# Cold Email > 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 ", "help me email a VC", or wants to improve an existing cold email. Enforces real personalization and truthful traction — refuses spray-and-pray. - Skill: `oncesylvia/cold-email` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add oncesylvia/cold-email` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/oncesylvia/cold-email/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Productivity - Author: oncesylvia (https://skillmd.com/u/oncesylvia) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/oncesylvia/cold-email --- # 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 — for " / " + our ". Bad: "Game-changing opportunity!!!" 2. **The hook (1 sentence)** — the specific, true reason you're emailing *them*. "I saw you led 's seed — we're building the version for ." 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.