Cold emailing a VC without an intro?

I don't have any contacts that could provide me an intro to a vc firm or angel investors. I have, however, found that many VCs' email addresses can be easily found on their websites or personal blogs.

How can I improve my odds of getting seen or getting called to pitch in-person by cold-emailing them?

I'll assume you are actually looking to increase your odds at getting a response first vs a call to pitch in person. The in person pitch would come after a response - hopefully. ;)

I've cold emailed "A list" investors before and gotten responses from more than I expected. All of them were very polite and direct about their interest. Some of them even went back and forth with me for a bit. It was more that I expected - so I would considered it a "success".

As you eluded to in your question, the general wisdom is to get an introduction. Intro's are the best way to go for sure, however, if you are going to cold email, here are my tips:

1. Get to the point, quickly. Your first sentences should be and intro to your product. The goal is to pique their interest without being obscure about what you are doing.
2. Offer demo login credentials to your app so they can explore it on their own time. This is essential as it means you have a working prototype ready to show. Remember you are cold pitching and want to increase your odds. This shows them that you are a "doer" without you having to say it.
3. Link to a more detailed summary of your company. I offered a link to an executive summary (1 page long) that they can open in their browser if they wanted to know more. I also tracked who clicked the link it so I knew who opened it.
4. Follow up on the email if you don't hear back from them. I followed up at most twice with a 2-3 week gap in-between each follow up. I did get responses from follow up emails so I think it's worth doing.
5. Relationships lead to investments - cold emails can lead to relationships. As a general rule - a goal of the cold email is to figure out how to start forming a relationship. It's not as simple as just sending an email - what are you going to do to stay in touch with them?

Here is an example of an email I would send:

Hi, my name is John Smith and I'm building a product that helps people find friends and family online. Friend Finder uses a proprietary algorithm that searches all social networks and the general internet to find potential friends and family that you are not already connected with.

I've set up a demo account for you to try it out yourself.
www.findmyfriendsandfamily.com
u: demo58
p: yellowcars

Below is a link to my executive summary for you to learn more about what we do and our plans for the future.
[link to the document]

I would love any feedback that you might have - or to continue the conversation if you feel this might be a good investment fit.

John Smith
<link to social profiles>
<phone number and email address>

Everyone who replied I followed up with "Thanks for taking the time to reply. Would you mind if I kept you in the loop with my progress over the upcoming months." All of them subsequently replied with a "yes". The progress updates is your time to prove even more that you continue to execute. This is where you might begin to form relationships - even if it's one sided.

Hope that helps. Good luck!