I don't think so. Companies often die because they don't send enough emails, not the other way around. Fallibility is your own worst enemy in a startup, and em

I don't think so. Companies often die because they don't send enough emails, not the other way around. Fallibility is your own worst enemy in a startup, and email outbound is one way to kill it faster. That being said, there should only be one follow up. There's only 2 reasons that have high response rates for messaging people outbound. 1. They want to make you famous and build a relationship with you. In which case you should respond. I always advise this as the best method for building customer relationships. Just setup a blog and reach out to them asking to interview them about what they do. Only after the outbound company knows the candidate, should they discuss the mechanics of their businesses and if they can help eachother. 2. If there's deep timing context. (Saw you just raised, saw you in the press, etc...) 3. (This one is really tough, but if you're very high profile, you can just reach out.) Everything else is likely low response/open rate.