Founder & Partner @ Kanvas | Foster Innovation, Develop Business Strategy, Drive Growth

Katie Nowak

Getting ghosted by partners and investors?? 🤯 
Here’s how to upgrade your outreach -

…but first, some context.

We’ve been working with several first-time business owners.

Each has an amazing product, impressive early traction with customers, but couldn't seem to convert as many investor/partner leads as they’d hoped.

After auditing their pitch deck, financial model, and every other data room item we could think of, I finally made a new request….

…I asked to see their emails! (gasp)

And voila, the problem was identified.

It was the emails!!! The whole time!! 

After 1 week of helping these business owners re-write their emails/LinkedIn requests/Instagram messages, they got immediate responses from potential investors and partners.

Here's the outreach framework we used -

✨ Anchor in their world.

When you’re writing outreach, remember... there’s a real person on the other side!

That person has their own goals, motivations, and context.

So start your message with something specific to them.

It could be a recent win, a piece of content they shared, a portfolio move, or a shared context (event, intro, community).

✨  Make one clear, business-specific ask.

We forbid things like “just reaching out” and “let's connect."

Instead, spell out the concrete outcome you want them to consider.

Complete this sentence to find your target ask:

“If this outreach works, the next concrete business step is ______.”

Then ask for that outcome in one crisp sentence.

✨ Share a credibility snapshot.

This is my favorite secret.

For email - show you’re the real deal with a few concise bullets around your users, revenue, notable customers, or outcomes. Tailor these based on who you're reaching out to.

For LinkedIn - weave one key metric you’re proud of into a connection request. (Let’s be honest, almost no one is reading full InMails.)

You’re not sending the deck in paragraph form…

...you’re simply proving that a reply is worth their time.

✨  Set expectations for a follow-up.

I love offering to follow up at a later date so I don’t feel like I’m hounding anyone.

Plus, it’s a built-in chance to demonstrate follow-through.

Just make sure it doesn’t sound stiff... keep it human and specific (“I’ll bump this in a couple weeks once X is live - we'd love to give you a demo.”).

-

Ta-da! With this framework, your outreach is ready to go.

If you’re looking for a full example email, check out the comments. I drafted a fictional one for you. 😉

What secret tricks do you have for outreach?

If you’re feeling generous, share one in the comments - I'd love to learn from you, too.

See you there 😎

—
I'm Katie Nowak, an investor, innovation leader, and new venture designer sharing examples & lessons weekly. Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

Innovation Leader, New Venture Designer, Speaker @ Kanvas || Investor @ Altra Venture Partners

"Entrepreneurship is the most honest mirror you’ll ever look into." 🤯 
Here are 3 places that mirror shows up most clearly -

✨ Your numbers.

Terrified of opening your financial forecast?
...maybe money has always felt stressful and confusing.

Discounting heavily with clients?
…maybe you’re questioning the value you bring to the table.

Numbers don’t just describe your business; they often show where decisions are coming from (fear, habit, or conviction).

Something you can do this week -
+ Notice one place your spending/pricing feels misaligned.
+ Ask - what belief might be driving this decision? 
+ What is one step you could take to challenge that belief?

✨ Your business relationships.

Saying yes to projects you've outgrown?
...maybe you're in scarcity mindset.

Not delegating because it feels easier to do yourself?
...maybe, once upon a time, you had to shoulder a lot of life solo.

These decisions are signals about what safety, value, and control look like to you today… and they directly shape the deals you make and the culture you build.

Something you can do this week -
+ Think of one recent interaction that didn’t feel great.
+ Ask yourself “What might the braver, more grounded version of me done?”
+ Write down one small way you can move closer to that next time.

✨ Your self-care.

Resting only when you're exhasuted?
...maybe you secretly think rest = laziness.

Stressed about investing in coaching or learning?
...maybe you think the money is best spent elsewhere.

When you start seeing your nervous system as a core business asset (not a side project!) it's easier to set a growth pace that is sustainable for all.

That shift alone can change the trajectory of both you and the company.

Something you can do this week - 
+ Scan your calendar.
+ Block one hour for a nap, run, or to rewatch Bad Bunny’s halftime show 5 times. (Just making sure you’re still with me!)

-

If this hits home, pick one of these three areas this week - numbers, relationships, or self-care - and ask:

“What is my business mirroring back to me right now?”

Then, decide one small behavior you’re willing to upgrade.

If you’re brave, share in the comments for accountability. :)

—
I'm Katie Nowak, an investor, innovation leader, and new venture designer sharing examples & lessons weekly. Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

Super Founder

$344 billion worth of speakers/investors. Super Founder is a brand built around growing the largest investor, founder and executive network globally starting with monthly startup pitch events and monthly speaker events. 
_____

The Super Founder Global Advisory Council releases a weekly newsletter discussing things like how to progress through rounds of investment, how to grow as a founder/human and how to grow companies properly (with or without investment). 
_____

The Super Founder Global Advisory Council (SFGAC) is a part of the Super Founder brand created by Rocket Mindset. SFGAC has 17 members and two parts. 

