the art of cold emails
"hi [name],
i'm a senior product manager with 8 years experience at flipkart and swiggy. i've led teams of 15+ and shipped products used by millions. i saw your recent series b announcement and would love to explore opportunities at your company. attached is my resume. looking forward to hearing from you."
professional? sure.
effective? absolutely not.
read that email again.
count the "i"s in that email.
seven. seven times you talked about yourself in four sentences. that's not a cold email man. that's verbal masturbation.
the founder reading this
has 200 unread emails. they're debugging a production issue. their biggest customer just threatened to churn. and you want them to care about your eight years at flipkart? get over yourself.
you're playing the wrong game.
you think this is about you.
your achievements.
your potential.
hiring is sales.
and in sales? nobody gives a shit about the seller.
that standup update? sales.
that slack message? sales.
you're selling every time you speak. when you convince your friend to try that new restaurant. when you negotiate your toddler into bedtime
but most are bad at sales.
because you think sales is beneath you. "i'm a product person, not a salesperson." "i build things, i don't sell them."
cool story.
stay unemployed.
stop feeling weird about cold DMs
you're not bothering anyone.
you're offering value.
if you approach it right.
job boards are spam, maximized
think about it. one job posting. 5000 applications. your carefully crafted resume sits at position 3487 in a digital pile. they’re not reading everyone’s cv folks. cold email is a backdoor entry.
let’s learn the art of cold emails.
yes, because cold emails are an art. they’re not a science. they cannot be broken down into an equation. anyone telling you this is trying to sell you something.
what i am going to instead
is get you change the way you think. once you change the way you see cold emails, you won’t need templates. so stay with me.
cool? cool.
i will cover 3 things
who to message
what to write
where to send
1/ who to message
1/ hiring manager
basically your future boss. the person who feels the pain of not having you on their team. find them through org charts, titles or if they’re on the company website. on linkedin (look for "head of [your function]" at target company)
2/ hiring agencies
here boutique > large firms. they eat what they kill. your success is their success. so worth building relationships with.
3/ VC firms
they are the kingmakers. portfolio companies trust their recommendations. you should target either associates who are hungry to prove value or talent partners because it’s literally their job. every vc has talent partners that help their portfolio with filling key roles.
4/ communities you're part of
the shared context reduces friction. also expect the highest response rates. use your alumni networks i.e. school/college.
or professional communities
(like growthx)
2/ what to write
let me introduce you
to the most powerful
framework i've ever seen.
jobs to be done.
JTBD. remember these four letters. jobs to be done will save your career. i am not exagerating.
i discovered JTBD 12 yrs ago.
used it to land my first real job. used it to raise money. used it in product strategy. used it in performance reviews. hell, i use it to plan dinner parties.
here's the core insight
people don't buy products.
they hire products to do jobs.
nobody buys a drill because they love drills. they buy it because they need a hole in the wall. the drill is hired to create the hole.
now apply this to hiring.
companies don't hire employees. they hire employees to solve problems. your eight years of experience? that's a drill. but what hole do they need?
let’s apply jtbd
to writing an email.
how you start the email
what value add you have
the CTA at the end.
all 3 sections are about them.
let’s dive deeper.
pay attention
the start of the email
never ever start with yourself.
remember, it’s about them. not you. heck you should count how many times you say I or talk about yourself. sounds easy, but it’s super hard.
ensure your starts are:
specific or
compliment them or
straight to the point.
1 .specificity
very very specific.
like exactly what you want.
don’t “pick brains”.
don’t “explore synergies.”
don’t “let me know your thoughts”
🔴 bad "i hope this email finds you well"
🟢 good: "saw your tweet about payment failures in tier 2 cities"
2/ compliments
compliments can be the best and the worst. the thing with compliments is that you cannot fake one. if you fake them. the other person can see through them instantly. don’t compliment if you genuinely don’t have a compliment.
here’s a compliment that worked for me when i cold emailed ash maurya in 2015. he’s the author of Lean Canvas. (worldwide bestseller)
i started the email with.
