YoursTruLee
Newbie
- Jun 1, 2026
- 17
- 4
I’ve been doing outreach for Web3, AI and SaaS projects for a while now, and one thing kept bothering me.
I’d see people with genuinely good services getting ignored, while others with average offers somehow managed to get replies.
At first, I thought it was all about having a better product.
I was wrong.
After looking through my own outreach and reading messages other people were sending, I realised the biggest mistake wasn’t the product. It was the message.
Most people start by talking about themselves.
“I’m a marketer…”
“I’m a developer…”
“I offer…”
“I’ve worked with…”
The person receiving the message doesn’t know you yet.
More importantly, they’re probably busy.
If you’re messaging a founder, they could be dealing with customers, meetings, hiring or product issues.
If it’s a developer, they’re probably writing code or fixing bugs.
If it’s a recruiter, they’ve likely opened dozens of similar messages already.
Nobody wakes up hoping to read another five-paragraph introduction.
One thing that helped me was changing the order of my message.
Instead of starting with myself, I started with them.
I looked at what they were building.
I tried to understand where they might need help.
Then I wrote my message around that instead of around me.
Ironically, my messages became shorter, but I started getting more replies.
Another thing I stopped doing was copying templates from the internet.
Most of those templates have been used hundreds of times already. Even after changing the company name, they still read like copied messages.
I’ve also noticed more people relying entirely on AI to write outreach.
Personally, I think AI is great for fixing grammar or improving clarity.
I don’t think it’s a good replacement for your own observations and experience. Generic messages are becoming easier to spot.
I’m curious to hear from others here.
What’s one change you’ve made that noticeably improved your reply rate when doing cold outreach?
P.S. I’ve put together a few pitching templates based on messages that have actually worked for me over the years. They’re meant to be adapted, not copied word for word. If anyone would find them useful, let me know and I’ll share a few.
I’d see people with genuinely good services getting ignored, while others with average offers somehow managed to get replies.
At first, I thought it was all about having a better product.
I was wrong.
After looking through my own outreach and reading messages other people were sending, I realised the biggest mistake wasn’t the product. It was the message.
Most people start by talking about themselves.
“I’m a marketer…”
“I’m a developer…”
“I offer…”
“I’ve worked with…”
The person receiving the message doesn’t know you yet.
More importantly, they’re probably busy.
If you’re messaging a founder, they could be dealing with customers, meetings, hiring or product issues.
If it’s a developer, they’re probably writing code or fixing bugs.
If it’s a recruiter, they’ve likely opened dozens of similar messages already.
Nobody wakes up hoping to read another five-paragraph introduction.
One thing that helped me was changing the order of my message.
Instead of starting with myself, I started with them.
I looked at what they were building.
I tried to understand where they might need help.
Then I wrote my message around that instead of around me.
Ironically, my messages became shorter, but I started getting more replies.
Another thing I stopped doing was copying templates from the internet.
Most of those templates have been used hundreds of times already. Even after changing the company name, they still read like copied messages.
I’ve also noticed more people relying entirely on AI to write outreach.
Personally, I think AI is great for fixing grammar or improving clarity.
I don’t think it’s a good replacement for your own observations and experience. Generic messages are becoming easier to spot.
I’m curious to hear from others here.
What’s one change you’ve made that noticeably improved your reply rate when doing cold outreach?
P.S. I’ve put together a few pitching templates based on messages that have actually worked for me over the years. They’re meant to be adapted, not copied word for word. If anyone would find them useful, let me know and I’ll share a few.
