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Reaching out for advice to other founders

1 points by delver ↗ HN
I am first time founder. I reached to one of the founder but she never replied even after multiple emails. All I wanted to 5minutes of her and in return I would give my perspective on AI and how it can help her app. Clearly I don’t know how to ask as she never responded. How did you guys reach out for advice? Cold emails still works?

1 comment

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First off, as a founder, you're busy. Dealing with an unsolicited email from someone you've never heard of, with an open-ended "please help me" request will usually go right to the end of the priority list. It sucks, but it's a reality.

At least inn my case, repeated emails will only reduce your chances of getting my attention: I'll just block someone who's getting in my face.

Your perspective on AI, while it might be incredibly perceptive and valuable, is not really a great offer as a way of attracting attention. Unless you're a known expert, or recommended by someone trusted, then you're just someone on the Internet with an opinion. There's only about 5 billion of those ...

So what can you do?

If the person you'd like time with attends meetups or similar semi-social gatherings, that's probably your best chance to either have your 5 minutes then and there, or establish enough credibility that you can followup with a request for a coffee and get an answer.

Otherwise, your best approach is probably to build a relationship with someone the founder already knows and trusts, and then ask for an introduction.

Finally, you mention that the person you want to contact is a woman. If you're not, that introduces an additional dynamic here that you should be aware of.

Ultimately, I think you need to ask yourself why you're doing this. Why do want 5 minutes of her time? What genuine value are you going to get out of that? If it's not something that's more-or-less organic, you're maybe focused on the wrong thing anyway?