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A year ago, I was a new college grad who couldn’t find a job. Now I run Othello.ai, a VC-backed sales-tech startup with customers across the globe and the Fortune 500.
Here’s how I did it: I cold emailed some of the smartest people on the planet, got them to give me career advice, and turned those conversations into real relationships. They’re now my friends, mentors, and in many cases, very happy clients too.
I was not a well-connected person. Now I am. I swear, this is a lot easier than it sounds — and I’ll teach you how you can do it too.
It all started when I was in college, studying business. One afternoon, I was drudging through a particularly boring textbook and I thought to myself: Does the author of this textbook even have business experience? Why am I learning from them, and not a true business expert? And that led to my next thought: Well, how could I get legendary CEOs and thinkers to even notice me, let alone sit with me long enough to have a conversation?
I began with a list of people I admired. It included KKR founder Henry Kravis, Harvard professor Steven Pinker, Nobel Prize winner Paul Milgrom, and Home Depot CEO Ted Decker. I had zero connections to them. So I guessed their email addresses, wrote each of them a personal note, and hit send. The next morning, I had a reply from Henry Kravis in my inbox. I was shocked; he’s the most iconic private equity investor alive! Even more shocking: He offered to talk with me. Two weeks later we met over Zoom. He gave me some incredible advice, but here’s the most impactful thing he said to me: “I would give up everything to be in your shoes with your opportunities.” Why? Because I’m at the dawn of my adult life. This window of opportunity won’t last forever. I can’t waste it.
From then on, I made a list of the most interesting folks alive — across business, science, comedy, the military, the arts, and more. And it worked: I connected with a wide range of accomplished people, including the founder of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, and politicians like Nigel Farage. I can now call these people mentors and, in many cases, friends. Some, such as CEO of Lenovo, Bill Amelio, and CEO of Costco, Craig Jelinek, have since backed my company Othello.ai. Some are customers, and some I interact with weekly.
Here’s the process I followed.
Step 1: Research.
Before reaching out, I needed to make sure I could craft an email that made an impact. My goal was for them to know that my intentions were pure, and that they could actually make a clear impact on me in 30 minutes.
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