Why You’re Getting Zero Replies To Your Cold Emails

The best outbound starts before you automate anything. Founders need to learn who actually has the problem, what gets their attention, and what makes them reply. YC Visiting Partner Christina Gilbert recommends doing at least your first 100 outreaches by hand so you can learn those things yourself. Drawing from her experience generating and closing millions of dollars through founder-led sales at OneSchema, Christina shares eight ways founders can improve their outbound, from targeting the right people and writing emails worth reading to following up, debugging low reply rates, and using customer language to sharpen your message. Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 00:38 - Start manual before you automate 01:25 - Targeting beats perfect messaging 02:23 - How to find the right job titles 03:07 - Picking the right companies 03:47 - Intent signals 04:25 - Craft a message worth reading 06:00 - A cold email that works 07:19 - Subject lines 07:37 - Improve your LinkedIn profile 08:47 - What your reply rates are telling you 09:47 - Follow up, and reply fast 10:37 - Block out time for outbound 11:25 - Use the messaging from your customers 12:27 - Your slog compounds Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs