// What an Investor Thinks of Cold DMs

I get pitched a lot in my DMs.

Like, A LOT a lot.

It’s a lot of founders looking for investment.

99% don’t know me.

They just see “Angel Investor” in my title and take a shot without doing any research. They are looking for cash and have little to no regard for anything strategic I might bring to the table.

The other day, I got a pitch and asked, as I often do, “How do you fit my thesis?”

I got back an obviously AI-written response riddled with tells (the long dash —, gaps that needed to be filled in, quotes that should have been removed, and more).

Let me be clear: I’m all about using AI, but this was such a slap in the face.

Not only am I not worthy of an intentional, thoughtful response written by the founder, but they can’t even be bothered to read the output.

So this tells me everything about them as a founder.

🚩They’re not diligencing their investors, so how could I trust they know their customers?

🚩They can’t clearly convey their vision and answer a simple question without AI

🚩They have no attention to detail

🚩They don’t care about burning bridges

To the founder’s credit, they owned up immediately to their “laziness” (their word) when I told them I couldn’t possibly consider investing based on their blatant use of ChatGPT without reading it over.

But the trust was broken before the relationship even started, and I’d never get that out of my head.

I firmly believe in the adage: when someone shows you who they are, believe them.