Stop crawling Crunchbase for emails then spamming people.

[lenkendall]

I don't know why startups think this practice works. It doesn't. Every day I'm nailed with 2 or 3 of these emails from startup founders who spamming other startup founders.

I'd love to start a conversation around this shitty (but all to common) practice and spin it around into one that offers more positive suggestions to these naive marketers who don't know any better. I'll start:

1) Use a tool called Muckrack to search for reporters discussing topics relevant to your industry. Then use the platform to pitch them directly on why your story is worth telling.

[dangrossman]

I don't mind the cold e-mail pitches from other startups, though I've never sent one myself. I've found lots of interesting and useful services that way. I keep my e-mail in my public HN profile and encourage people to use it.

The only thing that bothers me are sales people that follow up on those mails every few weeks forever until you reply to them.

[sherm8n]

Give the founders a break. They're probably first time founders who haven't figured out how to get customers yet. There was a time when I thought it was a good idea to email people and ask them to check out my product.

The results weren't great, but more importantly I learned my first lesson in sales/marketing. Don't ask for the sale in the first conversation. It completely turns the customer off. Instead build a high quality relationship with them. Ask them what their problems really are. You can figure out quickly if your product will solve it for them. When you establish enough trust they have a higher chance of buying from you.