I get the gist. Lately we've been fundraising, which includes pinging acquaintances. A few people we've named to meet that they know have asked the questions above. I'm assuming it's so they can easily forward to each person. But am I writing these in their tense or in my tense?
i.e. "Investor Name,
I think you'd be interested in meeting these guys - Acquaintance"
OR
"Aquaintance, we'd like to meet investor X for XYZ reason"
- Me
Long story short: they should be written in your tense, since they are actually written by you, on your behalf.
When asking an acquaintance for an intro, make sure you provide enough context for your acquaintance to justify making the connection:
- clarify how you're connected;
- mention the name of the startup and ways to look it up;
- include a very concise outline of what your startup's capabilities are and what you've achieved so far;
- end with a call to action.
Your acquaintance can then either forward your email entirely or use it to quickly put together a separate message based on the information you've already provided.
When I make this request to folks, I'm always asking for the latter. In particular, what I want is a simple email from them asking me for an intro, giving a reason for wanting the intro, and then quickly explaining their company and why it's a relevant intro. What I do is then forward that email and add my own perspective on top of it of why I think the person and their startup are awesome.
