Welcome back 🤝

I hit the beach two days in a row this weekend. I'm not really a sit-on-the-beach-for-hours type of person, although I do enjoy it from time to time.

I was born and raised in NY, so going to the beach was never really a thing. Now that I live in NJ, I find myself there more and more.

Btw, this edition started in a $6 notebook from Amazon.

It’s been nice putting pen to paper over the last few months. I consider it the GLP-1 for my brain with how much I use AI & tech.

Anyway, I've been reflecting on a 15-minute meeting I had last Wednesday with a venture capital executive about what Ink Equity could do for him and his fund.

I'm not going to share his name for privacy reasons, so let's just call him…Bill.

Since this newsletter is about business, marketing, and AI — I want to share:

So, in the spirit of football season being back - time for take kick off!

It all started as a random Sunday morning DM

Back in early June, I DM’d Bill on LinkedIn.

Yeah…I was scrolling LinkedIn on a Sunday morning…so what!?

Bill made a post about the risks of AI, so I reached out and thanked him for sharing his insight b/c I found it valuable.

He responded in minutes and we went back and forth on it.

I’d make the bet neither of us saw our Sunday morning heading in this direction.

I ended up telling him I was leaving my 10-year career at Chubb and was starting my own business.

He then asked if I wanted to attend a networking event that his venture fund hosts in NYC the following week. He said it was for startup founders, investors and anyone interested in AI, risk and technology.

I said: “Count me in!”

"My last day is on Friday"

There were anywhere from 75 to 100 people when I walked in at 9 am.

The event landed on a Wednesday, and that Friday was my last day at Chubb. When people asked what it was that I did or why I was here, I had a solid convo starter:

"Well, my last day receiving bi-weeklies is Friday. I'm starting my own business, and here's what I’ll be doing…"

While roaming the room and having more convos, I kept a keen eye on Bill. I wanted to get 2 mins with the guy, but it was freeeeeeeeaking impossible. Everybody and their mother was flocking to him. You’d think he was Jalen Brunson at a NYC bar or something.

I kept waiting for the right time to go over to him, but there wasn’t a good time to do it. I mean, it was my first time being at this event, so I took a step back and didn’t stress having to meet him. Like, the main reason I went wasn't to meet him anyway. It was to network and practice my pitch to other people for the first time. I was there for me…I had to be selfish.

Marketing via a warm-up

~2 months after the event, I decided to DM him again. Word for word:

He responded, and sent me his personal email. I shot him an email the following Monday. He let me know he was available in September to meet, and his executive assistant gave me time slots to choose from.

I chose the first available slot: 9/2 from 9:00 - 9:15 am via zoom.

I believe I landed this meeting because of what folks call in the marketing world: a warm up.

Think about it like this…

He doesn't know who I am, so when I DM'd him back in June and said those nice things about his post, I was warming him up and getting my name out there.

In this warm-up, you should never cold-sell, especially if you’d love to work with the person. He gets cold-sold all the time, so I wanted to do this right and not be like every other salesperson.

Consider this the next time you want to reach out to somebody.

Whether you have an idea you want advice on, a business proposal or whatever it is, figure out a way to warm someone up by complimenting them or better yet, send them something valuable that they can benefit from. Both of these have worked wonders for me when trying to land a call, and I believe this is what got me that meeting.

SoOo, what did I use AI for?

Well, I sent him an email Tuesday morning, 24 hours before the meeting about my career path and the story of how Ink Equity came to be.

A friend of mine named Thomas, who works in PR, suggested I send the email the day before to save 2-3 mins of sharing that info during the meeting since every minute is precious. Such good advice 🤝

I even wrote the email using my brain first 😱

Then I used AI to make it succinct but still keep it in my voice.

I also used AI to make a one-pager for when I shared my screen to present for 5-7 minutes on the call.

Using AI for this was helpful, but I didn't overcomplicate it b/c I didn't want it to feel overproduced.

I kept it simple with 3 sections:

What I didn’t use AI for

Simple…figuring out what to say in the email.

It was important to have the email speak as me, so I did the writing as I said.

I get how AI can be helpful in generic response emails, but you still need to formulate your thoughts and have it come off as you in a situation like this.

Like if you’re outsourcing your thought from start to finish when using AI, you’re [you can fill in the blank!]

I also didn’t care to ask AI how to go about the presentation.

Instead, I asked people close to me who have worked at startups and how they’ve pitched to VCs before and how I should go about it. I went right to the source from people I knew instead of relying on AI-sourced generic info. Moral here: use your circle and the people they know, it’s underrated and I feel we don’t do it enough given how accustomed we’re getting to relying on AI.

Meeting = successful feedback

Once I was done presenting, he said: “Thank you, we have 4 minutes left, what are you looking for from this conversation?"

I said, "Any feedback you're willing to give." I kept my mouth shut and took notes. I did not try to sell him.

All of a sudden it was 9:14, and he said, "Any other questions or anything you'd like to say? I have to jump on a 9:15.”

I said: "Nope, I appreciate it!"

Not having the meeting transcribed was a pain b/c he hosted the meeting, so I needed to write notes down in my handy-dandy notebook.

He really gave me strong insights to better my offer and also shared what he believes could work for the business going forward.

He even hinted at an example of how he could see Ink Equity working with his fund for example…so that was kind of cool 😉

The time and energy that went into landing this meeting reminded me of the ‘7 P’s’ my dad used to tell me when I was a young buck.

Proper prior preparation prevents piss poor performance.

I wholeheartedly believe the effort and prep you put into something is what you will get out of it.

Thanks for reading. See you next Tuesday!

On your way out…I have a question:

To building together,

Dan

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