The 90-day window: why new VPs and funded founders are your warmest leads
Some buyers come pre-warm. A new Head of Sales reviews the stack in 90 days. A funded founder has 60 days of fresh spend. This is the play for both.
Some buyers come pre-warm.
You do not have to convince them they have a problem. They already know. They are about to spend money on it.
Two cohorts.
- Executives who just took a new role.
- Founders who just closed a round.
Both have a 60 to 90 day window.
Both are public, predictable, and mostly ignored.
The new executive
A new VP, CMO, Head of Sales, RevOps, or Ops lead has one quarter to make their mark.
They were hired to change something.
That means they are reviewing the stack. Asking what works. Asking what does not.
In the first 90 days, they will:
- Audit the current tools
- Talk to vendors they had not heard of
- Try a few new things
- Cut what is not delivering
The first useful DM that lands during the audit gets read. The first one that lands after the audit gets archived.
The window is short. The window is everything.
How to find them
Watch for these posts on LinkedIn:
- "Excited to share I've joined [Company] as..."
- "New chapter, new role..."
- "I'm joining the team at..."
The announcement post is your signal. The new executive is most active on LinkedIn that week. Their inbox is open.
The first move
Do not pitch. Do not "congratulate."
Comment on the announcement with one specific observation. A real one. Something about the company, the role, the team.
Then wait two days. Send a connection request with a short note. Reference the company, not the role.
Then wait another week.
Now you send the DM. One diagnostic question about the function they are running. That is the whole opener.
If they answer, you have a conversation. If they do not, the warming touches still mean something three months later.
The funded founder
Funding unlocks a clean 60 to 90 day window.
The money has to deploy fast. Investors expect it. The founder feels it.
In that window, the founder will:
- Hire faster than they want to
- Buy tools they did not need a month ago
- Try vendors they would have ignored before
- Make decisions they will revisit later
The cold message that lands in week one of the window gets read.
The cold message that lands in week ten of the window gets ignored.
How to find them
Funding announcement sources:
- LinkedIn "thrilled to announce" posts
- Crunchbase funding alerts
- Public press releases
- Founder X threads
- "We just raised" posts on Product Hunt
Every signal is public. Most teams still wait for someone to fill out a form.
The founder-to-founder ask
Skip the standard congratulations.
Send a note that names one specific thing about the round. The investor. The strategic angle. The hire they mentioned. Something that proves you actually read it.
Then ask one question.
Not a pitch question. A peer question.
"How are you thinking about [the next bottleneck]?"
Founders reply to founders. They scroll past templates.
The bet
This week, pick one cohort.
Find ten people in the 90-day window. Engage with three of their public posts. Send one diagnostic DM each.
You will get a reply rate that does not look like cold outbound.
The buyers were warm before you reached out. You just had to find the moment.
