this 1 cold email got me into the world's coolest founder lab

Table of Contents

• I. THE SNEAK IN

• II. I DIDN’T THINK I WAS BUILT FOR THIS

• III. MY IN

• IV. MY SHOT IN THE DARK

I. THE SNEAK IN

I’m circling the building, pretending like I know where I’m going.

Second floor door? Locked.
Back entrance? Also locked.

Looking around, I see a founder coming out. Shit, what do I do?

It’s a narrow hallway. Nowhere to hide. So I do the dumbest thing possible —
I bend down to tie my shoes.

I don’t know why.
But it works.

The door’s still swinging as he walks past me. I slip in behind him like it was meant to be. Inside, heart pounding, I meet the first person I see — Aiden, their head of content.

I blurt out, “Hey, I’m here to shoot something for the My First Million podcast.”

Half true.

Adrenaline is spiking, I’m trying to act normal, but I’m still catching my breath from the stairs. I’m sweating through my shirt. Definitely breathing twice as hard as I should be.

What if he sees through it? What if he kicks me out?

But he just smiles…No questions. No raised eyebrows. Just hands me a $3K Sony A7III and says, “Go nuts.”

I had told him I knew how to use it.

I did not.

So I walked outside. Found a bench. Laid out the gear like I was prepping for surgery.

Phone in one hand. YouTube open.

“How to use Sony A7III — QUICK TUTORIAL.”

I sat there for hours, learning everything on 2x speed while pretending like I knew what I was doing.

But as I sat there, I had a moment —
A quiet pause between tutorials, where I looked around and realized where I was.

Somehow, I was at the most legendary founder lab in San Francisco…
Holding a $3,000 camera I had no idea how to use…
About to film something that could change my life.

And it hit me — none of this was supposed to happen.

I had flown from Canada to SF three months ago for this same program that rejected me.

And now, I was here.

Because of one cold email.

II. I DIDN’T THINK I WAS BUILT FOR THIS

Let me get something out of the way - No part of me fits the “founder” stereotype. I didn’t drop out of Harvard. I didn’t build satellites in high school. I don’t have 20 years of experience.

I’m not the guy you expect to see inside a top startup house in San Francisco.

But there I was lying in bed scrolling through Twitter. Reading the usual shit. “some 19-year-old is raising a $3M pre-seed”.

I wonder if there’s a world where I can do that?

So even without any technical background or any inclination of where to start, I think to myself,

“If I just copy what other successful founders do, I might accidentally become one.”

So, I jump out bed, searching where I could find the most cracked founders to mimic.

The first place I discover is Founders, Inc. A lab in the pier where 100s of founders work out of everyday.

I didn’t really need much convincing, so I packed my bags and flew from Canada to SF 3 months ago.

Long story short, I had my post notifications on for Founders Inc, so when they announced a new program, I was the first to apply.

I was also the first to get rejected. (Yeah, sucks)

I thought that was that, I went on a long walk listening to my fav podcast - My First Million. Till something gets mentioned that makes me stop in my tracks.

III. MY IN

It was an opportunity. An excuse. It was my way into founders inc

Shaan Puri and Sam Parr from My First Million dropped a casting call. They were looking for a “field trip correspondent.”

Someone to go to cool offices and film MTV Cribs-style content with founders.

I replay it three times. Light bulbs shining over my head.

Because thanks to my stalking, I knew Shaan was a close friend of Founders Inc, partner Furqan Rydhan.

So I hurry back, sit down and start writing the most important cold email of my life.

I wrote. Deleted. Rewrote. Then I went for another walk. Replayed it in my head. Came back. Edited again.

As I’m editing, I realize I’ve spent months studying cold emails and copywriting, perhaps for this exact moment.

IV. MY SHOT IN THE DARK

The full cold email:

I was so nervous when sending, I accidentally hit delete instead of send.

I woke up the next day with no reply.

But I packed my bags and got on the train anyway.

On the way, I get this email

Adianna (head of growth) responds. She loved my persistence and I’ve been given a week’s pass.

As I’d mentioned earlier, there wasn’t a clear entrance so I kind of just snuck in lol.

Oh, and that video I’d made? It impressed them enough, that they let me be a part of their 4 week program (called Ship It). The same program I was rejected from.

I posted that video on twitter, and it got 20k impressions.  More than I’ve ever gotten. But those 20k included everyone who knew about Founders Inc. 

DMs poured in. Founders shared it. I became “the guy who snuck into Founders Inc.”

During the program, I get this message from one of the lead investors:

3 months ago, I came to San Francisco full of doubt.

I didn’t know if I was built for this.

I had no connections. No backup plan.
Just one shot — a cold email.

That message got me in the room.
Everything that followed started there.

That’s why I built Cold Emails Hall of Fame — to show people other life-changing cold emails.

Because the one thing all those people understood is that a cold email is a bet. A bet you take on yourself.

Except that you don’t lose anything. Its the only bet where you can win huge with absolutely no downside.

I know for a fact, that somewhere out there, there’s a version of you achieving the very thing you’re dreaming about.

And a cold email, is that first shot you take in becoming that version.

That was a long read and if you made it till here, you clearly like these kind of stories. I send more case studies on the same newsletter where I send real cold email examples.

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