Shounak @ MarketCurve
@heyshounak
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Storytelling for startups & VCs at | worked with folks from @ycombinator , @20vcfund | building & | ex lawyer
startup stories👇
Joined July 2016
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I've sent over 1000 cold emails to founders/CEOs over the last 36 months:
The average open rate has been ~80%
I've gotten jobs, made thousands of dollars in revenue for my business.
Here's the ultimate framework for cold emails:
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okay SaaS startup founders I'm trying out something here
Drop your landing page URLs below and I'll rewrite your copy + make it 10x more effective
Your designs will stay as is
Will give you a Figma file in your DMs.
Let's do this! 🔥
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That's it for this thread.
I've written a 13 page book on writing cold emails that expands on this on more detail.
Comment below with your favorite emoji and I'll dm you the book.
Thanks for reading along.
Now I gotta go send my cold emails for today 😅
Cheers!
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1. Subject line:
Your subject line is the most important thing to keep in mind when sending cold emails.
It's the thing that makes your reader open your email.
Spend 50% of your time writing the perfect subject line.
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1b. Examples of good subject lines:
- "The designer you didn't know you needed"
- "3 changes I made to your blog"
- "thought you might find X useful"
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1a. How to write the subject line:
- Compliment your reader on their recent accomplishments.
- Add a benefit statement in the subject line.
- Keep it short and clear.
- Mention a topic the recipient is familiar with.
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In my second month of building my startup, I made $2500 in sales.
I was on top of the world.
The next 3 months, I made 2500$ overall.
I was devastated.
Now I'm on track to make 3000$ this month.
The lesson? Staying in the game is half the battle won.
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2. Personalise. Personalise. Then some more.
The key to a good cold email is personalization.
Personalization is critical to show your reader that:
- You've done your research on him.
- You're not just spamming him.
- You two have something in common.
- You're genuine.
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2a. How to personalize your emails:
- Spend a few minutes researching your recipient.
- Look over their blog, website, social media.
- Soon, you'll find something you both have in common.
- Keep it fun, engaging and not-boring.
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Have gone viral for each of the last 8 weeks on Reddit!
Want to promote your product on Reddit without getting banned?
Lets talk!
#buildinpublic
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1c. Why do these work?
- The first one poses a direct benefit to the reader.
- The second one adds direct value to the reader.
- The third one creates a curiosity gap in the reader's mind.
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3c. Example
I’m a blogger in the travel niche. Having worked in the industry for x no. of years, I figured that companies like yours often face y challenges. The reason for this could be z. Having worked with A in overcoming n challenges, I feel that I could help you do the same
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3a. How to write your cold email body copy:
- Give a one-sentence explanation of what you do.
- Give a one-sentence explanation highlighting their pain points.
- Give a one-sentence explanation how you can solve that problem.
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Bonus:
Don’t start by saying - “I hope you are well”.
It has no value and you’d be better off spending that email space writing something that will benefit the recipient.
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2b. Formula to personalize your email (contd.)
- Mention the recipient’s blog or recent work.
- Select a quote or highlight a line that you found interesting.
- Mention your thoughts on it and how you relate to it.
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4a. Example:
"Do you think we can set aside 10 mins for a quick feedback session? Feel free to say no. I understand people are busy".
Allow them the space to say no.
More often than not, they'll oblige because you respected their time.
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2c. Example of good personalization:
"I really enjoyed your blog and especially loved your post about the white elephants you saw in Thailand. I’ve been meaning to go see them for quite a while now. Your journey sounds amazing and is motivating me to find the time"
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3. Benefits >> Features
After you have personalized the first part of the email, it’s time to go to the next level:
Understanding what moves the recipient.
In a great cold email, the recipient should benefit far more than you from a potential exchange
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Prediction for 2030.
Software as a service is dead.
Software with a service is the future.
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Okay lets do this.
Drop our landing page URL below and I'll share a 3-min video on how I would improve it.
LFG🔥
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4. Have a specific ask.
Craft a specific ask which is low friction. Make the ask as little as possible.
It’s easier for someone to give you 20 minutes over the phone or meet you for coffee than it is for them to give
you a job.
