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## Article

# Conversation

Adrianna Lakatos
@adriannalakatos
The Cold Outreach Bible
340K
Cold email changed my life. Not metaphorically. Literally.
I cold emailed Farza, the founder of Buildspace, and flew to San Francisco three days later. I cold DM'd my way into buying handwritten Twenty One Pilots lyrics that literally don't exist on any website. I emailed Ohio State to ask for more scholarship money. They said yes and gave me $20k.
None of these happened because I had connections. None happened because I had credentials. They happened because I sent an email that didn't suck.
Here's everything I know.

##
The Mistakes Everyone Makes

1. Your subject line is invisible
If this sucks, nothing else matters. Your email dies in the inbox, unopened, unread.
Don't: "Quick question" / "Following up" / "Partnership Opportunity"
Do: Make it specific enough that only one person could have received it. The best subject lines feel like you wrote them for exactly that person. Because you did.
2. Your opener is copy-pasted (and they can tell)
"Hope you're doing well" = delete.
You've got one line to make them care. Use it.
Try:

- "I'll keep this short bc you don't care yet."
- "Saw your post on [x] — had to reach out."
- "Built something that might 10x what you're working on."

3. Your email is too long
Walls of text = walls between you and a reply.
The formula:

1. Hook
2. Why it matters to them
3. Your ask
4. Low-effort CTA
5. Sign off

Five lines. If you can't say it in five, you don't understand your own offer well enough.
4. Your ask feels like homework
"Would love to connect sometime" is the equivalent of "let's hang out soon." Everyone says it, nobody means it, nothing happens.
Don't say: "would love to connect"
Do say: "mind if I send a 2-min demo?" or "got 5 min for a quick yes/no?"
Make it too easy to say yes.
5. You ghost yourself
Most replies don't come from the first email. They come from follow-ups.
No reply ≠ no. People are busy.
Day 3: "bumping this up in case it got buried, no pressure either way" Day 7: "worth a quick look or should I close this out?"
That last one is my favorite. Giving them an easy out somehow makes them more likely to say yes. Just don't overuse the line.
And if you have a real update, use it. The best follow-up isn't a nudge. It's news. If you're a founder emailing an investor: "following up from last week. we just hit 500 users and crossed $10k MRR. would love to revisit the conversation."
That's not a bump. That's a reason to reply. Traction is the best follow-up you can send.
6. You make it all about you
Don't say: "let me know if there's anything you need help with"
Say: "this might save your team 5 hours a week"
No one cares what you built. They care what it does for them.
7. You're too formal
This is not your thesis. It's a vibe check.
Write like a smart friend, not a desperate applicant. Use contractions. Use fragments. Sign with just your first name. Your tone matters more than your resume.
8. You're treating every platform the same

- Twitter/X DMs → short, casual, to the point
- Cold emails → structured, but still direct
- Investor emails → lead with traction, no fluff

Same rules, different energy. Read the room.

##
The Thing No One Tells You

You can cold email your way into basically anything. Not just startup stuff.
When I was at Ohio State, I emailed the graduate school and asked if there was any additional scholarship funding available. I didn't have a contact. I didn't have leverage. I just wrote a direct, specific email explaining my situation and asking clearly for more money. They said yes. $20k.
Most people never ask. They assume the answer is no. They assume there's a process. They assume someone like them doesn't get to ask. But the worst that happens is they ignore you, and you're already at zero.
I wanted handwritten Twenty One Pilots lyrics. Not the kind of thing you find on any website. I tracked down their old manager and sent a DM. I followed up about 15 times over four years. And I ended up with Tyler Joseph's handwritten lyrics to Car Radio and more merch than I knew what to do with.
The point isn't the merch. The point is: most people see a closed door and stop. Cold outreach is just knocking.

##
The Email That Took Me to San Francisco

I cold emailed Farza, the founder of Buildspace.
I didn't know him. I wasn't in his network. I didn't have a warm intro or a mutual connection. I just wrote an email that was specific, direct, and human. Three days later I was on a flight to San Francisco.
That move changed the trajectory of everything.
I'm not telling you this to be inspirational. I'm telling you because the email wasn't magic. It was just good. It followed the rules above. It was short, specific, personal, and had a clear ask.
That's all it takes.

##
The Template

Here's the actual structure I use. 40%+ reply rate.

> Subject: [specific thing they posted/did/said] Hey [First name], [One sentence showing you actually paid attention to them. Their post, their talk, their product, their words.] [One sentence on why you're reaching out, framed around them. Not you. [One sentence on what you're offering, focused on outcome.] [Low-friction ask: "mind if I send a 2-min demo?" / "got 5 min for a quick yes/no?"] - [Your first name]

Five lines. Human. Specific. Easy to say yes to.

