This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rodin Roohipour, a 15-year-old from Los Angeles. It’s been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider verified the email correspondences mentioned.
I’ve wanted to start a company since I was 12.
When I was younger, at 8, I loved building things. I started coding very early. Then I turned 12, I did this entrepreneurship program, and I got really into it. I kept trying to build these companies, these little side projects, but nothing took off.
Eventually, I realized a really important thing you need to have is knowledge. I knew nothing about tech or venture capital. I decided to learn everything the best way I could, which is by talking to the most knowledgeable people.
That led me to all these cold emails.
The biggest names were Alfred Lin from Sequoia Capital, Mark Cuban, Paul Graham. They’ve given so much good advice.
When I emailed Alfred Lin, I had to follow up three times. I asked him what his issues were in venture capital.
I emailed Julia Lipton from Awesome People Ventures, and she responded three weeks after my follow-up and seemed happy to chat. She was the first big person I ever called with.
When I emailed Mark Cuban, I really had to personalize it. This guy gets like 500 emails a day. You have to stand out. I said: “I’m currently a high school student who uses Al a LOT and went to your bootcamp a while back.” That captured his attention.
The most important thing is the ask
A lot of people are like, “Can you get on a meeting?” You need to go in with no expectations. You should just share your story and say, “One sentence of advice would help.”
A lot of people hide the interesting parts about themselves because they think that it’ll scare people off. In my first few emails, I talked like a salesman. It sounds super professional, but the problem with that is, it sounds like a sales pitch. It’ll go to your promotions folder.
You need to use the extreme or unusual attributes around you.
I view an email as two parts: the subject and the body. The subject is what you’re using to get someone to open it. You don’t need to explain anything. You don’t need to introduce yourself.
The subject line I’ve been using a lot is: “writing this email to you while in my high school math class.” It’s a bit generic, so if you’re emailing someone like Mark Cuban, you would change it. But it works really well. (I don’t actually write the emails in my math class. I just schedule them for the morning.)
It’s a pattern break. If all your emails are like “I’m going to fix this” or “I’m going to do that,” nobody cares. That subject line captures your eye. A 14-to-18-year-old? What’s he doing in my inbox? Math class reinforces that.
The body of the email is where everything else happens. You present your real argument, why the person you’re emailing is relevant, and why helping you makes sense for them.
A clever subject line can’t save a bad email. You’ll have 500 opens but two replies.
Paul Graham was one of the biggest emails I got. I told him, “I’m Rodin, 14 y/o and super interested in VC and startups. I’m building a product that is a trust platform for VCs / founders. I would love to chat with you about your story and some problems you face. Even 10 mins would mean a lot.”
He gave me a blunt reply, but it was nice. He told me: “This is a mistake. You are much better off focusing on learning math and programming. Build your own LLM.”
Even if these people don’t give you big replies, it’s important that you’re in their network. It builds a slight connection.
