Sixty-one per cent of the companies in our portfolio came to us without an introduction. They wrote a cold e-mail or filled in the pitch form. We would like that number to go up.

Why we work this way

An introduction tells us who you know. It tells us nothing about the company. A fund that only reads what arrives through its friends ends up backing people who resemble its friends, and misses the founder who spent years inside the problem and never met an investor.

So the door is open, and it is the same door for everyone. A message from a stranger is read by the same people, in the same two days, as one sent on by a founder we already back.

What to put in your e-mail

Send three things.

• What you are building, in two sentences. Use the words your customer would use.
• What you did before. One line is enough. We back people who have done the job their product replaces, so this is the line we read first.
• What you need the money for. The stage, the amount and what it buys.

A link helps if there is something to see. No deck is required for the first call.

What to leave out

• The size of the market in a large round number. We check the market ourselves.
• Names of other investors who are «interested»
• An apology for writing without an introduction

What happens next

Every e-mail is read by a partner within two working days. Not by an associate, and not by a filter. If it is not for us, we say so and say why, usually in a few lines.

If it is for us, the partner who read it books a call, and the clock starts at that call: ten days to a decision at pre-seed, fourteen at seed. The partner who replied is the partner you work with from then on.

Four clear sentences tell us more than forty slides.

One more thing

If we said no before, write again when something has changed. A first no is a judgement on the company as it stood that day. It is not a judgement on you.