I'm building a tool that uses AI to help craft cold emails that actually get responses. But before I go too far, I want to dig deeper into the real frustrations behind cold outreach.

Most founders and marketers I talk to say something like:

We send cold emails, but we re not sure if they re hitting the right tone, targeting the right pain point, or just going straight to spam.

Right now, I m researching the before you send side of cold outreach that moment where you're staring at your draft, wondering if it s persuasive, personal, or just meh.

I m curious how far teams have really gone with AI support.

Are you still using chat mainly as a helper alongside tickets - or has AI actually reduced your support volume in a meaningful way?

Would love to hear:

What tools are helpful

I've started 2 businesses and worked with hundreds of founders.

Sad reality: most of their startups will be dead inside 12 months.

When we launched our product here in April 2025, the playbook was quite different:

• Create a Coming Soon page

• Build your network through the Notify Me page

• Let Product Hunt notify everyone on launch day

• Launch, celebrate, and (hopefully) trend

We followed that playbook to the dot and ended up winning #1 Product of the Day.

The network effect from that launch still brings traffic even today.

great indication on where they see the biggest opportunities right now.
Here is the latest list:
1. AI for Low-Pesticide Agriculture
2. AI-Native Service Companies
3. AI Personalized Medicine
4. Company Brain
5. Counter-Swarm Defense
6. Dynamic Software Interfaces
7. Electronics in Space
8. Hardware Supply Chain
9. Industrial Capabilities in Space
10. Inference Chips for Agent Workflows
11. SaaS Challengers
12. Software for Agents
13. Startups That Want to Sell to Huge Companies
14. Supply Chain 2.0 for Semiconductors
15. The AI Operating System for Companies
details here: https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs

I am following up on the forum from the previous days when you started a lively discussion.

I outlined what not to do when you are a maker and what to do when you want to be more trustworthy.

Today, I will share the opposite.

Not long ago, content itself was the differentiator.

If you could afford to write more blogs, publish more case studies, or refresh your website more often than competitors, you had the upper hand.

AI flipped that equation.

We talk a lot about data-driven decisions, but the truth is, early on, most of us don t have much data. You re staring at a half-empty spreadsheet, a few user interviews, maybe some gut feelings and still need to decide:

• Do I double down on this feature or kill it?

• Do I raise prices or keep them low?

• Do I spend scarce resources on growth or fix the product?

I ve found that these moments often shape the business more than the obvious wins.

So I m curious:

I have been noticing a lot of fake testimonials on many of the recently launched products. It went from mild annoyance to pure concern. Wrote a small piece on it. I would love if every one of us starts calling it out more.
Link to the article if anyone is interested : https://medium.com/design-bootca...