Module 07 · The investor update~15s dwell · weight 9
Asks
Name exactly what help is needed this month, specific enough that a reader can act on it in under a minute.
Elizabeth Yin (Hustle Fund) treats specific asks as the highest-leverage line in the update, since a vague ask gets zero replies.
Include
- 1-3 specific asks: named role, named company type, or named question
- Enough context that a reader can forward the ask to the right person immediately
Cut
- 'Let us know if you can help with anything', which asks nothing
- More than 3 asks in one email
Red flags a reader notices
- The same generic ask appears month after month with no update on whether it was ever fulfilled
Pitfalls behind them
- Asking for 'intros to enterprise customers' with no industry, size, or use case specified
- Burying the ask at the end of a long paragraph instead of its own line
60-second self-test
- · Could a reader forward this exact sentence to one specific contact right now?
- · Did I say what happened with last month's ask?
Template
Ask: [specific role/company type/question], ideally [detail that narrows it further].
Weak
"If anyone in your network could be helpful to us in any way, we'd love an intro, always looking for good connections."
Strong
"Ask: an intro to a VP of People at a 200-500 person company using Slack heavily across regional offices, our best-fit next customer profile."
Nimbus Payroll's ask is narrow enough to hand to a specific contact.
Quick quiz
1. What makes an ask actionable?
- ○ It covers many possible kinds of help
- ✓ It names a specific role, company type, or question
- ○ It's placed at the very end of the email
- ○ It repeats every month unchanged
A narrow, specific ask can be matched instantly to someone in the reader's network.
2. How many asks should one update include?
- ○ As many as possible to maximize chances
- ✓ 1 to 3, specific ones
- ○ None, asks belong in a separate email
- ○ Exactly 10
A short list of specific asks gets more responses than a long list of vague ones.