Stanford Professor sent 80,000 pitches to 28,000 investors. This many replied...

Every venture capitalist will tell you that without a warm intro, the door stays shut. But now this Stanford professor decided to test that. He and his co-author built 50 fiction startups and sent over 80,000 emails to more than 28,000 real investors. So venture capitalist or angel investors. No connections at all, just the email. And almost 10% replied with real interest. The best pitches even hit 17%. This means one in six investors replied to a complete stranger. And here's now what those emails did differently. 1. Start with the problem. Lead with a problem, not your solution. VC's are pattern matchers. Give them the why this matters before the what we built. 2. Signal credibility. Next, signal your credibility in the first sentence. 3. Don't ask for money. And don't ask for money. Your only job in the email is to get them curious enough to reply to you. There's a gap between what VC's say publicly about cold pitches and what they actually do when a good one lands. Founders should take advantage of that gap.