Cold Email Outreach

Discussions center on the effectiveness, ethics, and annoyances of cold emailing in startups, including spam complaints, low response rates, and debates over selling contact information.

📉 Falling 0.3x Startups & Business
5,092
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#6076
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Activity Over Time

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Keywords

princeton.edu leadfuze.com GoDaddy FUND PR AngelList IMO HN privacystudy.cs VC emails email spam send cold sending reply mail unsubscribe hate

Sample Comments

danicgross Sep 1, 2010 View on HN

point taken. we didn't want to spam people's email until we were ready, but it seems that folks have gotten used to that flow

pferde Jan 10, 2020 View on HN

What's wrong with keeping contact details and sending things directly to people?

richrichardsson Aug 27, 2020 View on HN

As a PR piece for why most email to him goes unanswered?

mkrecny Sep 11, 2012 View on HN

There's nothing wrong with you. You probably don't have enough visibility on the web. Having said that, these emails are annoying and uninteresting 95% of the time.

dkersten Nov 28, 2010 View on HN

I suppose they get too much email to make it worth emailing them about it? Or?

ollysb Oct 19, 2012 View on HN

Seems there are different views on this. Maybe you should add something to your profile indicating if you want to receive unsolicited emails from startups.

orangethirty May 25, 2013 View on HN

Some "growth hacker" is testing email addresses. Don't reply, that's what they want.

fibbery Feb 5, 2014 View on HN

this is really generous and should definitely be followed up on. tons of email is easier to ignore than a cascade of real letters.

sherdil2022 May 11, 2025 View on HN

Would you respond to cold emails and out-of-blue LinkedIn messages?

xxdesmus Oct 23, 2015 View on HN

Spoiler: if you email me out of no where you won't get a "lead" you'll get marked as spam. Public shaming will ensue if you continue to spam me.