environmental market globally)

You can check out more details about Mapistry in a short deck here.

I am raising a seed round of funding for Mapistry to maximize on our recent momentum, expand our product to other environmental domains (focused on stormwater to date), and continue to develop software that automates services traditionally provided by environmental consultants.

I’ve been following SaaStr for a while. In particular, I saw your talk with Veeva from the SaaStr conference and l’d love to talk to you about how we fit into this trend of vertical SaaS. One of the reasons so few companies are using software for environmental compliance is that the only tools available are so unspecific and horizontal that the customizations required are so immense, they become unrealistic.

I liked what Peter had to say about services. We also feel very strongly that we have great people and we aren’t going to give their time away for free. We like to think of our environmental services as being paid for sales and/or customer success. In fact, I just did a quick, back of the envelope calculation, and looks like we’ve been doing about 35% profit margins on our services for 2017, which has been a nice source of revenue for the rest of the company while we get off the ground.

I’d love to schedule a time for a 30-minute phone call or coffee. Do you have any time the week after next?

Allie Janoch

CEO 

Why it worked?

Clear explanation of the problem: The pitch effectively outlines the complexity of environmental regulations and the inadequacy of current tools like Excel and email. This is a strong, attention-grabbing point for decision-makers in the industry.

Urgency: By highlighting the risks of “multi-million dollar lawsuits” and “severe damage to their brand”, the pitch creates a sense of urgency that is likely to engage the recipient.

Professional tone and clarity: The message is clear and professional, without unnecessary jargon, making it easy to understand and follow.

Personal touch: Allie directly addresses Jason and references his specific talk at the SaaStr conference. This shows genuine interest in his expertise and makes the email feel tailored, increasing the likelihood of a response.

Throne – $830,000 seed round

Hey [Redacted],

We do not currently have a deck as we’ve been focused on building the company and didn’t originally plan to fundraise as we are profitable + growing quickly. We’ll put together a deck in the next few days. We can explain most things in the call but here is a good summary:

• Product: https://jointhrone.com
• Traction:
  • Full-launch as Throne in September 2021
  • GMV
    • September 2021 GMV: $[Redacted]
    • December 2021 GMV: $[Redacted]
  • Our take rate is around [Redacted] according to the latest calculation. We anticipate this increasing over time.
  • >35,000 creators on the platform (20,552 off-waitlist; 14,455 on the waitlist).
  • Virtually $0 spent on marketing – all word of mouth and other viral features built into the product
• Problem:
  • Before Throne there were no good ways for creators to receive gifts from followers. Tipping by itself is less fun and personal for both followers and creators.
  • The main competitors
    • had severe privacy issues (creators getting doxxed)
    • lacked the gamified/interactive experience creators and followers are used to (like Streamalerts, personalized creator profiles, auto-tweeting for gifts etc.).
• Vision:
  • Become the go-to place for followers to buy fits and other items for creators.
  • Over time we will gain more creators, this will give us more broad brand partnerships (brands listing their products directly through us), this will make our product selection better, this will gain more creators, and so on.
  • Next Steps: Social Selling Infrastructure
    • Despite gifting being attractive in itself we see it as a way into creator commerce & social selling.
    • Right now we are building brand partnerships and a large community of engaged creators that trust us. That puts us in the ideal position to be the social selling infrastructure in the future.
    • We can, once critical mass is reached, flip the switch and allow creators to sell their favorite products back to fans, not using clunky, impersonal affiliate links or codes but using their own, customized Throne page with integrations (like Streamalerts) and thousands of high-quality brand partnerships.
• Team:
  • We (the co-founders) are both technical Patrice Becker (CS @ ETH Zurich) and Leonhard Soenke (CS @ Imperial College London). We previously built Meeter to 500,000+ users and got acquired/acqui-hired.
  • The total team size is 15. We have 9 ordering staff, 2 operations managers, 1 marketing, 1 customer support/community management. We are right now aggressively hiring to build the tech team in London.

All the best,

Leonhard

Why it worked?

Traction and proof of concept: The pitch highlights impressive traction, such as over 35,000 creators on the platform and zero marketing costs, emphasizing viral growth and organic demand. These figures are compelling, showing that the product has market validation without the need for extensive financial investment in marketing.

