A few months ago, I was working with a therapeutics founder who had done everything right.

She'd spent weeks building her investor list. She had almost 500 names properly tiered with qualifications scores and notes on thesis fit. The whole system was ready for her outreach.

Then... silence.

When I checked in two months later, the spreadsheet hadn't been touched. Not a single outreach sent.

"Life happened," she told me. The lab needed her attention. Her daughter had soccer tournaments. Grant deadlines piled up.

And honestly? She wasn't sure what to say when she actually reached out. The list was perfect, but the next step was unclear.

I've been there myself. You spend all this energy figuring out WHO to target and then freeze when it's time to actually reach out.

The spreadsheet becomes a monument to good intentions - impressive to look at, but useless in practice.

Here's the thing: knowing who to contact is only half the battle. The other half is knowing how and when to actually do it.

That's what today's issue is about.

And there's no better forcing function than JPM week. Whether you're walking the halls of the Westin or satellite conferences, or watching from your home office, the week of January 12-15 creates a unique window.

Investor attention is concentrated, everyone's thinking about deals, and there's a legitimate reason to reach out.

So today, I’d like to give you the exact playbook to activate your list - with specific strategies for attendees and non-attendees alike.

Let’s dive in.

Every January, the biotech world compresses into a single week. Thousands of investors, executives, and founders descend on San Francisco. Deals get announced. Partnerships get signed. The entire industry is paying attention.

This creates something powerful: concentrated mindshare.

During JPM week, investors are already thinking about new opportunities. They're comparing notes with colleagues about what's exciting.

Even investors who skip JPM feel the energy. They see the LinkedIn posts and hear about the deals. They don't want to miss out.

A well-timed outreach during JPM week converts better than the same email sent at random in February.

But timing only goes as far as the quality of your outreach. Let’s make sure that yours is authentic and can cut through the noise.

Before you write a single email, ask yourself: what's my best path to this investor?

Not all outreach is created equal. A warm intro converts at 5-10x the rate of cold email. That doesn't mean cold outreach doesn't work (it does), but you should exhaust warmer paths first.

THE WARM INTRO HIERARCHY

Here's the order of priority for reaching any investor on your list:

Tier 1: Portfolio founder intro - This is the most underused path. If an investor backed a company, and you know that founder, ask for an intro. Portfolio founders have direct access, and their opinion carries weight. But even if you don't know them - reach out anyway. Most founders are willing to pay it forward if you're respectful, authentic, and brief. Check the investor's portfolio on their website, then cross-reference with your LinkedIn connections.

Tier 2: Mutual professional connection - A co-investor, advisor, or executive who knows you both. The key is relevance - a random LinkedIn mutual connection doesn't help. This should be someone who can speak to your credibility.

Tier 3: Mutual personal connection - Weaker than professional, but still warmer than cold. Use sparingly and only if the connection is real.

Tier 4: Cold outreach - No path in? That's okay. Many investors expect cold emails and may actually prefer them to awkward forced intros. The key is making your cold outreach not feel cold (see more on this below).

Mapping your paths:

For each of your Top 15 target investors, spend 10 minutes on this:

If you find a warm path, use it. If not, go cold with confidence.

Most investor outreach fails for the same reasons: it's generic, it's long, and it asks for too much too soon.

Let's fix that.

What makes outreach feel generic:

Generic outreach signals that you're spraying and praying. At best, these messages are routed to a general inbox; more realistically, the outreach won’t see the light of day.

What makes outreach feel relevant:

THE ANATOMY OF A GOOD COLD EMAIL

Subject line: Short, specific, not clickbait. Include your company name or sector. "Seed-stage CNS platform | [Company Name]" works better than "Quick question" or "Exciting opportunity."

Opening line: No throat-clearing. Don't start with "I hope this email finds you well." Start with why you're reaching out to them specifically.

The relevance bridge: In 2-3 sentences, connect your company to something they care about. This is where the personalization matters.

