Topic · 3 threads

Cold Outreach

No warm intro? These threads show what determined outreach looks like, from cold emails that get dissected by the investors who received them to a founder pitching a VC in his own parked car.

Pitching a VC in His Parked Lexus: Kalanick's 2001 Hustle Story

Kalanick describes intercepting a VC who was fleeing his own office to avoid their 2001 meeting, then pitching him from the passenger seat of the investor's parked Lexus during the dot-com winter.

Investor MeetingsCold OutreachSeed Read the breakdown

How to Raise a Seed Round: One Complete Process

A step-by-step seed fundraising process from a pre-seed VC: build a tiered investor list, gather external feedback on materials, and run the raise as a structured pipeline rather than ad-hoc meetings.

Fundraising StrategyTarget ListPre-Seed Read the breakdown

The Accidental Mistake of Asking for Too Much Money

Lemkin dissects a real cold email he received: an interesting startup near $2M ARR with no funding that killed its own chances by asking for an oversized round. He explains how ask size instantly reprices the deal in an investor's head.

Fundraising StrategyValuation & DilutionSeries A Read the breakdown