Happy Tuesday everybody!
Quick question.
Have you ever wanted to reach someone you have no business reaching?
A founder you admire. A CEO at a company you'd love to work for. A mentor. Someone who could open a door for you.
Most people never try. They assume those people are unreachable.
They aren't.
A few weeks ago, a 25-year-old in Toronto named Cathy had spent a month job hunting. Dozens of applications. Automated rejections back.
So she tried something different.
She found the CEO of a startup she liked, wrote a 150-word email with the subject line "My landlord inspired this email," and hit send.
A week later, he replied.
Then there's Niraj.
A high school junior in 2014, with zero contacts at Snapchat. He wanted to intern there.
So he found Evan Spiegel's email, yes, the CEO, and sent this:
Spiegel replied the same day. Forwarded him straight to Snapchat's lead recruiter.
Niraj is now a startup co-founder.
These aren't unicorns.
They're just people who sent the email when most others didn't.
The reason most people don't do this isn't laziness.
It's that finding the right email address is a pain.
Pick Of The Week - Apollo
Apollo is a contact database. 270 million people, free to search.
Type in someone's name and company, and it gives you their verified work email.
Sales teams pay thousands a year for this. The free version is free forever.
How it works
Apollo runs as a web app and a Chrome extension.
Search by name, company, or job title
Pull around 100 verified work emails per month for free.
Use it directly on LinkedIn, open a profile, click the extension, get the email
Send the message from inside Apollo, or copy it into Gmail
Track when it gets opened
The free plan gives you 100 contact reveals per month, access to the full 270M+ database, and the Chrome extension.
That's enough for most people to reach anyone they'd realistically want to reach.
Why it's useful
The hard part of cold email isn't writing it.
It's finding the address.
Apollo removes that step.
You go from "I wonder how I'd even contact this person" to "I have their email, what should I write?"
That's the whole unlock.
Use cases
Reach a founder whose company you'd love to work at
Email a writer or podcaster you admire
Pitch yourself for an internship at a startup that isn't hiring
Find a professor doing research you want to be part of
Send a side hustle pitch to people who'd actually buy
Break into an industry where you have zero contacts
A quick note for students
If you're at university (or still in high school, like Niraj was), this is a cheat code.
Most professors, founders, and journalists will reply to a thoughtful student email. Many won't reply to anyone else.
You have a window where "I'm a student interested in your work" actually gets opened.
Use it before you graduate.
My take
Most opportunities aren't hidden. They're just behind an email you haven't sent.
Apollo doesn't make you brave enough to send it. But it removes the one excuse most people quietly use.
A huge thank you to Apollo for sponsoring this edition!
Catch you next week,
Max