
Ask HN: Has cold calling/emailing ever worked for you? - hsikka
Im actually in need of some pocket money and was thinking about scrapping together a cold emailing service that will send your pitches to VCs for a dollar. I know it doesn&#x27;t usually work, but hey it might be worth it for some folks!
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tabeth
I really hate that it's called "cold calling" or "cold emailing." Can't we
agree to call it what it is -- spam? As for the question, spam definitely
works.

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chatmasta
How do you think businesses create relationships? People at each business
email each other.

Have you ever been introduced to someone via email? If that person wasn't
expecting the introduction, did you spam him?

It's pretty absurd to expect every email should be "expected" by the
recipient. Taken to the extreme, that means you could never email someone
unless you'd emailed them before...

~~~
tabeth
Spam comes from expectation _or_ the desirability. If neither exist, then yes,
it is spam. Also, businesses get spammed a lot too, so I'm not sure what
you're getting at there. In fact, businesses are spammed so much most have
protocols in place to prevent it, e.g. delisting phone numbers, global
internal filters on email, etc.

As for your second example, unsolicited and undesired introductions are spam.
I'm shocked that you disagree. If you don't, you won't mind then if I
introduce you to a few million of my friends?

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austinl
Wanted to point out 21.co ([https://21.co/](https://21.co/)) which essentially
does this. You can send a message to Ben Horowitz, for example, for $100
(which he donates all to charity). While Ben is on the pricier side, David Lee
(of SV Angel, Refactor Capital) is only $1. You pay only if you receive a
response.

~~~
ufo
I wasn't aware that 21.co had pivoted from mining bitcoing on Raspberry PIs to
providing an email service that charges people to send emails to you.

This must be one of the most surreal and out of touch ideas that I have ever
seen before but given 21.co's previous track record I guess that was to be
expected.

~~~
hsikka
I actually didn't know 21 was attempting to mine bitcoin on Raspberry PIs LOL

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sobinator
Short answer: Yes

However, here's my 2c (BusDev 2+ years): a cold call/email isn't worth a
dollar in your case. If the audience (target market) is a group of let's say
1000 individuals, and I need 8 to 10 touches to get a single response... then
I'm paying your service $10,000 to (in all probability) be told, "sorry, not
interested".

It takes an immense amount time and energy 'beating the drum' to get anyone to
notice you. I think it was Bezos who said that in this age, attention is the
scarcest commodity. He's right.

~~~
majewsky
> I think it was Bezos who said that in this age, attention is the scarcest
> commodity. He's right.

Of course he's right. How else could the ad industry have turned into such a
disaster?

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dangoldin
I lead an engineering team and am on the receiving end of a ton of vendor
pitch emails. Almost always they go ignored but nearly every single one will
have a few follow ups and surprisingly (but rarely) I may end up responding at
the 4th of 5th attempt.

I realize that they're likely automated but sometimes you just need to get me
at the right moment in which I'm more likely to respond.

~~~
marcus_holmes
I have a cast-iron rule that if a vendor has spammed me, I will _never_ use
their services.

I have the same rule for cold-callers. If a vendor cold-calls me, I take a
note of their business name, politely explain that I am ideologically opposed
to this marketing method, and that I will _never_ use their services because
of their use of that method.

I've been doing this since the mid-90's. I like to be the change I want to see
in the world :)

~~~
1123581321
This is well-meaning but not effective.

First, feedback like yours is rare and it doesn't give opportunity for follow-
up, so there is no incentive to change.

Second, this comes off as tire-kicking to the company, just like the classic
"I'd totally buy your product if you had Feature A/B/C" excuse to avoid having
to say "not interested." If a business cold-calls heavily, and they receive
this feedback often enough, the worst that will happen is that they work on
developing a response to it, just like to any other objection.

Third, vendors know that you _will_ consider them if they are the best option.
They have been told no for more substantial reasons before and still gotten
the account.

~~~
marcus_holmes
I have a bunch of behaviours like this, that are ineffective if it's just me,
but would change the world if we all did them.

Because if vendors knew that the act of cold-calling or spamming would
immediately exclude them, then they wouldn't do it.

I get your point that with just me doing it, this is ineffective because the
vendors don't get enough feedback as to why they didn't get my business.

But I have no power to change other people's behaviour. I can only change my
own and hope others see the world as I do.

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bangda
I think cold email only works when the email is to the point and has a
personal touch to it. eg:- You tell the receiver how you adore his work or why
this is the right thing for him to do. It requires you to be particular,honest
and also needs a personal touch point. Otherwise I doubt cold emails will
work.

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drivingmenuts
How would this differ from spam? Would you be able to provide reliable metrics
on responses?

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hsikka
I'm actually thinking about incentivizing the VC firm to respond as well!
Maybe create a premium tier, 10 bucks to pitch and get a little feedback. I
then give 5 bucks to the vc firm for 2 minutes of their analysts time. It has
worked for music blogs and artists, with services like submithub! Of course,
this is all assuming there is any value in this at all, LOL, which there may
very much not be.

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crispytx
Don't do it. That's spam. If people want to send emails, they ought to send
their emails themselves.

