March 16, 2011

The Follow-up

Let’s assume, for this post, a crude 80/20 rule. Here are some things I’ve observed of late where folks are trying to get quality meetings with others:

A lot of “luck” may simply be tied to showing up. It may be that 80% of people don’t show up or aren’t prepared.
Of the 20% that do show up prepared, 80% don’t follow-up.
Of the 20% that do follow up, 80% follow up too aggressively, to the point it may turn the target “off.”
Of the 20% that do follow up in a more measured, moderate manner are…well…more likely to make a real connection for someone they are trying to get in front of.

For every 1,000 souls, by this crude logic, 8 of them have a very good chance to make a successful connection. Be in that 0.8% if you can.

Semil Shah

Semil founded Haystack, an early-stage investment firm now investing out of its sixth institutional fund, Haystack Ventures VI, with his colleagues Aashay Sanghvi and Divya Dhulipala. He is also a Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Prior to investing, Semil held various product and operational roles at earl-stage startups, the most recent one being acquired by Apple. In 2017, Semil was named to Midas Brink List by Forbes, and in 2022 and 2023, he was named to the Midas List for seed investors by Forbes. While working and investing, he has also been a long-time consistent writer about technology and investing at outlets such as Harvard Business Review, TechCrunch, and Quora.