How to write cold emails

Cold emails have changed my life. This is how I approach writing them.

Nov 2024 —
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Context

I've sent a lot of cold emails. Like... a lot. They've gotten me into some pretty cool rooms, and have given me some incredible opportunities thus far. Below are some of the cool things I've been able to do, and cool people I've been able to meet as a result:

  • We were able to bring people the following people to a conference I ran for a couple of years:

  • My first internship as an AI Research Analyst at Recalc Academy resulted from a cold email to Katie Fifer, their CEO.
    • Katie is now a mentor for me, and was integral in my decision to turn down my dream job to pursue another role that would help me grow faster.
  • My first software engineering internship at Tread Technologies Inc. came because I emailed 150 founders, until Sameer Bhalla, their CEO was crazy enough to give me a job.
  • I photographed concerts for The Backseat Lovers, The Wallows, and other smaller indie artists
  • Countless people at YC, Thiel, Google, Meta, etc.

Cold emails have resulted in the greatest opportunities in my life, and I think I'm pretty okay at them. Thus, I wanted to outline how I approach cold emails, so that you can receive the same benefits I have.

The rules

For your cold email to be effective, it must be:

  1. Specific (very) — You don't want your reader to be unclear on what you want.
  2. Concise (very) — The email should not take more than 2 minutes to read. They're busy, and probably don't care much about people in their inbox.
  3. Tailored — You don't have to over-tailor by research everything about them or their company, but you should make it clear that this wasn't sent to just anybody. An easy way to do this is to include 1 thing from their LinkedIn profile that you thought was interesting, or note something you like about their company's product/team. This could take you 30 seconds.
  4. Purposeful & Genuine — Your why should be very clear. Why does your ask get you to where you want to be in life? Why are they the right person to get you there? It becomes harder to be purposeful when you're lying. If this person is smart enough for you to be cold emailing them, they're probably smart enough to read right through a phoney email because they're seen thousands.
  5. Extremely actionable — The next step should be clear at near-zero effort for the reader. This could be an intro call, an interview, or whatever you're looking for. You must ask it very specifically.

Please note that, even though cold emails open doors you thought were shut, these emails don't always work. Nowadays I get a response on ~50% of my cold messages, but earlier I wasn't getting any responses at all. What changed? I fixed the structure, and had more substantial work to show.

The structure

The contents of a good cold email is simple.

  1. Greetings
  2. Who you are.
  3. What you want (brief).
  4. What you've done that makes you worth listening to — This means you must have links for your most impressive work(s), and a 1-2 line description for it.
  5. Actionable next step.
  6. What you want (specifically).
  7. Goodbye

This isn’t a strict rule—it depends on your judgment of the reader and your existing connection with them. For instance, when cold emailing for my Summer 2025 internship at Bubble, I could afford to be more concise because steps (2) and (4) were partly addressed beforehand through Neo. This allowed me to streamline those steps while incorporating additional contextual details to strengthen (4), such as mentioning my competing offer from a Big Tech company.

An example

Below is an example of a cold email to a startup founder/CEO. Reminder that this is simply ONE form of what a cold email might look like. (not a real email I've sent, but similar)

Hi [Recipient(s)],

I'm [Name](link to LinkedIn), [insert 1 line intro on yourself, including school & personal background]. This past summer I worked at a Series A startup in the construction industry, reporting to their CEO, pushing XX XXX lines of code across the stack. I'm emailing because I admire the work that [Company] has done—As an engineer with a design background, I appreciate how deeply your team cares about delightful user experience— and would love the opportunity to chat about joining the team.

In the last year, I've built X platforms generating XX XXX in MRR and reaching XXXXX in monthly active users. These projects include:

  1. [Project Name](link to project) — [1 line description] ([tech used])
  2. [Project Name](link to project) — [1 line description] ([tech used])
  3. [Project Name](link to project) — [1 line description] ([tech used])

I'd love to schedule a very quick 15 minute chat sometime next week to see if I'd be a good fit for [Company]. I'm looking for a 12-week Software Engineering internship for Summer 2025, and I"m open to in-person or remote work. I've attached my resume in case it's helpful.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Sincerely,

[Name]

Below is an example of a cold email to someone you just want to chat. (real)

Hi [Recipient],

I'm Marcelo — A 20-year-old business student from Queen's University (Canada) who is pursuing software engineering and product design. I saw your profile on LinkedIn and thought your career is something I can learn a lot from. The role you play at [Company], among other great companies over the years, and the impact you've had is impressive, and I'm sure your experiences are filled with invaluable learnings.

I'm reaching out to see if you may have just 15 minutes next week for me to learn from you what it means to be a great engineer, and build beautiful products. As a self-taught developer, conversations with people like you are the best ways for me to learn and improve. I program and design every single day, and I am constantly seeking insight on how to get better, faster.

I understand you're very busy, so I appreciate you taking the time to read my email. I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Marcelo

Please email me for more examples. marcechaman@gmail.com

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