Intro.
#Cold Email's Effectiveness by Stage — It Really Only Works at Seed
TIP
"Cold email is worth doing at seed and some pre-Series A rounds. It matters far less at mid- and late-stage, where the previous round's investors, co-investment ties, portfolio referrals, and personal introductions dominate." (Lee Taek-kyung, Ch. 4 — The Investment Process and What to Prepare) — the further along you get, the more trust-based channels overwhelmingly dominate.
| Stage | Cold Email Effectiveness | Primary Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Seed | Meaningful (20–30% reply rate) | Cold email + competitions + personal network |
| Pre-Series A | Somewhat meaningful (10–20% reply rate) | Cold email + warm introductions |
| Series A | Marginal (5–10% reply rate) | Warm introductions + referrals from existing investors |
| Series B+ | Nearly useless (under 5% reply rate) | Existing investors + co-investors + portfolio-company referrals |
The reason for this gap is the review cost at each stage. At seed, there's little material to review, so the burden is low. From Series A on, diligence alone can cost several million won, so there's little incentive to even open a deck that arrives from an untrusted source.
02
#Eight Tips for Writing a Cold Email That Works at Seed
Here are the eight traits that seed-stage cold emails share when they actually get a reply — Lee Taek-kyung's own writing tips from the book.
- A 1–2 page executive summary — keep the email body short, attach the deck as a PDF
- The business model in one sentence — what, for whom, and how you get paid
- A team introduction is non-negotiable — in Lee's words, skip it and you've got "a bun with no filling"
- PDF format only — HWP and DOC files often go unopened
- Bold and underline the key points in the body — don't pad it out with long prose
- Include a phone number plus a link to your website or app
- Watch for the wrong investor's name slipping in — a common accident when sending the same email to multiple firms
- Don't take silence personally — a 20–30% reply rate is normal
TIP
The Drama&Company (maker of the Remember app) cold email is a case in point — the vision and business model were laid out simply and clearly with bold text and underlines, and the attachments were unambiguous. Lee cites it directly in his book as an example of a cold email done right.
03
#Five Common Ways Cold Emails Fail
On the flip side, here are the five patterns shared by cold emails that never get a reply. Even one of these can drag your reply rate under 5%.
| Failure Pattern | What It Signals to the VC | How to Fix It |
|---|---|---|
| Long body, no attachment | A team that can't produce an executive summary | 5 lines of body text + a 1-page PDF |
| HWP or DOC attachment | Signals unfamiliarity with basic tools | Convert to PDF |
| No team introduction | "Who" is invisible | Add a one-page team slide |
| Business model buried in buzzwords | "What" is invisible | Compress it into one sentence |
| Wrong investor's name left in | Reads as careless — erodes trust | Write a separate email body for each firm |
04
#From Series A On — Warm Introductions Are 80% of the Channel
Once you're past pre-Series A, the channel mix flips entirely. It's not cold email that gets you the first meeting — it's who introduced you to whom. Here's the channel breakdown for Series A and beyond, modeled on the Mashup Angels persona.
| Channel | Share (Series A+) | Typical Path |
|---|---|---|
| Referral from existing investors | ~40% | Your seed VC connects you directly to a Series A VC |
| Co-investment relationships | ~20% | A VC that regularly co-invests with your seed VC |
| Portfolio-company referral | ~15% | Another founder in the same fund's portfolio makes the introduction |
| Introduction via a fund's LP | ~10% | An LP connects you directly to the VC managing their capital |
| Cold email | ~5% | Very low odds |
| Other (events, PR, etc.) | ~10% | — |
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Referrals from existing investors carry the most weight for two reasons: they signal "a team we've already vetted," and they put the seed VC's own reputation on the line. A seed VC knows that if a team they vouch for flames out at Series A, their next referral won't carry weight — so they don't make referrals lightly.
05
#No Direct Connection? The One-Degree-Removed Approach
"We don't have a seed VC or any direct connections — how do we even get in front of a Series A investor?" Lee's answer in the book is the one-degree-removed approach.
- Check your target VC's portfolio-company list (website, newsletter)
- Identify one founder in that portfolio who's close to you by domain, school, or former workplace
- Reach out directly: "We'd love to connect with [Firm Y], which invested in your company — would you be willing to take a look at our materials?"
- The founder reviews your materials and decides whether to vouch for you → a direct connection to the VC's team
| Channel | Success Rate | Time Required |
|---|---|---|
| Cold email alone | Under 5% | 1–2 weeks |
| Referral from a portfolio founder | 30–50% | 2–6 weeks |
| Direct referral from an existing investor | 60–80% | 1–2 weeks |
| Introduction via an LP | 40–60% | 2–4 weeks |
체크
Take Lee Hye-min of Finda — as the former head of Noom Korea, Noom's own investors naturally became her first investors too. Former-colleague networks are the core resource behind the one-degree-removed approach (Ch. 4).
Summary.
#Self-Check Checklist
Six items to check whether your outreach strategy actually fits your stage.
- If you're at seed or pre-Series A, does your cold email hit all eight of the tips above?
- If you're at Series A or later, have you secured at least one warm-introduction path through an existing investor or portfolio founder?
- Is your cold-email PDF structured as a 1–2 page executive summary plus a one-page team slide?
- Is each email body written separately per firm, so the wrong investor's name never slips in?
- If you have no direct connection, have you reached out to at least one founder in your target VC's portfolio?
- If your cold-email reply rate is under 5%, have you shifted your channel strategy toward warm introductions?
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