How Napkin Notes builds buzz for startups

By sharing highlights from Shark Tank-style pitches

šŸ‘‹šŸ» Welcome to Newsletter Examples, where I highlight cool sh*t Iā€™m seeing in newsletters that you can steal for your newsletter.

This week, Iā€™m showing how Napkin Notes helps startups get noticed by facilitating pitch sessions with venture capitalists. Reading time: 2 minutes.

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Todayā€™s Tip: Discover your superpower

Napkin Notesā€”a newsletter produced by Kernal, a platform started in 2021 to connect entrepreneurs and investorsā€”used to write lengthy emails sharing startup ideas and research on emerging business opportunities.

Their subject lines were catchyšŸ‘‡ļøā€¦

ā€¦but they were trying to be too many things, and werenā€™t best-in-class at anything (i.e., they didnā€™t have the startup insights of Starter Story or the research depth of Trends).

Like any good startup, they kept experimenting, and eventually found their niche.

Their new approach: They started using the newsletter to publicize the great things happening on their networking platform, Kernal Dealroom.

Many recent editions of the newsletter have shared highlights from Kernalā€™s ā€œdemo daysā€ (AKA ā€œThe Best Freaking Pitch Event On The Internetā€) where founders show off their businesses a la Shark Tank, and VCs give feedback and (sometimes) invest.

Hereā€™s what the top of last weekā€™s newsletter looked likešŸ‘‡ļøā€¦

And hereā€™s the other main sectionšŸ‘‡ļøā€¦

What I ā¤ļø about it: Theyā€™re still sharing startup ideas, but showing what investors think about those ideas, providing unique value you canā€™t find somewhere else.

How to apply it: Build an event or community and share takeaways from them in your newsletter.

Hope you enjoyed this weekā€™s examples. Iā€™ll be back next week with a new set.

ā˜®ļø -Brad

P.S. Want to work with me? I just started a newsletter consulting businessā€”hit me up if youā€™re interested in learning more.

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