12

Delight

“Can I do anything for you, Mr. Bond?”
“Just a drink. A martini, shaken, not stirred.”

—Goldfinger

• Follow up immediately

• Send a handwritten thank-you note

• Give a thoughtful gift

• Make specific offers of your network and resources

“There was this one investor we really wanted to have onboard. They weren’t having it. I got an existing investor to write a follow-up e-mail. I spent two hours writing a two-line e-mail to him. The investor who backed me said, ‘Incidentally, that was a really effective email.’”

—Sanjay Dastoor,
Cofounder, Boosted Boards

The meeting went fine, but Loomis could tell he wasn’t interested. They stood up, and Loomis thanked him for his time. They shook hands and left the café. A few weeks later, Loomis remembered a small detail about the conversation.

During the first few minutes, the investor had mentioned that he and his wife were preparing for an anniversary trip in the Mediterranean. Having known about the area the investor mentioned, Loomis asked what hotel they were staying at. Loomis didn’t recognize the name, but he wrote it down in his notes after the meeting. Weeks later, Loomis remembered that their anniversary was in a few days. As a gesture of kindness, he had an assistant contact the hotel to send a bottle of wine to the investor’s room with a note. Then he forgot about it. A month later, he got a letter from the investor in the mail with one sentence:

“I’m in for $250,000, thanks for being so thoughtful.”

$100 well spent.

Thoughtfulness expressed through acts of gratitude is one of the rarest and most powerful characteristics an entrepreneur can possess. Handwritten letters, a small but personal gift, or just doing what you say you will are so out of the ordinary in today’s culture that they surprise and delight people—sometimes so much so that it motivates people to act.

The third step in the friendship loop—delight—is a founder’s opportunity to demonstrate their sincere interest in the person they meet with, not just in what they can get from that person. There are an infinite numbers of ways to delight someone. You can show grace or kindness to someone when she is late or forgot something she told you she would do. You can show an extra amount of thoroughness and follow-through in answering a request someone makes of you. You can show a candid amount of honesty and vulnerability about the weaknesses of your venture and how you are planning to tackle them.

All of these examples create the experience of delight in the recipients because they don’t expect them. Going beyond someone’s expectations is at the core of delight and the guiding principle for founders hoping to delight others. We focus on four key actions that are likely to delight the people you meet with: following up immediately, sending a handwritten thank-you note, giving a thoughtful gift, and making specific offers of your network or resources in ways that benefit others.

Follow Up Immediately

After every meeting, send an e-mail with anything you mentioned or promised during your time together as well as a clear next step for the relationship. Doing what you said you were going to do can be a significant way to delight someone who is used to false promises.

E-mail Script: Following Up

Send a Handwritten Thank-You Note

We live in a digital world, but we are analog creatures. Considering the bombardment of electronic messages, the most powerful way you can convey appreciation and intent is through a handwritten note. Far from being outdated, handwritten letters have become even more important as more and more of our lives are digitized.

Types of Material

Correspondence cards. Look like thick postcards with your name at the top. They are usually around four by six inches and work beautifully for follow-ups and thank-you notes.

Fold-over cards. Great for following up also. Fold-overs sometimes provide you with more room to write, so if you have big handwriting, you might consider them.

Letter sheets. Letter sheets should be used for more intimate communication—a letter to a close friend on a special occasion, for instance. Don’t use them for new connections or as thank-you cards; you’ll run out of things to say way before you’ve filled up enough of the page.

Letterpress. If you really want to go over the top, you can have your own stationery made by letterpress. It will cost you more, but you’ll get that classy, Old World feel of embossed letters.

Brands

Give a Thoughtful Gift

If you listen closely, you can uncover small details about a person’s life and interests that can clue you in to ways to delight him or her with a thoughtful gift. Important events like birthdays and anniversaries, hobbies and interests, and personal causes can all be opportunities to offer something that will be very meaningful. Gifts surprise, disarm, and encourage reciprocity. They help level the playing field between you and the person you are asking something from. What can you send, give, or do for the people you meet with that would wow them? It ought to be personal, something that makes the person feel known and valued.

Ideas for Delighting with Something Unexpected, from Vague to Personal

Make Specific Offers of Your Network or Resources

One of the more surprising discoveries of life during the road show is that you have something to offer to the people you meet. Each time you move through the friendship loop, your social graph expands exponentially. Those new connections give you access to new kinds of information that can be useful to those you meet. So, offer it to them. Pay attention to the goals and needs and find specific resources—news articles, events, or books—that you can send their way.