Quickstart
From a downloaded CSV to your first conversation. About twenty minutes, no tools beyond a spreadsheet.
A list of 8,594 people is not useful. A list of 40 people you have a specific reason to contact is. This page is the shortest path between the two.
Step 1 · two minutes
Open the file and cut it down
Open the CSV in Google Sheets or Excel. Delete every column except these seven:
name · company · role · xHandle · linkedin · telegramHandle · xBio
The one people delete and shouldn't is xBio. It is the person's own description of themselves and it is how you will decide who is worth contacting and what to say. Everything else is metadata; the bio is the signal.
Step 2 · five minutes
Filter to a shortlist
Two filters do most of the work.
By role. Filter the role column to what you need — Founder, BD, Marketing, Engineer, Investor. Role is populated on 74.6% of records.
By what they actually work on. Here is the thing that catches people out: search the bio column, not just the company column. Company affiliations in Web3 are usually written as @mentions in a bio rather than as a company name in a field. Someone at Binance often shows as BD @binance in their bio with an empty company field.
In Google Sheets, to find everyone connected to a company across both fields:
=FILTER(A:G, REGEXMATCH(LOWER(C:C&" "&G:G), "binance"))Adjust the column letters to your sheet. C is company, G is the bio.
Aim for 30 to 50 names. Small enough that you can write each message individually, large enough that a low reply rate still produces conversations. If your filter returns 400 people, tighten it — a list you will not personalise is a list you will not send.
Step 3 · three minutes
Choose a channel for each person
Add a column called channel. For each contact, work down this order:
| Order | Channel | Coverage | Use when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | X (Twitter) | 98.9% | Almost always available and the most reliable field in the dataset. Default here. |
| 2 | 70.4% | Better for formal or enterprise-shaped asks, and for people whose X is mostly personal. | |
| 3 | Telegram | 31.5% | Highest response rates in Web3 when correct — but these handles are inferred. Verify first. |
Do not message a Telegram handle without checking it. These are matched by username, not confirmed by identity. Roughly 6% of the ones that can be checked belong to someone else. Messaging the wrong person costs you the contact and looks careless. How to verify a handle in thirty seconds →
Step 4 · eight minutes
Write the opening message
Three things, in this order, and nothing else.
- A specific reason you are contacting them. Pull it from their bio. Not "I saw you work in DeFi" — that describes four thousand people on this list. "Saw you're running BD at Sablier" is specific.
- What you want, in one sentence. Say it plainly. Softening it makes it longer and less likely to be answered.
- A question that is easy to answer. "Are you the right person for this?" gets a reply. "Would love to explore synergies" does not.
Under sixty words. On Telegram and X, anything longer reads as a broadcast.
Example — the bio did the work
Hey Nick, saw you're Head of BD at Sablier. We're building payment streaming into a payroll product and I'd like to understand how you handle enterprise onboarding. Are you the right person to ask, or is there someone better?
The same message without the bio
Hi, I came across your profile and think there could be some great synergies between our companies. We're doing exciting things in the DeFi space. Would love to hop on a quick call to explore opportunities.
The second one is what most people send and it is why most outreach fails. It could be addressed to anyone, so it gets treated as if it was.
Step 5 · two minutes
Send ten, then stop
Send the first ten, spaced over an hour rather than in one burst, and wait a working day.
The point of stopping is that ten messages tell you whether the message works. If nobody replies, the problem is almost always the opening line, and you have thirty names left to fix it on. If you send all forty at once you have spent the list to learn one thing.
What to do with replies
Most replies are not yes. They are "what is this?", "not me, talk to X", or a question. All three are good outcomes — a redirect to the right person is worth more than a cold contact, because you can open with a name.
Non-replies are not rejections. People miss DMs. One follow-up after a week, shorter than the first, is normal and not rude. Two is.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | What happens |
|---|---|
Filtering on company only | You miss most genuine affiliations, which live in the bio as @mentions |
| Messaging Telegram handles unverified | Roughly 6% reach the wrong person |
| Sending the whole list at once | You learn nothing until the list is spent |
| Deleting the bio column | You lose the only field that tells you what to say |
| Writing over sixty words | Reads as a broadcast on the channels where these contacts live |
| Assuming the company is current | Company and role are inferred from the bio at the time of enrichment — check the profile before using it in a first line |
Next
- Choosing a channel — when X beats LinkedIn beats Telegram, and why
- Verifying a Telegram handle — the thirty-second check
- Data dictionary — what every column means