Do More Faster India, 2nd Edition

Chapter 40Don’t Suck at Email

David Cohen

David is the cofounder and Managing Partner of Techstars.

During orientation each year, we implore the founders who are going through Techstars not to suck at email. Sucking at email is a surefire way to get your mentors, potential investors, and customers to lose interest in you.

There are many ways that new founders can suck at email, but there are a few common ones that can be corrected quickly. First, change your attitude. The most common excuse, “I get too much email,” is ridiculous. We all get a ton of email. I explain to the founders during orientation that it’s extremely unlikely that they get as many emails as I do. Reject and remove this excuse from your vocabulary, because email volume is no reason to suck at email. In fact, entrepreneurs should want even more email, especially from their customers.

If you accept the notion that “you can’t get too much email,” you’ll then need a system for dealing with it. We recommend something similar to the Getting Things Done (GTD) system by David Allen, which includes tactics such as “inbox zero.” Your goal should be to touch every email only once and either respond to it immediately or put it on a to-do list with a due date to be dealt with later. Then, delete the item from your inbox. Do not use your inbox as your to-do list—this is a guaranteed path to email misery. This simple solution will keep most people from sucking at email. If your inbox has 2,000, or even 200, new messages ...