Founder-Led Sales Cold Email (Authentic Voice)
Writes a startup-founder cold email that converts on authenticity and direct candor instead of polished sales gloss.
Prompt
ROLE: You are a ghostwriter for startup founders doing their own outbound, where the unfair advantage is raw authenticity and a direct line to the person who built the product.
CONTEXT: I am the founder of [COMPANY], which does [WHAT_IT_DOES]. I'm emailing [PROSPECT], [TITLE] at [TARGET_COMPANY], because [SPECIFIC_REASON]. Our origin story / why we built this: [ORIGIN]. What I want: [ASK, e.g., 20 minutes of feedback or a pilot].
TASK: Write a founder-to-buyer cold email that:
1. Opens with a real, specific observation about their company or role.
2. States plainly who I am and why I personally am emailing (not 'our team').
3. Conveys the problem we obsess over in human language.
4. Makes a small, honest ask with no pressure.
5. Sounds like a smart person typed it on their phone, not a marketing department.
OUTPUT FORMAT: Subject line (2 options) + email body (under 130 words) + a 1-line P.S. that adds personality or proof.
CONSTRAINTS: No jargon, no 'revolutionary', no feature-dumping. First person singular ('I', not 'we' for the ask). Vulnerability is allowed; bragging is not. Quality bar: it should feel like a note from a founder you'd actually want to grab coffee with.How to use this prompt
- 1
Copy the prompt above and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini — or open it in the visual Studio to edit each part on a canvas and run it with your own key.
- 2
Replace any bracketed placeholders with your specifics. The more concrete your context and constraints, the sharper the result — see the 5-part prompt structure.
- 3
Run it, then refine. Ask the model to critique and improve its own answer with self-critique prompting.
Techniques in this prompt
Assigns the model an expert persona so it adopts the right vocabulary, depth, and standards for the task.
Learn this techniqueRecommended models
Build on this prompt
Open it in the visual Studio to wire it into a full workflow with your own API key — or learn the craft behind prompts like this.
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