Vision and scalability: The long-term vision to expand into creator commerce and social selling demonstrates foresight and scalability. The pitch outlines how Throne can evolve into a social selling infrastructure, creating a flywheel effect that can significantly boost brand partnerships, creator engagement, and overall growth.

Professional tone and clarity: The pitch is clear, concise, and professional, providing essential details without overloading the reader. The founders’ background, along with their previous success, adds credibility and shows the team’s capacity to execute the ambitious plan.

Factmata – $500,000 from Mark Cuban

Dear Mr. Cuban,

Apologies for my cold message. I am the founder of a Google-backed startup called Factmata that uses artificial intelligence to perform automated fact checking and referencing. We are a team of three NLP researchers and scientists with 30-plus published and cited papers within natural language processing, question answering, and information extraction. I am currently fundraising from people who care about the problem of online misinformation, want to reduce mistrust in the media, and change the way we consume online content. I would love to tell you more about us if of interest, especially given your recent public discussions about this topic.

Look forward to hearing from you soon,

Best regards,

Dhruv

Why it worked?

Credibility and backing: The pitch starts with a strong mention of Factmata being a Google-backed startup, which immediately captures attention and builds credibility. This association with a major player like Google adds weight to the pitch and shows that the startup has already gained significant validation.

Expertise and team strength: By highlighting that the team consists of three NLP researchers and scientists with over 30 published papers, the message effectively establishes authority in the field. This shows that the team is composed of recognized experts, increasing confidence in their autonomy and ability to solve complex problems like online misinformation.

Relevance to the recipient: The reference to Mark Cuban’s recent discussions about misinformation creates a personal connection, making the pitch feel tailored specifically to him. This increases the likelihood of engagement, as it aligns the startup’s mission with Cuban’s public interests.

Clear call to action and professionalism: The tone is professional and respectful, with a clear request to discuss further. The message is concise and easy to follow without overwhelming Cuban with too much information upfront. This balance of clarity and professionalism enhances the chance of a positive response.

Angel investor email scams

Thus far, we’ve dove pretty deep into the emails you’ll be sending potential investors. But there are instances when investors might be emailing you. And if they turn out to be fake, your startup could be at great risk of being seriously scammed.

Here are key signs to look for when evaluating whether an email from an angel investor is fake:

1. Domain name

• Free email providers: A professional angel investor will rarely use a free email provider like Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook for official communication. If the email comes from a free service (@gmail.com), this can be a red flag.
• Suspicious domain names: Fake investors might use domains that look similar to legitimate firms, with slight misspellings or added characters (e.g., @inestorname.com instead of @investorname.com). Always check for subtle differences.
• New or unfamiliar domains: If the domain seems unfamiliar, do a quick search to see if it’s a well-known domain in the investment world. You can also use tools to check when the domain was registered. New domains could indicate a scam.

2. Email structure

• Generic email address: Legitimate investors typically use personalized emails (e.g., firstname@investorname.com). Generic addresses like info@ or investor@ could indicate a mass email campaign or scam.
• No company name in domain: If the email domain doesn’t include the name of an actual investment firm or a legitimate company, be cautious. Angel investors typically use domains tied to a known firm.

3. Content quality

• Poor grammar and spelling: Fake emails often have grammar mistakes, awkward phrasing, or spelling errors. A professional angel investor will send well-written emails.
• Vague language: If the email is too generic and lacks specifics about your company or project, this could be a sign it’s part of a scam. Legitimate investors usually mention specific details or reasons for their interest.
• Unsolicited offer: If the email is an unsolicited offer to invest without prior communication or context, it’s worth being skeptical.

4. Email header

• Mismatch in “From” and “Reply-To”: By examining the email header (depending on your email client), you can see if the “From” address matches the actual sender. If the “Reply-To” address is different, this is suspicious.

“You’ve got yourself a deal!”

Creating a good cold email pitch is not going to be an easy task. But if you make it happen, it can very likely become a pass for getting to all the investments you need.

So, take your time creating a pitch and use the advice that feels right for your project.

Once you land a response, continue using email to create a path to the next important thing – an intro call. Maybe we’ll cover that topic as well! 👀

Good luck!