Part one is an internal monthly meeting by the members to discuss the state of the world, latest actions and upcoming actions in terms of investment, founders and growing companies generally. 

Part two is a public weekly newsletter which each member contributes to. There will be some guest contributions as well. 

The council was chosen to be well rounded so that readers of the newsletter (investors, founders, executives and more) would have a well rounded and trusted source of information. 

Some people at our events 
- $80 billion - Jeff Lavin 
- $21 billion - Managing Director - Neha Jatar 
- Ex-COO Techstars - Scott Ford 
- $5 billion exits - Mark McNally 
- 50 million $ marketing machines - Trevor Longino 
- Former employment attorney - Sejal Thakkar 
- Head of insights at Carta - Peter Walker 
- 15x founder - Daniel Mumby - 385k followers 
- Investor in 80+ startups - Raja Skogland 
- $4 billion sales org - David Weiss 
- $3 billion exit to Uber as marketing director - Omar Abedin
- $235 billion exec coach - Sharesz T. Wilkinson 


Newsletter & more info at: https://sf-gac.com/

Super Founder Global Advisory Council (SFGAC) CEO & Founder

The Super Founder Global Network (SFGN) is the world's largest investor, founder and executive network in the making. 

The network is backed with a defensible core of top tier management growth methods and a unique method called CGF. This enables us to not just “curate” investors/executives but “create” top tier execs/investors at scale. 

The SFGN Heads in the network come from Visa, Coca-Cola, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nike, Redbull, PepsiCo, Pacific Capital Partners ($80 billion AUM), Techstars, Gartner, Fundingstack, P&G, State Farm Ventures, Michael Cowan (worked with/on 850+ consumer brands), GE Capital, E.W. Scripps (Founded in 1878), Kraft Foods, Standard Chartered, Super Bowl, Lehman Brothers, VC, PE, HR, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Growth and more. 

See more at: https://sf-gn.com/

Super Founder Global Network (SFGN) CEO & Founder

Founder Institute

The Founder Institute is the #1 place in the world to turn ideas into fundable startups, and startups into global businesses. FI Alumni have raised over $1.5 billion in funding and are building meaningful businesses across 200+ cities and 6 continents.

Mentor

Nobody Studios

I’m excited to announce joining Nobody Studios as a Founder Mentor. Nobody Studios is one of the largest venture studios in the world with CEO Mark McNally who has had $5 billion in exits. 

Nobody Studios is stacked with top talent (Facebook & Coca Cola execs, multi-exit founders and much more), amazing humans and incredible portfolio companies that will change the world. 

We align on a global playing field (ambitious is my number one trait), high quality high scale founders/humans as a core (rigor is so important to me), rapid sustainable company creation, collaboration mindset & tactics in a variety of ways and much more. 

Mark McNally has been a great partner at Super Founder by Rocket Mindset. We’re excited to be stepping up our partnership today. 

Thank you Sejal Thakkar for everything you have done and continue do…you are beyond incredible. Much to come. 

I’m excited to meet more of the amazing Nobody team in the coming weeks. 

I’ll continue to build the world’s largest investor & founder network (pitch events monthly 🚀) with my team based defensibly on high quality high scale founders that we create rapidly at scale. Our team will continue to make global partnerships like this. This is another exciting one with another great human team and great founders 🚀

Founder Mentor

PTH Venture Studio

I’m excited to announce joining PTH Venture Studio as an Advisor. Omar Abedin was Marketing Director at Careem prior to its $3.1Bn acquisition by Uber, did $100 million annual marketing budgets, has great portcos and has been a great partner at Super Founder by Rocket Mindset. We’re excited to be stepping up our partnership today. I’ll continue to build the world’s largest investor & founder network and make global partnerships. This is another exciting one with another great human and great founders 🚀

Advisor

StudioHUB Startup Studio Community

I’m excited to announce joining StudioHub as a Studio & Founder Mentor. StudioHub is the world’s largest startup studio network with 1,000+ startup studios. 

In the network StudioHub has studios like IdeaLab, High Alpha and hundreds more that spun up companies like Coinbase, Twilio, Attentive, SalesLoft and hundreds more. 

Manush Melkumyan has been a great partner at Super Founder by Rocket Mindset. We’re excited to be stepping up our partnership today. 

