Video · ~33 min

How to Convert Customers With Cold Emails

Aaron Epstein · Y Combinator Startup Library Free Beginner

Once you have a list of people to reach cold, this shows you how to write emails they actually answer. Seven concrete principles (short, human, personalized, credible, clear ask) with examples. It pairs directly with the go to them, do not wait for them idea.

  • Keep cold emails short, human, and personalized
  • Lead with credibility and one clear ask
  • A warm intro still beats cold by two to three times
Open on ycombinator.com ↗

It answers 9 questions

  1. How do I write a cold email that people actually reply to?
  2. Where do I find the very first people to even talk to about my product?
  3. Is cold outreach even worth it, or is it just spam that hurts my brand?
  4. What should my very first cold email subject line actually say?
  5. Is it legal to cold email people in India, and do I need their consent first?
  6. How do I personalize cold emails at scale without making them feel fake?
  7. My cold emails keep landing in spam. How do I fix deliverability?
  8. How do I write cold emails and LinkedIn messages that founders actually get replies to?
  9. What are the most common cold email mistakes that make people delete on sight?

Read with it

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  2. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  3. This is the canonical structure for the investor cold email, written by a YC partner who reads them from the other side. It is... Y Combinator Startup Library Essay · 5 min read How to Cold Email Investors Aaron Harris
  4. An Indian founder story where the early demand test was manual, cold emails and direct outreach to find the first customers... Prime Venture Partners Podcast Podcast · ~50 min How Khadim Batti Built Whatfix Into a Global SaaS Leader Prime Venture Partners
  5. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  6. A tight five-part framework (short, personalized, credible, valuable, clear ask) with real examples of emails that led to... The Curiosity Chronicle Essay · 10 min read The Cold Email Guide Sahil Bloom
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