We also don't know what you're pitching. If it's another samey AI startup seeing the subject line is like a punch in the gut. To be fair, 99% of people are trying to sell something that nobody wants to buy but once in a blue moon you see somebody's whose response rate has extra zeros on the right because they're selling something people are interested in.
You're spot on that PMF solves many deliverability issues—if people actually want the thing, they'll dig it out of the 'Promotions' folder. But my technical curiosity is about the gap before that: if a startup does have something genuinely useful for a specific person, are they even getting the chance to be seen? It feels like the 'noise' from low-quality AI pitches has forced ISPs to move to a 'guilty until proven innocent' model for any external domain. Google definitely benefits from that shift, as it pushes everyone back toward their walled garden of ads.
Last year I knew somebody in a similar situation who had a long list of "fish that got away" but they were pitching to celebrity bloggers, people in the gatekeeping-idustrial complex, etc. He was getting much worse results but he was pitching something really hard to sell.
[1] looking back I find that hard to believe but I think that selective recall helped me handle the hustle
The problem I'm seeing now is that AI has made 'hand-written' style emails incredibly cheap to forge at scale. If an enterprise lead receives 50 'personalized' emails a day that all look like they took 20 minutes to write (but actually took an LLM 2 seconds), the recipient’s internal filter just shuts down. Do you think the 'gatekeeping-industrial complex' you mentioned is now purely a social barrier, or have the technical filters (spam/quarantine) finally caught up to the point where even a genuinely 'hand-written' cold email from a stranger might never even be seen?
I dunno how bad it is with email. My current adventure in marketing has been a hybrid of in-person and social media, I go “out” as a fox-photographer to get smiles from people, get approached several times a day, hand out a lot of business cards, my fame spreads and I get approached more often. It’s changed my point of view on a lot of things.
My takeaway from your story is that the 'inbox' isn't just a technical place anymore; it's a social one. Ten years ago, the barrier was just finding the address. Now, the address is public, but the barrier is 'Proof of Humanity.'
Do you think we’re heading toward a future where B2B 'cold' outreach only works if it's preceded by an offline or social signal? If so, the entire 'Verified List' industry is essentially selling a map to a city that has already pulled up its drawbridges.
No one built a business by starting out with huge email blasts. At least not anytime recently.
You start by finding individuals and addressing them as individuals. When you find one such person who finds your product extremely useful they will often generate leads for you to others who need to solve the same problem. Keep doing that high-touch direct contact.
In other words: sow the seeds.