I’ll continue to build the world’s largest investor & founder network (pitch events monthly 🚀) with my team based defensibly on high quality high scale founders that we create rapidly at scale. Our team will continue to make global partnerships like this. This is another exciting one with another great human and great founders 🚀

Studio & Founder Mentor

Montelier Capital

Investing in a wide range of founders that meet our "Gravity Ball" concept plus 100+ other attributes we have a deep founder / management team science for. We mentor founders / teams through Rocket Mindset / Super Founder brand to make extremely strong returns.

General Partner

Rocket Mindset Inc.

CEO Consulting across industries and countries to grow your company faster than any other method...and we have fun too :-) Our goal is to make the largest global impact and measurably affect 3 billion people...CEOs have a powerful cascading effect to teams and customers. 

The deepest people science and company science is at our core...and we have fun growing hundreds of companies. 

Specialized mechanics for every type of business. Customized and calculated...every inch of a company can be optimized...every line of code, every micro expression on a sales call, every strategy accounting for the latest interest rates and much much more. 

All in weekly 1:1 calls...customized to each CEO / team. 

We also connect you to additional experts and investors you will need on your journey as each phase comes. 

“You are probably one of the best investments I’ve ever made” - Carlos Ramirez (Former Tesla Exec) 

“Jeremy is a force of nature” - Omar Abedin ($3B exit to Uber as Marketing Director) 

“Jeremy Barr is a powerhouse” - Sharesz T. Wilkinson (Executive Coach to orgs up to $235 billion) 

“Sometimes I’m stuck on a problem for a week, then one conversation with Jeremy changes the game.” - Shoukri Kattan (CEO at BitLab) 

“Jeremy is an absolute rockstar! I deeply appreciate his ability to take large, complex problems and break them down into manageable, actionable steps to accelerate progress, while maintaining the human element.” - Angela Priest (CEO at Groyu - managed $1 billion operations) 

“Simply put, Jeremy is a machine” - Anwar Imani (Co-Founder at Smashtech - $40 million revenue)

Chief Executive Officer & Founder

THE Founder Mentor $0-$100 million 💰 | VC | Pitch events monthly 🚀 | 3,000+ exec mentoring calls …up to 200 person orgs 🔥 | Building the largest investor & founder network globally 🌎 | DEEP posts DAILY 🤓

Jeremy grows companies with advanced strategies ($200k - $1B)...after managing teams of teams of teams of people up to $1.4 billion.

"I paid over $50,000 to Jeremy...worth every penny." - Brett Butler (CEO) 

“You are probably one of the best investments I’ve ever made” - Carlos Ramirez (Former Tesla Exec) 

It includes weekly advisory calls ($1k - $2k / mo) and/or full business/growth plans ($10k - $20k) and/or growth mathematics/models/algos ($50k - $300k) for cross industry (except healthcare) cross product revenue sizes $0 - $1 billion 

If you're "already a very smart CEO" and want to go "next level" (see what you don't know you don't know) and become unquestionable then DM me for an intro chat. 

Month by month flexibility. Clients usually stay over a year. 

Jeremy managed teams of teams of teams of people, operated at million $ and billion $ scale, did and managed nearly every role in a ton of companies, bought a company, became a VC, did AI on a project with the FBI & Secret Service and now consults top tier CEO's, investors and venture studios in 30+ countries globally. 8 countries/day.

-> DM to check availability and fit <- 

“Jeremy is a force of nature” - Omar Abedin ($3B exit to Uber as Marketing Director) 

“Sometimes I’m stuck on a problem for a week, then one conversation with Jeremy changes the game.” - Shoukri Kattan (CEO at BitLab) 

“Jeremy Barr is a powerhouse” - Sharesz T. Wilkinson (Exec Coach to orgs up to $235 billion) 

"Jeremy is one of the rare ones who can break down art into science." - Dr Ankur Pathak (Founding Principal at London Real Ventures) 

"I made $68,000 in 47 days thanks to Jeremy" - Ally Kennedy (CEO) 

“Jeremy is an absolute rockstar!” - Angela Priest (CEO - managed $1 billion operations) 

"Jeremy is extremely talented at growing companies rapidly…every nuance considered. I rarely see anyone master such breadth and depth." - David Weiss (Helped 200+ startups in 2023, $4 billion sales org) 

"Ultimately, Jeremy is a force." - Cindy Skalicky (CEO - Clients raised $500 million in deal flow)

"Jeremy's mastery in scaling teams, transformative innovation, and driving growth is exceptional." -  Mohammad Tavangar (Director at Founder Institute, Ex Financial Advisor at European Commission) 

"Jeremy is an amazing human being who has one of the most brilliant minds." -Ted Belinky (CFO - Ex Kraft Foods)

“Simply put, Jeremy is a machine” - Anwar Imani (Co-Founder at Smashtech - $40 million revenue)

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The Battle

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Engagements

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Katie Nowak's LinkedIn Performance

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