2,000 emails and one breakthrough
I've sent over 2,000 cold emails pitching Founders' Fuel sponsorships. For the first 500, my reply rate was 6%. Decent by cold email standards, terrible by mine.
Then I found a formula that changed everything. My last 200 emails had a 41% reply rate. Not open rate — reply rate.
Here's exactly what I changed and why it works.
The old email (6% reply rate)
Here's what my emails used to look like:
Subject: Sponsorship opportunity with The Founders' Fuel
Hi [Name],
I'm the founder of The Founders' Fuel, a newsletter for founders with 13,000+ subscribers. We have a 48% open rate and our audience is primarily SaaS founders and indie hackers.
I'd love to discuss a sponsorship opportunity with [Company]. Our rates start at $2,500 per issue and include a dedicated section with a custom write-up.
Would you be open to a quick call this week?
Why it failed: It's all about me. My newsletter, my metrics, my rates. The recipient has zero reason to care.
The new email (41% reply rate)
Subject: [Company]'s growth + a founder audience
[Name] — saw that [Company] just [specific recent thing: launched a feature, hit a milestone, got funded, etc].