Hey {{first_name|default:there}}, itās Vadim š
Happy New Year! I hope you had a restful holiday break!
I managed to sneak in a few days on the ski slopes, where my daughter finally convinced me to try snowboarding after spending most of my adult life on skis.
I now have a deep respect for anyone who makes it down a mountain while standing upright on a thin, slippery board without leaving an outline of their body in the snow. I was not that person :)
Fortunately for us, balancing investor outreach is a lot easier than balancing on a board's edge while getting lapped by kids barely old enough to walk :)
Which brings us to today's issue. If you've been following along with the Investor Sourcing Intensive, you've now got something most founders don't: a real, qualified investor list.
(If you missed any issues or need the CRM, tracker templates and investor lists, catch up here)
But here's the uncomfortable truth - a list doesn't raise money. Action does.
With JPM week kicking off January 12th, you have a perfect forcing function to finally activate that pipeline. Today's issue is your playbook for doing exactly that.
Here's what we'll cover:
š§ The warm intro hierarchy (and the most underused path founders miss)
š§ How to write cold outreach that doesn't feel cold
š§ The JPM outreach playbook - for attendees AND non-attendees
š§ Your week-by-week action plan for January 5-24
PLUS, bonus resources:
š JPM Meeting & Event Planner - day-by-day schedule tracker to keep you organized
āļø Investor Outreach Swipe File - 9 copy/paste templates for every scenario
š¤ AI Mega Prompt to help you personalize your outreach
Are you ready? Let's make January count :)
FOUNDER STORY
The perfect investor list trap
A few months ago, I was working with a therapeutics founder who had done everything right.
She'd spent weeks building her investor list. She had almost 500 names properly tiered with qualifications scores and notes on thesis fit. The whole system was ready for her outreach.
Then... silence.
When I checked in two months later, the spreadsheet hadn't been touched. Not a single outreach sent.
"Life happened," she told me. The lab needed her attention. Her daughter had soccer tournaments. Grant deadlines piled up.
And honestly? She wasn't sure what to say when she actually reached out. The list was perfect, but the next step was unclear.
I've been there myself. You spend all this energy figuring out WHO to target and then freeze when it's time to actually reach out.
The spreadsheet becomes a monument to good intentions - impressive to look at, but useless in practice.
Here's the thing: knowing who to contact is only half the battle. The other half is knowing how and when to actually do it.
That's what today's issue is about.
And there's no better forcing function than JPM week. Whether you're walking the halls of the Westin or satellite conferences, or watching from your home office, the week of January 12-15 creates a unique window.
Investor attention is concentrated, everyone's thinking about deals, and there's a legitimate reason to reach out.
So today, Iād like to give you the exact playbook to activate your list - with specific strategies for attendees and non-attendees alike.
Letās dive in.