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3b. How to write your cold email body copy (contd):
- Give examples, if any, of how you have done this for other people.
- Include social proof if applicable. Share what other people have said about you.
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See what I did there?
Get to the point quickly, be specific with the message and make it easy for them to understand.
Reduce the reader’s cognitive burden.
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After 12 months in business, 16+ clients, 50+ landing pages, 50+ articles, 30 newsletters, 3 info products.
I've gone from MarketCurve to MarketCurve LLC
I'm officially (and legally) in business :D
PS: Special thanks to
@joethong
for all his help
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I am looking for a potential design co-founder for a project
ideally someone who is a pro in website/product ux & wants to go indie
DMs are open!
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I did a thing.
I got rid of my apartment and sold off my belongings.
My backpack and my guitar my lone items.
And I booked a one-way trip to the Himalayas
The first 2 days, I was s**t scared
But now 7 days in, I'm starting to enjoy the ride
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@themichaelchen
excellent question Michael!
If you're asking for a favor, you could follow this syntax:
- hey X
- personalization
- the favor you want
- why the person is best suited to help you out
- small next step he can take
- allow him to say no
I see this working.
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Update:
This thread kinda blew up and it has officially become impossible for me to DM over 250 people 😅
So here's the book link in all its glory:
Happy cold emailing!
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stories do really well on reddit
got 2000 visitors to my landing page + 67 new subs overnight for my newsletter
#buildinpublic
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Day
#13
living in the mountains.
Finished some client work early. Then went for a hike in the mountains.
Met a lot of Israeli people.
They said India is a land of magic.
I nodded and smiled.
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Gone viral 9 out of 9 on Reddit! 🎯
Posted on March 28th & got 135000 views in 38 hours
My post also got pinned by the mod of a $3.3 million subreddit 😎
Startup founders if you are trying to promote on Reddit, DM me lets talk!
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Are you even a bootstrapped startup founder if u dont work weekends? 😂😅
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I started my startup with my back against the wall.
I was fired from my job 1 month in.
Leaving me with only $240 to my name.
My mental health went to s**t
But it was a blessing in disguise.
Because I started my own thing.
And now I'm $6000 richer than when I started.
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In my last 5 client calls, I've been asked whether my company is incorporated
The answer was no
I left a lot of money on the table because of that
So now the time has come to use my legal skills to incorporate my company
I'm nervous but excited
It makes things official 😬
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I am 10/10
My viral streak on Reddit continues!
- Booked 4 calls for next week
- spoke with a 9 figure entrepreneur
- Signed a client for my agency
- 67 new newsletter subs
Hosting a 1- hr paid workshop on Reddit marketing on 28th April - DM me for deets!
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I'm an engineering dropout, ex-lawyer now building a landing page agency.
What I learnt from engineering: System thinking.
What I learnt from law: persuasion.
Just because I've left something behind, doesn't mean I can't apply the things I've learnt in my new venture.
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This week feeling more stressful than usual.
Moved to a new city, know nobody here.
Felt really alone and scared my first night.
Nomadic life isn't as romantic as it looks from the outside.
It will get better I'm sure though :)
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Did you know I sponsored my new year travels by playing gigs? 🎸🎤
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First funds into my one-week-old LLC!
This is a special day :)
I'm so excited haha
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In the last 30 days, I've created posts on Reddit that have resulted in:
- 671000 impressions
- 50000 visitors to my landing page
- 250 newsletter subscriptions
- $1017 in revenue
AMA!
#buildinpublic
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10 Killer tools to build your next landing page.
In less than 30 minutes.
Even if you have ZERO coding skills!
THREAD 🧵
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I spent last week doing competitor research for my startup
A big majority of them were pulling in 200k/yr
I got demotivated - maybe I can't compete with the big fish
But I can't worry about them
All I can do is put in the work everyday
There's plenty of room for everyone
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Humans are capable of incredible kindness, honesty and generosity.
My friends on Twitter are testament to that.
Thank you for everything :)
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Officially lost money on a deal.
