For my inbox:<p>Turn-offs:<p><pre><code> - obviously sent to many others
- obviously boilerplate
- buzzwordy
- uses the word "coffee"
- no apparent direction or desired outcome
- previously insulted me on-line
</code></pre>
Turn-ons:<p><pre><code> - already know them
- already respect them
- referred by someone I know or respect
- mentions something I said or wrote
- kind words without sounding contrived
- mentions something I'm irresistably curious about
and most importantly:
- builds or expands upon something I said, wrote, or am passionate about</code></pre>
What's in it for me?<p>Answer that question for the person you are selling to, pitching to, requesting a meeting with, etc and your chances of success increase dramatically.<p>This isn't new wisdom, it's arguably one of the oldest tenets of sales. Humans, by nature, are selfish beings. The majority expect a return for any effort put in on their behalf.
<i>But who is offering to teach me something I don’t know.</i><p>If I had to guess, I would also say that Blank does something like what I learned to do: look for people who are already proactively engaged in something. I wrote a similar essay called "How to get your professors' attention, along with coaching and mentoring" (<a href="http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/how-to-get-your-professors%E2%80%99-attention-or-how-to-get-the-coaching-and-mentorship-you-need/" rel="nofollow">http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/how-to-get-your-pro...</a>) that described how I began to filter requests by looking at whether the people making the request had some skin in the game, or have done something to show investment and the ability to be helped.<p>Most people appear to learn how to do this through trial and error, but it's also useful to codify them.
Not too bad advice but the key lies somewhere else:<p>0. Stop chasing the one investor or selected perceived important people but rather get a sense who might be important<p>1. First and most important: ACHIEVE something, create something unique, build strong traction, DO something where others raise their eyebrows, get people impressed, everyone!<p>2. This is now what most people don't get: you do not network by just going to networking events or by mingling with other people, no: your achievements will be your networking vehicle -- you network by achieving stuff -- you don't have t ask for meetings anymore, people will approach you. Or you have just to talk about your achievements (to everyone) and the rest comes by itself. And when you want ask for a meeting, don't -- just tell your achievements and the other party will ask to grab a coffee together. So, create or work towards a situation where others approach you some day. Really, the key is to work on achievements and nothing else.<p>It's definitely not enough to tell the other party "in exchange [...] what we learned about" this and that, you have to achieve something, tell them where you succeeded! They don't want another boring conversation with a flimsy excuse. Imagine some developer who wants to work for your startup and approaches you and tells you about what he learned about some random technical topic -- this would lead to an awkward situation where you just want to escape the conversation with a needy guy. Instead imagine the same guy telling you that he build the first Sinatra-like framework for Openresty/Lua that blows Go and the JVM together and he would love to show it to you since you need some high performance web framework devs. Big difference.<p>Sidenote: everybody is important and will bring you one step further on your journey, not only VCs or angels. Most underrated target: other entrepreneurs, in particular those which are on the same level like you or a bit ahead because they are most willing to share thoughts or meet up and because they are your real peers (this is what I totally missed when I started).
As odd as it may sound, we think this process should work much like online dating: what can you say to pique a stranger's interest and encourage them to meet with you?<p>We're borrowing from online dating to create a community of professionals open to receiving coffee meeting requests. No one is guaranteeing that they'll meet with other members who reach out to them, or that they'll even respond. But by joining, everyone implicitly communicates an openness to at least receiving meeting requests from people outside their network. This is already proving powerful:<p>www.treatin.gs
There is a bit of irony here in that the advice article on how to get people's attention waits until 2/3 into the article to practice their own advice of _teaching us something we don't know._<p>I don't know Steve Blank; are all his articles like this?
I thought Steve's post was insightful and well written. The article would be even better if the author made two small improvements to spelling and grammar:<p>1. "1960's" should be written as "1960s." It's incorrect to use an apostrophe.
2. Semicolons should separate complete, related sentences, not fragments such as "an hour from Stanford on the coast, but that hasn't helped."<p>I'm taking a moment to offer this feedback because I know that all good writers can benefit from constructive criticism. I look forward to reading more of the author's insightful posts.
Summary:<p><i>"Silicon Valley has a “pay-it-forward” culture where we try to help each other without asking for anything in return."</i><p><i>"So I’ve come up with is a method to sort out who I take meetings with."</i><p><i>"I now prioritize meetings with a new filter: Who is offering me something in return."</i><p>By the way, I agree with the advice provided, it's just the way the author gets to the point is a bit too winding for my simple mind :-)
I recently got introduced to a long time entrepreneur who sold his latest company recently by a friend. At the end of our coffee meeting when we were about to leave, he asked me if I know what is WIIFY to which I said no. He smiled at me and said that when you are running a business, its a most important thing that you have to think about(What's in it for you) and it actually applies to everything from getting users to sign up or getting some investors to speak to you.<p>On a side note, he also told me that people like him also get interested in knowing the failures you had in running your business and how you recovered from it.<p>I guess at the end, it's a matter of persistence and may be some luck that your pitch will arouse interest in someone's mind and they will say yes to meet you. Until then keep building your product and learn as you go.<p>Shamless plug : I am building a dating platform for working professionals :)<p>www.jointruffle.com
90% of networking requests come with purely selfish intent. I recall the ONE time that someone showed up to a meeting with a book that he heard would interest me. Of course I went out of my way to assist.<p>Give first then get...