The ask: Don't ask for a meeting. Ask for permission to share more. This lowers the barrier dramatically.

The sign-off: Your name, title, company, and one link (website or deck). No five-line signature blocks.

Total length: 4-6 sentences. If it doesn't fit on a phone screen without scrolling, it's too long.

Cold LinkedIn DMs

Same principles, even shorter. You have ~300 characters in a connection request note.

That's it. Don't pitch in the connection request. Get the connection, then follow up with a brief message.

Warm intro requests

When asking someone to make an intro, do the work for them:

Then include a 3-5 sentence forwardable blurb written in third person. You may also include a short non-con deck as an forwardable attachment or (better yet), a docsend link.

Now let's layer timing on top of your outreach strategy.

TRACK 1: IF YOU’RE NOT ATTENDING JPM

Your goal is to reach investors while they're energized but not overwhelmed.

Week before (Jan 5-11): Prime outreach window. Send your initial emails. Investors are prepping but not yet slammed.

During JPM (Jan 12-15): Avoid cold outreach to attendees - they're in back-to-back meetings. Instead, stay visible on LinkedIn. Comment thoughtfully on JPM-related posts. Don't pitch in comments - just be present.

Post-JPM (Jan 16-24): The golden window. Investors are back at their desks, processing what they saw, and building their pipelines for the rest of Q1. This is when your follow-up emails land. Reference the JPM energy: "Now that JPM dust has settled, wanted to follow up..."

TRACK 2: IF YOU ARE ATTENDING JPM

Your job is to maximize every interaction and capture momentum you can build on for months.

Pre-schedule aggressively: Meetings should already be on calendars. If not, reach out now with specific time requests. Offer breakfast or early coffee slots, before their days get chaotic.

Prioritize depth over breadth: Five real conversations beat twenty badge scans. You're not collecting business cards. You're starting relationships.

Capture notes immediately: After each meeting, take 2 minutes to record key points and follow-up actions. Pro tips: 1) Jot down brief notes on the back of their business cards 2) Take a selfie with them and text it to them so you both remember each other and have a line of communication open.

Set realistic expectations: JPM rarely closes deals, but it does kickstart relationships. An investor you meet this week likely won’t be writing a check right away. Your goal is to leave with 5-10 investors genuinely interested in a follow-up - and to actually send that follow-up within 72 hours.

Here's your week-by-week checklist. Items marked with ✈️ are for JPM attendees only.

Goal: Prep your outreach and get on calendars

Goal: Stay visible, capture intel, don't burn out

Goal: Convert activity into pipeline momentum

A standalone spreadsheet to manage your entire JPM week - whether you're attending or activating from home.

What's Inside:

Note: the tracker has been pre-populated with values for illustration purposes; please edit as needed.

[Download the JPM Planner]

Nine copy/paste templates covering every outreach scenario we discussed today.

What’s inside:

Each template includes placeholders and notes on when to use it.

[Get the Swipe File]

One prompt to research any investor and generate personalized outreach angles.

Paste in an investor's name and firm, and get back:

If you followed the Investor Sourcing Intensive, you already have the full AI Research Mega Prompt from Week 6. Use it to research any investor on your outreach list - it covers fund basics, thesis, recent investments, portfolio analysis, and personalization angles.

[Copy the AI Prompt]

That's it for this week! You've got the framework, the templates. And today, you have the outreach playbook.

Now it's about execution.

The next three weeks are your window. Whether you're working from home or taking meetings in SF, JPM week is your forcing function to finally activate that investor list.

Speaking of SF - after being on the fence for weeks, I finally caved to the FOMO and booked my ticket. I'll be at JPM.

If you're going to be in SF during the conference (Jan 12-15), let me know! Would love to meet you in person. Just reply to this email or DM me on LinkedIn.

Until next week,

- Vadim

PS: If you have someone on your team helping with fundraising or know another founder who could benefit from being in this community - I’d love to include them. They can join us here: [Join the Community]