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I love getting a solid cold email or DM from founders!
No need for an intro to 1517.
Some things will make your message standout and get a response (faster than others)🧵:
Danielle Strachman 💗 🐈 💃 🪴 🎸 🎨 🐕
26.6K posts
Danielle Strachman 💗 🐈 💃 🪴 🎸 🎨 🐕
@DStrachman
Bringing freedom & autonomy to young people. Built @thielfellowship and @1517fund. First investor @lambdaAPI @loom @Mach_Industries @RainmakerCorp @positron_ai
- "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- Entitlement is unbecoming in fundraising and dating. I can’t tell you how many times I want to tell someone that they clearly don’t understand consent and that they are coming off as predatory. This is a cold text pitch from this morning.
- Building a startup is really really hard. Don’t do it because you’re running away from something (like school or a corporate job) but because you are pulled towards the mission of serving something else. This is what sustains motivation.
- Used to test for this when I ran the Thiel Fellowship. Him: What do you do? Me: I run a non-profit program for teens in STEM. Him: *Clearly looking for capital and looks like he's smelled a fart* Ends conversation and moves onto the next target. Anyone who actually inquiredIf someone asks you “what do you do?” within seconds of meeting you — don’t be annoyed. Smile. You’ve just identified a transactional player. Instead, give them the lowest status answer. Then drop your highest IQ insights for the rest of the conversation. This breaks brains.
- Had to go to SVB today next to Kleiner on Sand Hill. Saw the uniform in the wild. Nature is healing🪴
- Was 7 years into a relationship when my bf asked for an open relationship. Should have played it like this wife — instead I cried daily for a year. Silly me!
- Pro tip: Don’t assume that women in an e-mail thread are EAs — especially don’t do this when they are your investors.
- “Leadership is not about controlling people, it’s about supporting people” - Prince Harry #UpfrontSummit
- Why are Americans allergic to WhatsApp?
- “deck pics?” Definitely the worst email title ever to send to a woman VC.
- As the founding director of the Thiel Fellowship, it's incredible to see that our program, spearheading massive cultural change about what it takes to succeeded, has gone from being scoffed at by the masses to honored as one of the best accelerators in the world.Thiel Fellowship may be the greatest startup accelerator ever
- Or we will pay your team $50K to work on a startup. Choices choices.
- As an example, someone who cheated during a Thiel Fellowship finalist round (on a scavenger hunt of all things) is now facing potential time in prison for fraud. It was an automatic out for us at the fellowship but others spent hundreds of millions of dollars to learn the sameIt’s pretty well documented that small infractions lead to larger infractions over time. Agency without virtue is soulless.
