Outreach

You have a list. Now you actually have to make contact. For many founders this is the hardest step — it is easy to put off. But a list without outreach is just a document. This lesson is about writing a first message people actually read and reply to, and following up without being a pest.

Writing a cold email that gets read

Most cold emails get deleted because they are about the sender, too long, or ask for too much. A good first message is short, relevant and easy to answer. A simple structure:

1. A reason you are contacting them specifically (shows it is not a mass mailing).
2. One sentence about a problem you know they might have.
3. One small, concrete question — not "can we have an hour-long meeting", but something easy to say yes to.

Here is an original example you can adapt:

Subject: Quick thought on time tracking at [Company]

Hi [Name],

I noticed you have grown to around ten employees over the past year — congratulations. When firms grow that fast, time tracking often becomes the bottleneck before the monthly close.

We have built a simple tool for exactly that. May I send you a two-minute example of how it looks, so you can judge for yourself whether it is relevant?

Best regards, [Your name]

Notice that the message does not ask for a meeting straight away. It asks permission to send something small. That is a far lower barrier.

The first message is about the customer, not about you

The most common mistake is filling the message with "we are a company that…", product names and features. The customer does not care about you yet. They care about their problem. Flip the perspective: write about their situation, their everyday life, their bottleneck — and let the product be the solution you mention at the end, briefly.

A useful test: if you removed your company name from the message, could it still be sent to anyone at all? Then it is too generic. One concrete detail about this particular customer makes all the difference.

Following up without being a pest

Most people do not reply to the first message — not because they are uninterested, but because they are busy and forget. That is why follow-up is decisive. It is not pushy to remind someone once or twice, as long as you do it politely and add a little new value each time.

A simple rhythm might be: first message, then a friendly reminder after a few days, and a final short message a good week later. In the last one, feel free to give the customer an easy way out: "If this is not relevant now, just say so and I will stop bothering you — but if the timing is simply bad, I am happy to reach out again in the autumn." That is honest and respectful, and people often reply precisely because you make it easy.

Booking the first meeting

The goal of the first messages is rarely to sell — it is to get a conversation. When someone shows interest, make it dead simple to agree on a time. Propose two specific slots instead of asking openly "when suits you?", which creates more work for the customer. Confirm the meeting, and send a short reminder the day before. The less friction, the more meetings actually happen.

Remember that the goal of volume here is not to pester, but to give enough people the chance to reply. Say you send twenty thoughtful, personal messages and get three conversations out of it — that is a good start, not a failure. The seventeen who did not reply cost you little, while the three could become your first customers. Do not let a few unanswered messages stop you; it is entirely normal and part of the arithmetic.

Do this now

Write your own cold email using the structure above, tailored to one real customer on your list. Remove everything about you, and keep one concrete detail about the customer. Send it to five people today, and set a reminder to follow up in three days.