Cold outreach (3 lines, no template feel)

Last tested 2026-04-26 Part of AI Prompts for Solopreneurs

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the prompt

Write a cold outreach email in exactly three lines:

1. One specific thing the recipient said, posted, shipped, or built (not a generic compliment).
2. One sentence connecting that to what I offer.
3. One question with a low-cost ask (15-min call, a quick reply, a single yes/no).

Banned phrases (do not use):
- I hope this email finds you well
- I came across your profile
- I wanted to reach out
- quick question
- no worries if not
- circling back
- as a solo founder
- I'm a one-person team

Subject line: under 40 characters, references something concrete from line 1.

The recipient (paste their context):
{{recipient_context}}

What I offer (one or two lines):
{{offer}}

Why it works

Cold outreach is the single most-shared solopreneur use case and the one most people do worst. Templates that swap a name into a generic email get 1-2% reply rates and slowly burn your domain reputation. This prompt forces the opposite: the email opens with one specific thing the recipient said, posted, shipped, or built - not a generic compliment. Three lines max, then one question with a low-cost ask. The banned-phrases list does a lot of the work; it forbids the openers ('I hope this finds you well,' 'I came across your profile,' 'quick question') that mark a cold email as cold within the first two seconds. Tested cleanest on Claude Opus 4.7 - more natural voice than ChatGPT for short emails.

Example output

Subject: the pivot from your Tuesday post

Your Tuesday post about cutting the content team to two people - the line about 'fewer pieces, deeper research' is the bet most teams should be making.

We built PromptPaste for the moment after that bet, when two people have to do the work of five and need their best prompts one tap away.

Worth a 15-minute look at what your team's current saved-prompt mess looks like?

Ivan

Common mistakes

Don't run this prompt without a specific recipient observation. The whole differentiator is the opening - if you can't name something concrete the recipient said or shipped, you don't have permission to send the email. Also: do not let the model add 'no worries if not' or 'circling back' or any of the soft-decline cushions. Those phrases are the new 'I hope this finds you well' - your recipients now skip past them automatically. Strip every cushion and let the ask stand alone.

Cold outreach (3 lines, no template feel)

Why it works

Example output

Common mistakes

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