Made a significant loss :/
This sucks
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This time last year I was working at a startup🦄
Was unhappy with work😞
Then I got fired after 50 days😨
Went into depression for a month😔
Then I decided to build my own startup⛏️
Now I'm happier than I ever was before🥳
The road is challenging but extremely rewarding🤗
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Getting your first 100 users is easy.
Just build an mvp give it away for free collect feedback build features get referrals do outbound collect more feedback start charging build more features update pricing talk to users
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made a page in notion called "scratching my own itch"
its a list of 15 tools that would legit make my life, bring my costs down + save me 43% less time (i did the math)
starting this week i'm gonna try my hand at building these out one by one
stoked!!
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my cold emails are getting lots of replies today!
you can't tell but I'm smiling like a kid rn
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Reddit game on point!
Have gone viral 6 out of the last 6 times! 🎯
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Woke up at 4 am today.
Worked for 5 hours straight on my startup.
What a headstart!!
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@kavita_krishnan
The NIA probe I believe is against forced conversion. Which is a problem for any religion
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@lesley_pizza
Wrote a step by step guide here:
I've sent over 1000 cold emails to founders/CEOs over the last 36 months:
The average open rate has been ~80%
I've gotten jobs, made thousands of dollars in revenue for my business.
Here's the ultimate framework for cold emails:
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Getting my second dose of vaccine today.
Don't think I'll be able to work much today and tomorrow.
I hate it when my todo list piles up.
But on the plus side, I might just write a song or poem as I lay sick in bed.
Small wins for the win!
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It's 1:40 am here and I'm done with today's work:
- scouted 25 clients for outreach next week
- finished migrating all 25 substack essays to MC domain for seo
- finished first draft for tomorrow's email newsletter
- sent out 21 cold emails
- wrote thread on cold emails
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There are only two types of people who love you.
1) Your parents
2)The guy who says your bike's headlight is on.
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1000 cool people in my tribe! 🙏
I would love to get to know you better.
Drop a line about yourself, and what you do 👋
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another morning. another day building my startup.
good morning folks!
Let's make today great!
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@dagorenouf
Haha was in the same boat today.
Looked at competitors in my niche and man they're killing it
Can't worry about them - gotta put in the work each day
Plenty of room for everyone!
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7 tips to write your marketing copy:
1. Create a hook.
2. Use simple words.
3. Make it actionable.
4. Shorten your sentences.
5. Make an irresistible offer.
6. Emphathize with your reader.
7. Address your customer's objections.
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Guess whose newsletter reached 150 subscribers after a year lol
Growth was suuuper slow but still the joy is worth it!
In case you haven't subscribed, you can do it here and become subscriber number 151😅
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I am 4/4 on Reddit 🎯
Got 100k impressions for my post 4 times in a row 📈
Got 45 new subs to my newsletter & $50 in revenue
The only downside?
The CTR is extremely low at 0.0085% 😭
Will fix this moving forward
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Building a product in a competitive market is hard.
The key is a solid positioning strategy.
You don't need to spend 100s of hours doing research.
You only *really* need to answer 9 questions.
Here's the 9-step guide to position your product in a hyper-competitive market:
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Working on my second tiny product right now:
The ultimate landing page tech stack.
Includes a database of tools from:
- landing page builder
- chatbots
- analytics
- AI copywriting
and much more.
Already 38 tools in.
Will release by the end of this week.
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Just finished scheduling my tweets for next week.
Next step:
Automate my sales outreach process including follow ups.
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@documenso
is the OSS alternative for Docusign.
I used it to sign a document & send to a client so I figured why not do a quick audit of their buyer journey
Thread 1/7
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Today I turn 27.
Rather than share a thread of 27 life principles, I would like to share a song I've written, composed and sang myself.
It's called "going home" and I hope you like it :)
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Got massive impostor syndrome today
Maybe I am an idiot - I thought to myself. It's all gonna fall apart.
So to shut them down, I began writing about it
And to my surprise, I found clarity in that chaos
Writing really is powerful.
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client call with a big multi-million dollar biz
super nervous - wish me luck!
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Commitment is being in a room and knowing that the door is unlocked.
You can choose to walk out the door at any moment.