##
The Real Secret

Volume + iteration.
Send 100 emails. Track what gets replies. Kill what doesn't work. Double down on what does.
Your first 50 will suck. That's normal. By email 100 you'll have a system and you'll wonder why you waited so long to start.
The people who win at cold email aren't better writers. They're just more willing to hit send.
Cold outreach changed my life. It got me into rooms I had no business being in. It got me opportunities before I even knew to ask.
You don't need to buy another course. You just need to start writing cold emails that don't suck.
Adrianna Lakatos invests pre-seed checks ($100-$250k) into AI, hardware, and robotics founders at
f.inc
. Based in San Francisco -
@adriannalakatos
11:30 PM · Apr 9, 2026
·
340K
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Farza
@FarzaTV
·
Apr 10
i like it :)
1K
Raul Acevedo
@raul_1329
·
23h
Back during the days of in-office work, I got a job at a regional office that explicitly was not hiring by emailing the owner and saying “Hey so I know you are not hiring for location X but I kick ass and you need me” (paraphrased). You, in fact, can just do things.
1.1K
Thorne Wolf
@thornewolf
·
Apr 10
The "mind if a send a quick demo" is really really spent out for me. I drop emails that have this thing. Just put the demo in the initial email, ill watch it. I agree w/ all other points here. (except for where my counter point creates contradictions)
1.1K
HeroCraft Games
@HeroCraft
Ad
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Slide 1 of 4 - Carousel

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298K
Petri Fenix
@FenixPetri
·
Apr 10
Lovely I got product-market-fit + testimonials, tiny analytics thing. Makes them money for real. Simple not technical. So, time to learn cold email. Anything you'd do different if you cold email brick and mortar SMB brick and mortar owners?
1.4K
Meling… unedited
@uneditedMeling
·
19h
Thanks for sharing Adrianna, I was looking for something like this. I will try these and master them.
1.4K
Karim
@karimbuildsai
·
Apr 10
Lovely Blueprint! What‘s your take on Mass Email Services vs Manual Email Sending & What Service Provider you use for Warming up mails?
1.9K
yahav
@YahavSal
·
15h
Love this! Some people aren’t willing to spend the 5-10min to dig deep either. Literally go find what they posted on sound cloud last year.
331
Chapi Menge
@chapimenge3
·
Apr 10
Love this, always afraid to hit send but i think "people who win at cold email are willing to hit send"
1K
yash
@yashpxl
·
Apr 10
you guys posting these when i need it the post , thank youuuu !!! <3
923
Egor Yuzefovich
@dubcountry
·
Apr 10
Im afraid with ai the cold email approach is dying out, as volume of such emails is getting out of hand
841
Kent Lin
@kentlinyy
·
23h
Big fan of this. And absolutely changed my life too. Have so many stories to tell.
369
helen (ง •̀_•́)ง
@heyohelen
·
Apr 10
I like your day 3 and day 7 examples :> may steal
775
Paulina Stern
@PaulinaStern_
·
Apr 10
Just as I emailed an update to my Canopy application last night
342
Chris Ries
@chrisries
·
23h
Couldn’t agree more with this. See you in the cold dm trenches
383
The Law Bot
@AILawBot
·
16h
Very interesting. Thanks for the insight.
92
Aaron (e/acc)
@eacc_aaron
·
3h
damn this one's a banger
71
Alicia
@aliciadelavidal
·
Apr 10
Wow such a great guide. Thanks so so much
225
Daniel Martínez
@Wakkos
·
7h
- Volume vs. personalization tension - "40%+ reply rate": uncontextualized - Survivorship bias throughout (only success shown) - Outliers presented as norms: Handwritten celebrity merch after 4 years of follow-ups isn't a cold outreach success story
96
Dhanush Kandhan
@akadhanu
·
11h
Loved this writing
83
Chan
@chanpark_xyz
·
16h
One well-timed cold email can compress years of luck.
93
whitesoxguy
@shtbrns
·
21h
this is true
77
Sachin
@MaxMill06
·
Apr 10
I've always struggled with cold outreach, this actually feels like good way
123
jvalaj
@jvalaj13
·
19h
this is amazing!
78
Brandon Yakubov | Founder @ BDØT Industries
@buildwitbrandon
·
23h
This is why I built SalesOS (https://salesos.alephwavex.io) so people didn’t have to struggle with cold outreach.
SalesOS - Plain-English B2B Lead Discovery
From salesos.alephwavex.io
116
Deven Rathod
@devenrathodrd
·
Apr 10
nice!
359
Alexander Boldizar
@Boldizar
Ad
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4M
Julius
@juliusilg
·
Apr 10
Thanks for sharing! What can I do better?
360
Boemare
@_boemare
·
Apr 10
Adrianna the goat at email subjects and hit rates
344
Aisha
@ash_shoa
·
Apr 10
this is a wonderful read, amazing.
203
Abhz
@Aabbhhz
·
Apr 10
solid writeup. it changed my life too :)
155
Bihan
@bihanmahadewa
·
4h
W article
45
Tyler Chang
@Myccccccc
·
Apr 10
thx！
228
Darshan
@Darshanshub
·
Apr 10
That's a good read!
213
Henry Song
@HenrySo18176763
·
Apr 10
Good stuff
172
Allen Yao
@allenyao
·
Apr 10
Great advice!
219
anirudh
@anirudhprmar
·
Apr 10
187
Sid
@SidHaldar_
·
Apr 10
amazing
373
NexusNebula
@nexus__nebula
·
Apr 10
Lame
64

##
Relevant people

- Adrianna Lakatos
  @adriannalakatos
  Click to Follow adriannalakatos
  first checks up to $250k into AI, hardware + robotics founders
  @fdotinc
  // building http://investorswhobuild.com

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