I believe I’ve written about this before but I see it made so often that I feel compelled to write about it again.
Entrepreneurs, VCs, and others in the startup ecosystem often send an email introducing a company to all of the partners (or most) at our firm. And that email is addressed to all of us, not one of us.
The result is that none of us feel ownership in the introduction and though we generally figure out who should reply, it can result in the email going unanswered for a while or longer.
On the other hand, if an email is sent to one partner, with possibly a copy to others, then the recipient feels a responsibility to reply and the email is generally answered.
I send emails to busy people a lot. And what I have learned is that I need to address them directly, write the note personally so that it is obvious that I have written it myself, and then copy someone (usually their assistant, but often a colleague as well) to make sure they see it.
Email is such a challenging medium to operate in that when using it, you must be very careful to optimize the chances of a reply.
Sending an email to all is generally not a form of optimization that works.