“the lean canvas is brilliant, and this comes after reading zero to one by peter thiel and the learn startup by eric ries. it covers market nuance that others just don’t.”
the compliment worked because
i told him he’s better than his competition and why he is better. i would not know why he’s better if i hadn’t read all 3 books. compliments have to be genuine.
if you don’t have a compliment.
please don’t force it.
you will lose trust.
3. go straight to the point.
this never hurts. and it’s better than fake compliments.
most people think, “how can i just ask?”. see, people who are hiring don’t have time. they will appreciate a direct, straight shooter over a 12 line chatgpt email.
keep your ask 5 words or less.
ask first. context later.
not the reverse. people do the reverse.
don’t trust me?
growthx community practices
this on our community slack channel.
every. single. message. is in this format.
2. the middle
you want to answer:
why should i care?
🔴 wrong: "i have 10 years experience in marketing"
🟢 right: "i found 3 things that’s killing conversion rate on website wrong and i’ve fixed them. see prototype link here.”
🔴 wrong: "i'm passionate about your mission"
🟢 right: "i spent last weekend building a prototype for your mobile app problem"
i would go as far as to say that i would just add value in my email and let it be. i will not keep expectations. i will make the full email showing the value add. not pitching what i can do. show, don’t tell. this seperates okay cold emails to amazing cold emails.
showing value takes time.
you might have to look at **founders's last three tweets/linkedin posts.**what are they worried about? celebrating? complaining about? that's their current mental state.
you can find how to add value from our proof of work series.
proof of work is proof of nothing
you might have to deepdive into their recent product updates. what did they ship? what's still broken? check their changelog, twitter, app reviews.
you might go into competitive pressure. who just raised money in their space? who's eating their lunch? that's their anxiety.
this takes 30 minutes. max. but it transforms your email from spam to solution.
final tip: shorter is better.
not always true, but i think that short emails work way better than longer emails. the entire email should be less than 150 words
3. the CTA
make it dead easy to reply
never make me think about
what to do next. that’s your job.
most people write: “does sometime this week work for you?” horrible. now i need to open my calendar, find a slot, check conflicts, and reply. i’d only do that if i’m deeply invested in you. most people aren’t.
a better way?
“i’m free friday at 3 pm or 4 pm. either work for you?” just hit send and i’ll block it.”
see the difference?
it forces me to see that specific time slot. and i’ll reply with an alternative, without you asking, if it doesn’t work for me.
3/ where to send
email still wins.
less noisy than linkedin.
twitter DM can also work.
but i find email to be best.
find emails with hunter.io, apollo.io or just use company email patterns (first.last@company.com)
what about linkedin?
linkedin messages are trash for one reason: everyone knows you're desperately looking. it's like wearing a "hire me" badge. (if you have this on, please remove it).
email signals intentionality.
you found their address. you crafted a message. you're not just spraying and praying through linkedin's suggested connections.
but if you must use linkedin
turn off the "looking for work" banner. reference something specific from their profile. keep it even shorter than email
timing your shots
best times i've found are tuesday to thursday, 10am to noon or sunday evening for FOUNDERS. they work sundays (yea, i know.). also try 45 minutes after they tweet something positive.
handling rejection or silence
no reply isn't always no interest. people get busy. emails get buried. i've gotten replies six months later. but if you dont get a reply. don’t fret. just move on. plenty of problems to solve.
remember that first email?
seven "i"s. zero problems solved.
you know what's crazy?
and i can bet a 10K on this. most people will read this entire article. nod along. maybe even save it. then tomorrow morning, they'll open LinkedIn and type: "i am a senior product manager with..." old habits die hard.
so tonight, before you sleep.
pick one company. just one. find their biggest problem. not what they say it is. what it actually is. their app reviews. their founder's 2am tweets. their competitor's recent wins.
then ask yourself:
have i solved this before?
if yes, show them how.
if no, move on.
the best cold email?
it’s not cold at all.
it's the warmest
thing in their inbox.
it's the email that says:
"i see your problem. i've fixed it before. want me to fix it again?"
stop selling yourself.
start solving problems.
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banger
Your newsletter’s take on JTBD for cold emails stands out—clearly beats generic advice I’ve read elsewhere. Loved it!