I honestly never know the best combination of polite and authoritativeness to to schedule meetings over email. Are you suggesting that people should a specific time and see if it works for the other person? (i.e. "I'll give you a call at 3PM on Monday if you'd like to talk more") or that he should have just asked the person to pick the best time for them, and then he could adjust his schedule around it. I normally opt for the second when I'm dealing with someone I don't know very well.
The only thing that bothered me about the way he did it was that he capitalized the TWO. This makes it looks like he thinks the VCs are retarded. (Maybe if most VCs think other VCs are retarded, this could have helped his case :)
I see you are trying to figure out the best way to schedule business meetings. I do this all the time as Chief Handshaker at FreshBooks. Are you free Monday at 2pm CST to discuss this? I can call you at 321-555-1212.
I stated the problem and my reason for talking to you. Then chose a time in your timezone (I guessed in this case) and I declared who is calling whom and by what means. I always prefer to call you at your number in case I am running late.
If you accept, I'll send you a meeting invite. I used to not send meeting invites but I found that in 15% of the cases people don't mark meetings in their own calendars.
My signature includes my contact information as well, which is useful later in the deal cycle. Don't make your phone number a mystery.
That's a great basic outline, and I agree with all the little touches you add, such as making it clear who is calling whom, and that your number is clearly visible in any case.
My only problem is who should suggest the first meeting time/place. By suggesting it yourself, you are assuming a position of seniority in the relationship that may not be appropriate, and project the image that their time is not as valuable as yours. I personally only suggest a time if I have reason to believe that the other person will be available then. For example, "Would you like to talk about XXX over coffee after the conference we'll both be at?" Otherwise, I let them know that I will make myself available whenever is convenient for them.
If someone is really more important than you, they will get really frustrated if they have waste time driving the tiddly bits of the relationship.
I cut down useless steps so I didn't waste time. I remained polite; I asked for the time, I didn't make it an order. I drove to an action to move the relationship forward. That's respect.
If they aren't available at the time you ask, they will take command and respond with times they are available. Then you defer.
I agree with all of that, I just think both options equally meet those objective criteria. The only difference is how the recipient perceives the message. I think it's largely a difference in culture between academia (my realm) and business.
A professor, for example, might assume that you have particular reasons for selecting the time slot you have and wonder whether he should clear room in his schedule to meet your expectations. In this case, selecting an exact time before hand provides a minor inconvenience to him.
With the amount of travelling that investors do these days, I'd be surprised if they could be caught at any time inside their home timezone. We also have internal people strung out from Korea to Hawaii, so we all use EST to time our calls with the market. For us, it's proven to be easier than a timezone back-and-forth. My two ♙.
What I usually do is give other person (assuming they are busier than me) 2-3 wide options than a specific time. Example "I am available Monday 9am - 1pm, Tuesday 10:30am - 2pm and Wednesday 2:30pm - 8pm. Let me know what works best for you."
The only thing that bothered me about the way he did it was that he capitalized the TWO. This makes it looks like he thinks the VCs are retarded. (Maybe if most VCs think other VCs are retarded, this could have helped his case :)