Ask HN: Have you gotten anywhere cold messaging investors?

Have you done anything noteworthy? If not, like if you're fresh out of school in your early twenties, then your best option for immediate capital is a program like YC. Or if bootstrapping is an option, do that until you have metrics people can't say no to. Your resume doesn't matter at $1m ARR or 10 million MAU or whatever, only how fast you got there. Otherwise, maybe don't reach out to partners directly. Go downmarket to principals or investors or associates. Win them over and they'll be your champions to the partners.

If you've been out in the world for a while and accomplished things, then you can absolutely reach out cold. Warm is better, but cold will work. If you've accomplished big things you'll have no problem getting to partners directly, otherwise you still might need to aim a little lower, depending on the firm and partner. (Accomplishing things could be building a business or doing significant research; accomplishing big things could be building multiple nine-figure businesses or being one of the co-authors on "Attention Is All You Need". You can do these things while still being relatively "nobody".)

This is general advice, of course, so take it modulo the space you're in. When the world's going nuts for $TREND and you're dealing $TREND, anything can happen.

> if you're fresh out of school in your early twenties,

I would argue that starting a startup at that age is a bad idea for most. it was a different time 20 years ago. plus most of those success stories are people who were already well connected.

Tech has mostly matured and there are processes in place for good releases. you're better off working for other startups and learning what a good work culture looks like. worst case, you learn what to look out for from bad work culture. more importantly, you make mistakes on someone else's dime or better yet, you have a mentor who helps you avoid the bad decisions in the first place.

Plus its not like being older makes you age out of starting a startup. I recently turned 40 and the startup I cofounded 4 years ago is profitable. I wouldn't have succeeded with what I knew 20 years ago.

Devils advocate, but you also will never have as little risk, and as much energy as you will when u are in your 20s. If you start in ur 20s, and fail - no big deal, as long as you keep expenses low - just find another job. Not so when you’re 40, have kids, a mortgage, more health issues, older parents to care for, etc