11 Unspoken Guidelines to Win Friends & Influence Investors in Silicon Valley

The new-in-town crash course on Silicon Valley etiquette

I get a lot of emails (563 per day to be exact).

I also get a lot of asks for intros.

A lot of intros.

I don’t throw these numbers out to show how popular I am. The reality is that a lot of people — probably a lot of the people you’re trying to reach right now — get a lot more emails than I do.

When I started mentoring companies at 500 Startups in my E.I.R. role, I started reflecting on everything I’ve learned as a Minnesotan who relocated to San Francisco a little over four years ago.

In the North of the United States (yes, it’s ‘the North,’ not the Midwest) we are known for being ‘Minnesota Nice,’ so I took my principles of being a respectful, caring Northerner and massaged my approach as I integrated into the tech scene on the West Coast.

There are very subtle things tech founders and people should both know and do. I learned them by experience after moving here from Minnesota — my motto is “move…