Top "No-no's" when reaching out to Capital groups?

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April 23, 2020

by a searcher from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Second-time poster

What are the top "No-no's" when reaching out to capital groups via LinkedIn, email, cold-call, stalking? To set context, role-play a scenario in your mind where you wanted to understand a capital groups non-negotiables on partnering with a potential searcher - to see if you would be a good fit.

Would love to hear from the community what things to avoid, beyond the obvious (i.e. be unprofessional, lie, cheat, steal, etc.).

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Reply by a searcher
from University of Pennsylvania in Chicago, IL, USA
Cold outreach to capital providers can be tough. Success ratio can be considerably increased though by only presenting your opportunity to those who are actively putting themselves out there for that type of opportunity. If the provider publishes their "investment criteria" then in your messaging (linkedin, cold call, email or whatever), connect your opportunity to their criteria. This immediately gets them thinking that they should think seriously about what you are presenting. Another point that a mentor gave to me that helped a lot, was try to figure out if the group has money to deploy. Did they just close a fund? Or have they spent all the money and are trying to raise a new fund? Banks always have money (because they can create it provided they have reserves), but they can swing wildly from aggressive lending to doing nothing. Try to gauge where they are at, and don't waste time with banks that aren't doing anything.
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Reply by an intermediary
from Monmouth University in New York, NY, USA
Matt,
From my personal experience, I believe it is best to write a bespoke first message to a capital group. Make the message specific and not seem like a mass copy/paste email to a distribution list of groups. Value comes from bringing each group something to their specific appetite (don't bring them apples if their website says they like oranges). Also, I have had the best results seeking out an Associate or Analyst to befriend and develop a rapport with rather than going directly to a CEO/CIO.

My personal success rate when it comes to a response is 1. Linkedin message 2. Phone/cold call (not leaving a voicemail if no answer) and 3. (and last resort) Cold email.

Great question, Matt and I am curious to hear the rest of the community's thoughts.
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