Just knowing that the door is open for you makes you stay in the room a bit longer.
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@RegaJha
Its basically a game(of sorts). The trick is to everyday. No matter what time of the day. It can be a paragraph of even a 100 pages.
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Took a long hiatus from Twitter and now I think it's time to get back to writing and sharing my journey.
One of the key themes of this year is to create systems around:
- Health and nutrition
- Mindfulness
- Writing
- Music
- Business
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3 features of a good landing page CTA:
- It is low commitment.
- It is easy to understand.
- It takes less than 60 seconds to do.
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When I was learning my guitar, all I did was set myself a "crawl goal" of 5 mins each day.
After a year, I was playing like a madman.
And playing songs that I NEVER thought I could play.
The lesson?
Crawl each day. You'll get there.
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Learning from
@dagorenouf
about doing things that don't scale.
Got 3 people today booking a call for a landing page roast.
Sent them a PDF of my landing page standard operating procedure in my thank you email.
Adding value left, right and centre 🔥
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Client reddit case study dropping soon 🔥
Hint - I made him viral 👀👀
Dm me to become viral on reddit 🚀
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I'm feeling a bit disillusioned with working on my biz for the last few weeks.
Any advice on how to overcome it? Should I just power through? Take a break? Or reflect on why I'm feeling this way?
Or any other ideas you guys might have?
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Marketing is easy
Start with positioning, move to messaging, test positioning, attract customers, refine messaging, go organic, collect emails, talk to users, update messaging, fix onboarding, do upsells, run paid ads, build free tools, collect more emails, create growth loops
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This day's agenda:
- work on some client stuff
- Finish publishing my SEO essay
- Finish first draft of my paid newsletter
- Finish first draft of next week's MC newsletter
- roast 2 landing pages
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You either die as a startup founder or live long enough to become an influencer
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Rather than learn *how* startups work.
We should learn *why* startups work.
Rather than study *how* a startup became big.
We should study *why* a startup becomes big.
Rather than look at the surface
We should look at first principles.
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Ngl it feels feels amazing to be in included on the same page as Greg Isenberg, Lenny Rachitsky & Andrew Chen.
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Today's work:
- Send 10 cold emails
- Follow up and engage with folks
- send proposal to a potential client
- start work as a cold email consultant
- work on cold email book
- finish up blog post to go out tomorrow
Today's gonna be a long day 😅
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I made a big business mistake last week
Sales were low & I operated from a place of scarcity
When I was a kid, we struggled financially so we held onto our last penny
No more of that s**t in my biz
I'm gonna take what I deserve
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@dagorenouf
luck definitely plays a huge role.
but the way I see it is that you sometimes have to make that luck.
you put yourself out there and worked hard to start your business.
and the universe gave a little helping hand to help you out :)
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My big project for Q1 of 2022 is releasing my cold email book.
Wayyy overdue.
I'll be building and writing my book in public.
Hope this goes well!
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Getting a lot of love on my cold emails recently.
Working as a cold email consultant for a couple of startups now.
Should I create a business around it? There's definitely demand.
But I don't know what I would do with my landing page services in that case 😅
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Today is the day where I launch my first paid newsletter issue.
I'm nervous af but excited too!
I have no idea how I'm going to do but I hope it will go well.
Todays task:
- design the cover of the issue
- edit the final draft
- launch on Flurly
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Got an email from Scribd who want me to publish an audio course on "understanding your customer"
Wont take too much effort from my side.
wondering if I should do it and take up the offer
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Another great launch by the TLDV team - you guys are setting a damn high bar
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10 days ago, a client came to me to promote his product on Reddit
The 1st post got 15k impressions & 5 leads
Not bad but it could be better.
The next post?
100k impressions + 309 upvotes + 57 qualified leads.
Want to turn Reddit into your marketing channel? DM me!
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The 10 people who inspire me most in their entrepreneurial journey:
-
@dvassallo
-
@arvidkahl
-
@david_perell
-
@AliAbdaal
-
@harrydry
-
@dr
-
@linuz90
-
@DruRly
-
@fortelabs
-
@Vinrob
Thank you :)
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