VC Fundability → Cold reachouts
Is a startup VC Fundable & how to cold email VCs ?
Cold-emailing as a founder is a pain in the a**
And VCs don’t like being approached cold as well.
The best way to approach a VC is no different than how one approaches any sales proposition: Understanding what the buyer wants
I have tried to elucidate:
the reasons why a Cold approach to VCs has very low probability and
The best no-BS way to get cold emails answered
VC industry & it’s wants:
Validate Your VC Fundability - Model + Market + Traction + Growth
A. The obvious disparity in the VC world
Supply-Demand: An over-supply in # of startups looking to raise capital
Nuance: There is always a dearth of access to “GREAT” startups for VCs
B. Focus of a VC:
Verticals / Sectors they understands / prefer / have done earlier
Cheque Size (say $1Mn to $4Mn)
Geographies they focus on - e.g. some funds can’t invest outside India
Traction / current scale of the startup
The quality of metrics
E.g. :
A repeat rate of < 30% will not excite a VC (D2C brand)
Net dollar retention for a SaaS #s:
C. The Subjective points
Team (a combination of these, not each point individually) + quality of tractions
Who have shown exceptional ability / performance in the past
E.g. Top performer in Growth in a high growth startup (say early days of Flipkart)
Work-experience in the relevant industry is significantly high (say > 5+ years)
2nd time founders gets preference
Note: Strong signal = The investor is likely to reply to your cold email. For illustration purposes only, signal may vary by investor.
Market Outlook or Total Addressable Market
Usually any market < $1Bn+ as addressable size is a red-flag
A smaller TAM is acceptable usually in cases where CAGR of the industry is > 20%+
An incumbent isn’t your direct competition / you have sufficient differentiation.
D. Macros / Trends
Macros of the industry are preferably neutral if not favorable.
E.g.
There is an uptrend of a correlated industry:
Interest in “EV”
Inference:
There is a growing interest in “EVs” by the public, this leads to
OEMs will focus on manufacturing more EVs in the future
The existing issues with EVs are around charging - something will need to change here
To invest in charging infrastructure players will make a lot of sense (circa 2020) as they will empower EVs in the future.
Interest in “Beards”
Inference:
The public started to be more into “beards” since 2010 → peaked out around 2016 and now their is a gradual decline in the interest in beards
We saw an upsurge of funding in companies like - Bombay Shaving, The Man, Ustraa etc.
Now due to the gradual decline → if binary → more people looking to shave → should be reflected in the earning of shaving product companies (”Gillette”)
This market is on gradual decline to neutral and will achieve a steady state for this phase.
How to synthesize all the above (Point A,B,C,D)
Subject line matters the most :
Write a top 1% email so that it gets opened
Address the focus (Point C + Point B) in the subject-line itself
Vertical + Signals / Scale + Traction + <Geo if needed> + Stage
✅ Enterprise SaaS - 2x founder - US - Pre-Seed
✅ B2C Delivery - $1M GMV, +30% MoM - India - Seed
✅ Crypto/Payment - Lead secured - US - Series A
❌ Pitch deck - SaaS Company
❌ Seeking investment - $3M
❌ Investor inquiry - Revolutionary project
Guidelines:
1. Subject line under 60 characters (as above)
Ensure it’s fully visible in mobile notifications—short, punchy, and informative.
2. Avoid generic phrases like “investment opportunity” or “investment idea.”
These add no value and waste precious subject line real estate.
3. Show clear thesis alignment.
Include a keyword or phrase that signals relevance to the VC’s focus.
E.g., for a SaaS investor: “SaaS for supply chain”; for HealthTech: “Scaling AI in Radiology.”
4. Demonstrate traction or strength.
Add one compelling proof point—e.g. 40% MoM growth, a notable lead investor, or a repeat founder team.
5. Specify your funding stage
It signals where you are in your journey and sets expectations clearly.
Example of a cold email:
Template here
Hi <investor 1st name>,
Heard you talking about AI in gaming — congrats on XYZ’s seed round.
Since you’re deep into verticalized AI, I thought you'd be interested in what
we're building at GameAI.Gaming studios spend $10B annually on manual QA — we’ve built a
platform that fully automates this process.
CEO: 8 years in enterprise sales (Adobe, Microsoft)
CTO: Former lead dev at Tencent (acquired)
MVP delivers 10x ROI for early adopters
2 paid pilots underway, with a pipeline of $500k in ARR
The Ask:
Raising $750k pre-seed to reach $1M ARR –
30% already committed.
Interested in a 30-min call next week?
Elon Musk
CEO, GameAI
Then have a stellar PITCH DECK cuz it will be opened, and probability to be funded just increased by 10X