How should I approach networking? I want to meet more people who share a similar path so I can learn from them, make connections, and build a reputation that attracts clients through word of mouth.
I just went to a bunch of events positioned around technological disruption or innovation and chose to meet as many relevant people as possible. Beyond that, you can literally just cold-email anyone you want to talk to — if you write a good, personalized, customized email, there's roughly a 20% chance they respond. You could email someone like Sam Altman with a genuinely good pitch if you can find his personal email — he, and people like Elon Musk, still check their own inbox in the mornings like the rest of us. I've considered direct-messaging Alex Hormozi myself a bunch of times.
networkingcold email to influencersbuilding reputation
I would approach networking by going to events centered on technological disruption or innovation and trying to meet as many people as possible there. Besides events, you can literally email anyone you want to talk to; if you write a personalized, customized email, there's about a 20% chance they’ll reply. For example, you could email someone like Sam Altman or Elon Musk if you had their personal address, and they’d likely check their inbox. I’ve even thought about messaging Alex Horos directly. You could also reach out to high‑leverage entrepreneurs, offering value up front. The best emails I receive usually say something like, “Hey Nick, I love your stuff; I’m also doing X, Y, Z and I’m interested in the same topic,” then they share a nuance and give me something for free without making an ask. I plan to run a similar campaign targeting about 300 people at the bleeding edge of AI ethics and AI safety, sending roughly ten customized emails a day for a month. If 20% respond, that would give me around sixty high‑level contacts.
Even with zero credibility you can still get traction by using a conversational tone in your outreach. Write longer, personalized emails that give context about who you are, what you’re building, and why you’re reaching out. Make it sound like a genuine conversation rather than a sales pitch. This approach works well for beginners because it feels authentic and helps you stand out from the generic offers flooding inboxes. Give it a try – the personal, story‑driven style often lands the first leads when you don’t have a brand reputation yet.
The creator outlines a straightforward investor outreach process: first build a list of target investors in the relevant niche (e.g., ad tech). For each investor, use a tool like Perplexity or an OpenAI web search to find their last 10 investments and a brief summary of who they are. Use that information to personalize a cold email—reference a recent investment, explain why it was strategic, note that you’re now working with a company that fits their thesis, and offer to share a pitch deck or more details. He also suggests pulling the investor list into LinkedIn to find mutual connections and request intros, but notes that this takes longer. Because investors see many deals daily, he prefers a one‑shot approach: send the personalized email, collect the positive responses, remove those leads, and then optionally follow up with a more nuanced connection request on the remaining prospects.
I'm not a big Twitter guy—I only have about 4,000 followers, which is very few. I'm not running any successful LinkedIn campaigns either; I have around 5,900 followers and I'm not very good at it. YouTube is where I'm strong, and video content works well for me. I get your point about social proof from profiles when DMing, but honestly, I don't have many tips beyond the basics: pick one thing, get really good at it, and be consistent. I usually recommend a daily cadence over a long period.