Field notes/6 min read
A first message that can earn a reply
The job of the first note is not to close. It is to be worth answering.
Open with a reason that is about them: a page they published, a role they just took, a problem you can see from the outside. If the reason could be pasted onto a hundred people, it is not a reason.
Make one observation and one question. Do not attach a deck. Do not narrate your origin story. The reader should be able to answer in two sentences.
If you would not send it to someone you respect, do not send it to a stranger. Automation that multiplies a weak note does not make the note stronger.
Follow up once, with something new — a relevant example, a correction, a shorter question. Then stop. Silence is an answer.
Keep going
Reading a market in public
You can learn a category from what companies choose to say out loud.
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