How to sell to recently funded startups: timing, who to email, and what to say

When a company announces a round, three things usually happen in the months after: they hire, they buy tools for the people they hire, and they replace the scrappy stuff that got them this far. For anyone selling software, services or recruiting, that is about as clear a signal as B2B gets.

It is also a crowded inbox. Here is how to be the email that gets read.

Timing

The announcement date is rarely the close date; the money often landed weeks earlier. Most of the spending plans get made in the first couple of months after. Two to six weeks after the announcement is a good window. Day one is noisy. Month six is often too late, because the suppliers are chosen.

Who to contact, by round

At seed, email the founder. At Series B, the founder will forward you to the head of the function anyway, so start there.

Read the announcement properly

The press release tells you what the money is for: "to expand into Europe", "to build out our sales team", "to launch in the US". That sentence is your opening. If they're expanding into Germany and you do German payroll, you have a reason to write that nobody else in their inbox has.

Check their careers page too. Twelve open sales roles means they'll need onboarding, a CRM, sales tools and possibly a recruiter.

An email that works

Subject: German payroll before the first hire

Hi Anna,

Saw the round is going towards the Berlin office.
The first German hire usually triggers payroll
registration, a pension provider and a works
council question nobody expects.

We run payroll for UK companies hiring their first
5 to 50 people in Germany. Happy to send the
one-page checklist we give clients, no call needed.

Tom

Notice what it doesn't do: no "congrats on the raise!", no "I'd love 15 minutes". It picks up one sentence from their announcement, names a problem they'll hit soon, and offers something useful.

Keeping it steady

Rounds are announced every week. The teams that do this well run it as a weekly habit: every Monday, a fresh list of companies that raised in the last seven days, filtered to their market, with the right contact at each. Twenty good emails a week to warm companies will usually beat 500 to a cold list.

For the email mechanics, see the cold email playbook. To work out which people to email at each company, our guide on finding the decision maker goes deeper.

Questions people ask

How soon after a funding round should I reach out?

Two to six weeks is usually the sweet spot.

Which funding rounds are worth targeting?

Seed and Series A for tools founders buy themselves; Series B and later for anything sold into departments.

Should I mention the funding in my email?

Briefly, as the reason for your timing. Leading with congratulations makes you sound like everyone else.