The Art of the Cold Email: 13 Founders Who Got VCs to Reply

Read time: 3 min

Let’s be real.

Cold emailing investors feels like yelling into the void.
You write. You hope.

Most times, you get crickets.

But every once in a while?

Someone opens it.
Reads it.
And says: “Let’s talk.”

That’s the cold email sweet spot.
And today, I’m sharing 13 real examples that got there.

Not theory.
Not templates.
Actual cold emails sent by founders to VCs.
Backed by traction, insight, and a damn good story.

---

All of them follow what we call the Top 1% Cold Email Formula:

Short.
Personal.
Clear traction.
Specific ask.

Here’s a quick taste:

—

1. API/Devtools - Exited founder - Preseed w/ top angels

"Marketplaces suck. Engineers hate building API infra. We fix that."
Traction: commits from fintech angels, beta users already live.

Hi [INVESTOR],

I'm a second time founder (acq.) and engineer having worked in fintech, devtools and SaaS over at Lantern, LinkedIn, Dialpad and more.

My team and I built Archetype (https://archetype.dev), which allows developers and companies to publish and monetize APIs in minutes. We recently launched a beta a month ago and have a bunch of companies using Archetype.

Our key insight is that marketplaces suck and engineers hate spending months building the infra to monetize APIs.

We've gotten commits from founders at [FAMOUS FINTECH], [OTHER FAMOUS FINTECH], and folks like [FAMOUS ANGEL].

I would love to share our insights in APIs and developer tools. What's the best way to chat?

Behailu

---

There’s zero fluff in these emails.
Just clear signals:
→ Why this founder
→ Why now
→ Why this fund

Even better?

Each email was different.
Different markets.
Different stages.
Different founders.

But they all had this in common:

The investor didn’t know them before.

So what made them work?

We broke it all down inside the post:
→ 13 full cold email examples
→ Commentary on what made each one effective
→ Actionable insights you can steal today

This is one of those swipe files you bookmark, save, and come back to whenever you're stuck staring at your inbox wondering what to send next.

If you want access to the list, it’s included for premium subscribers of the newsletter.

And when you subscribe, you also unlock:

📌 The Ultimate Investors List of Lists (12,000 VCs, FOs, Angels)
🦄 40 pitch decks that built Unicorns (how Airbnb, Coinbase, Canva got funded)
⚡️ The Ultimate Notion Data Room (all key docs you’ll EVER need)
🥇 The Most Successful Investor Update Template
📊 The Only Finance Tracker Your Startup Needs

👉 Subscribe now and get all 13 email templates to start cold emailing like the top 1%

Get the Cold Email templates below 👇