Investor intro email example

๐Ÿ’ฐ Investment & Fundraising
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Learn essential tips and see real-world examples for crafting compelling investor emails in the competitive startup fundraising landscape.
Published/Updated on Jul 21, 2021

Important before reaching out to investors

Eric Lagier, Founder & Managing Partner at byFounders

Here is my top 10 recommendations to founders writing "cold inbound" emails to VCs

Source linkedin post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/elagier_killing-the-must-have-a-warm-intro-to-a-activity-7038805545331347457-YDh9/

1. Do basic research to justify why we as a VC are a good fit including thesis fit, experience and knowledge.

2. Even better, find out why a specific partner at the VC is the right fit for you.

3. Explain how you see we can help you and add value

4. Check that we have not already invested in a competitor in the same space

5. Make reference to other investments we have made that complement what you do.

6. Check stage and check size fit

7. Check investment focus & geo coverage fit

8. Check references and reputation, and highlight if something attracts you

9. Don't let others fundraise for you, we just want to hear from you

10. And for God's sake, do not just use a "VC mailing list" ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

Example for an Introduction- / Cold Email:

We're a Direct-to-Consumer premium pet food brand. Leveraged by technology and rapid product innovation we offer all-natural healthy pet food in an easy and convenient way for the customers. It's that simple. No need to reinvent the wheel here - the industry is just very traditional.

Since launch Dec 18' have shown strong traction and MoM progress. We're just started seed funding discussions (being backed with โ‚ฌ270K in angel investments in June 18'). We have delivered upon our initial goals; putting products to the market, created a scalable platform (Website/Mobile, Operations, Logistics, Supply). More importantly we're showing strong progress in our key metrics: Sales, Retention, Subscribers, Traffic, AOV.

Now we are looking to scale up the business, by extending our product range, enter DE, enter UK, make ready for CN entry during 2020, continue to build an even more awesome customer experience, and ramp up marketing. Our goal is to have a 1000 subscribers by YE 2019, and given our early validation, this is very feasible.

What I humbly would like to ask you is if you could help us with intros to any Angels, Private Offices, or Early Stage Funds that have an interest/experience of investing in consumer facing startups, brands, or ecommerce. This would mean the world to us.

Be more than happy to run through the attached presentation and current status of our company if you like? It's also accessible by link here

Below is also a summary of the company and current status that we use for any intros:

Company Intro and Current Status:
PETBUDDY AB ("Buddy") was founded during 2018 as a premium direct-to-consumer brand. Leveraged by technology and rapid product innovation we deliver all-natural high quality pet food (and soon also pet care) through an easy and convenient experience for the customer. We come from a long background with eCommerce, subscriptions and brand building, with focus on beauty brands in Nordics, EU, UK and Asia. We're based in Stockholm, but have two advisors attached to the project based in Berlin. These two built up one of Berlin's hottest startups a few years back, Pet's Deli: a premium direct-to-consumer pet food startup with +20M Euro invested in it (Rocket Internet, Index, Project A among others). Unfortunately due to operational issues, as well as internal politics, they did not succeed as planned. Although that's sad, it has been a major benefit for us since we have been able to rapidly partner up with the right suppliers, steer away from harm's way (Operations, food suppliers etc) due to their experience in the field. We launched our MVP (website and initial product range) in Dec 2018 in Sweden and have grown every day since. MoM data (sales, retention of subscribers, traffic, CVR etc) is all growing according to plan, and all our "checkbox questions" have been validated. We have all our suppliers, WH, and website/mobile (although being upgrading at the moment) sorted. Hence, it's time for us to raise more capital to expand our business: take market shares in Sweden, extend our product range and categories, enter DE, enter UK, strengthen the team, and the big bet; preparing for China entry Jan 2020. We already spent 2 visits in HK/CN during Q3-Q4 to nurture those relations and partners we have built up throughout the years. In addition we just filed registrations for setting up our German entity, which gives us trading rights for pet food in entire EU.

Team:

Alex Baumann (SE), Co-Founder and CEO. Previously MD for Glossybox Nordics. Been working with digital business and eCommerce since 2015 in both Germany, UK and Sweden. Responsible for Finance, Brand/PR, B2B Partnerships, Investor Relations and Product/Tech. LinkedIn\ Erik Wide Gustafsson (SE), Co-Founder and CMO. Previously General Manager for The Hut Group (THG) Asia. One of the largest eCommerce companies in Europe with Asia generating over โ‚ฌ80MEUR in revenue p.a. Before that he worked at H&M in London, and various internships. Responsible for Marketing, Growth, and Legal/Compliance. LinkedIn

Alexander Retzlik (DE), Co-Founder and COO. Previously Integration Lead (M&A) when THG bought Glossybox from Rocket Internet and Kinnevik f. Prior to that responsible for Quality and Business Development at Movinga, one of Berlin's most known startups . Responsible for Operations, Business Development and Market Entries. LinkedIn

David Spanier (DE), Business Advisor and CPO. Previously Founder and CEO at PetsDeli and have started several other German startups. Responsible for Product Range Extension together with Alexander Retzlik, as well as driving Product Innovation forward. Also supporting Alex Baumann with the developers. Key for setting up the right suppliers and distribution partners across EU.

Max Seedorf (DE), Business Advisor. Previously Brand Manager at PetsDeli and are advising us on market communication + preparing the German market launch (translation of content, website, and setting up marketing partners).

Size of Funds:

We're raising a total of 1.2 MEUR. These funds will help us with:

  • Increase customer acquisition in SE / increase marketing and brand spend

  • Extend product range and categories

  • Enter DE (Q2)

  • Enter UK (Q3)

  • Set up DE 3rd party fulfillment center for EU/UK trading (will be done from SE initially at entry)

  • Prepare for CN launch Jan 2020: set up all registrations, compliance work, and marketing- and distribution partners

  • Brand and Customer Experience 2.0: Upgrade our design, desktop/mobile and CX to the better

  • Strengthen team with 1) Art Director/Graphic Designer., and 2) Social Media Manager and Photographer (1 Intern used now)