Guide
You Have 50 Contacts. Here's How to Turn Them Into Coffee Chats.
Written by a current investment banking associate
Finding people to network with has never been easier. Between alumni directories, LinkedIn, and dedicated contact databases, most students can build a list of 50-100 bankers in an afternoon. The hard part — the part nobody talks about — is what comes next.
You're staring at a spreadsheet with 50 names. Now what?
Here's the system that actually works, step by step.
Step 1: Prioritize Your List (15 minutes)
Not all contacts are equal. Sort your 50 names into three tiers:
Tier 1 (10-15 people): Strong connection. Same school, same hometown, mutual contact, shared interest. These are your highest-probability responses. Email first.
Tier 2 (15-20 people): Some connection. Same general background, school in the same conference, similar career path. Worth personalizing.
Tier 3 (15-20 people): Cold. No obvious connection. Still worth emailing, but calibrate expectations — you're playing a volume game here.
Step 2: Write Emails That Don't Sound Like Everyone Else's
The #1 reason cold emails fail: they're identical. Every banker who's been at a desk for 6+ months has seen “I hope this email finds you well. My name is [X] and I'm a [year] at [school] interested in investment banking” hundreds of times.
What gets responses:
- Specificity over flattery. “I saw your team advised on the [specific deal]” beats “I'm really impressed by your career trajectory.”
- A human reason to reply. “I noticed we both played lacrosse at Big Ten schools” gives them a reason to care about you specifically.
- A painless ask. “Would you have 15 minutes sometime in the next couple weeks?” Not “Could we meet for coffee at your convenience?”
- Brevity. 4-6 sentences. If a credit card can't cover the body text, it's too long.
What gets deleted:
- “I want to pick your brain” (nobody wants their brain picked)
- Emails longer than one phone screen scroll
- Sending from a personal Gmail instead of a .edu address
- Addressing them by the wrong name (it happens more than you think)
CoffeePing's AI generates personalized emails using context flags — same school, mutual connections, recent deals, shared interests — so each email hits the specificity bar without requiring 45 minutes of manual research per contact.
Step 3: Send From Your Real Email
Bankers are suspicious of email they don't recognize. Mass email tools, third-party senders, and anything with a “sent via” footer signals that you're blasting everyone on the floor.
Send from your actual .edu Gmail account. It proves you're a real student at a real school. It threads properly if they reply. And it doesn't get caught in corporate spam filters the way bulk tools sometimes do.
CoffeePing connects to your Gmail and sends from your actual inbox — your name, your .edu address, no third-party footers.
Step 4: Follow Up (This Is Where 80% of Students Fail)
Most students send one email and move on. That's a mistake — and the data backs it up. A single polite follow-up 5-7 days later roughly doubles your response rate. Many bankers fully intend to respond, get buried in deal work, and forget. A follow-up isn't annoying — it's a reminder.
Follow-up template that works
“Hi [Name], I wanted to bump this to the top of your inbox — I know things get busy. Would still love to chat if you have a few minutes in the coming weeks. No worries at all if the timing doesn't work.”
That's it. Short, low-pressure, human. Send one follow-up. If no response after two attempts total, move on.
CoffeePing automates this. If your contact doesn't respond within your configured window, it drafts a follow-up for your approval. Nothing sends without you reviewing it first.
Step 5: Track Everything (Or Lose Track of Everything)
At 50 contacts, you will lose track. You'll email the same person twice. You'll forget to follow up with someone who opened your email three times. You'll let a warm lead go cold because you didn't notice their reply buried in your inbox.
You need a system. A spreadsheet works but requires manual discipline that most people don't maintain past week two. A purpose-built pipeline tracker is better — it updates automatically when you send, when someone replies, and when a follow-up is due.
The minimum you need to track:
- Contact name, firm, group
- Email sent date
- Follow-up sent (yes/no/date)
- Response received (yes/no/date)
- Status: Not contacted → Email sent → Follow-up sent → Responded → Meeting booked
CoffeePing's pipeline dashboard does this automatically. Every email you send, every reply you receive, every follow-up that fires — all tracked without you opening a spreadsheet.
The Math
If you start with 50 contacts and execute this system well:
~40 emails actually sent (some contacts will have bad addresses or leave their firm)
~6-8 responses (15-20% response rate with personalization + follow-ups)
~4-6 coffee chats booked (~60-75% of responses convert to calls)
~1-2 people who actively help you in recruiting (warm advocates, resume passes, internal referrals)
That's the pipeline. One or two people in your corner at a firm is often all it takes. But you don't get there by sending 3 emails and quitting. You get there by executing a system across 50 contacts consistently over 4-8 weeks.
CoffeePing is the networking CRM that handles steps 2-5 automatically. Add your contacts, review AI-generated emails, approve and send from your Gmail, and let the system manage follow-ups and pipeline tracking.